We serve homeless families with children. Nearly half of the individuals in the families we serve are children under the age of 12. Nearly 90% are African American and 100% come to us homeless with no stable roof overhead. Approximately 25% of the women we serve are escaping the physical and psychological harm of a domestic violence situation. All grapple with the psychological and emotional trauma of homelessness. Most of the families we serve are headed by a single woman. Here’s a snapshot of who we helped last year.
Families Together (FT) is unique in that we focus on keeping families together during times of crisis while connecting them with highly personalized mentoring, community services and skill building. We position families for success through the positive relationships developed with a dedicated professional staff that provides intensive, compassionate support.
Last year, we served 201 families (712 individuals of whom 434 were children). Families Together is a lead agency in the continuum of care working to end homelessness in Wake County. Unlike other organizations, we offer case management for up to a year after the family signs their lease to empower them to self-sufficiency.
We know that homelessness cannot be solved while operating in a silo so we coordinate closely with our partners to avoid duplication of effort and ensure families in crisis receive the best of care. We have formal agreements in place with all of the Wake County family shelters – the Salvation Army, InterAct, Raleigh Rescue Mission, and Family Promise of Wake County – whereby they screen homeless families in their shelters and refer those that are appropriate/eligible to Families Together.
Our staff goes onsite at least once a week to these shelters to meet with families housed there. The Salvation Army allows us to use their facility for workshops. In addition to referrals, we share case management tasks. Because of these partnerships, we are housing families more rapidly than ever before!
Families that have past evictions or other arrears find it nearly impossible to secure stable housing on their own - leading to an increasing trend of relying on low-cost motels, often in high crime areas, as a “safe”, though unsustainable, place to stay. The MTAR initiative supports this often invisible population and aims to provide the support and services needed to help families overcome their barriers and end the cycle of homelessness. Through this partnership with Project CATCH of The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, the Literacy Council of Wake County, Learning Together and Families Together, families with young children are assessed, connected to relevant resources provided by the partners and are either placed in one of the Families Together short-term apartments or moved directly to a home in the community.
Families Together was selected by Marbles Kids Museum and other area partners to be a 2017 pilot demonstration site with the Kaleidoscope Project. Through our partnership with Marbles, the Lucy Daniels Center, Project CATCH of the Salvation Army and NC State University College of Design Natural Learning Initiative, we are collaborating to learn and share lessons about what it takes to use best practice indicators to guide improvements, develop tools and resources to be used with other sites, and serve as a learning found to make a positive impact on young children's social and emotional wellbeing. Our goal is to create intentional and effective children's "Places and Spaces" that can be replicated to improve children's social and emotional well-being across Wake County.
Fostering Wellness is an exciting new regional collaborative dedicated to improving the lives of youth and young adults coming out of foster care. The partner agencies in the collaborative -- Community Partnerships, The Hope Center at Pullen, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, LIFE Skills Foundation, Dress foe Success, SaySo (Strong Able Youth Speaking Out), the United Way of the Greater Triangle and Families Together -- put the youth we serve at the center coordinating our resources and expertise for their benefit. The collaborative resulted from a grant funded by GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the Triangle Community Foundation. The United Way is funding a new Housing Navigator position which is overseen by Families Together.
