From Homelessness to Stability

Families Moving Forward (FMF) was created in 2016 after the successful merger of Genesis Home and Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network. The merger was a natural development after 20 years of collaborative work to end family homelessness in Durham. The combining of these two strong Durham nonprofits and the expansion of the former Genesis Home residential services building has increased the capacity to serve more families experiencing homelessness. FMF now serves up to 100 families annually and approximately 140-180 children each year, making FMF the largest housing and services provider for homeless families in Durham and one of the largest in the state. The agency provides case management and programming while families are staying at the shelter with the objective of helping each family find sustainable sources of income and  moving into permanent housing as quickly as possible. FMF also provides “Aftercare” case management support to help families transition toward stability and prevent returns to homelessness.

We currently provide shelter and supportive services to 21 families at our facility that are referred to us through the Coordinated Intake Program housed at Durham County Department of Social Services.  Our case management staff meets with every family to set family goals which address educational, vocational, health and emotional needs. Referrals are made to partner agencies if a family needs additional services. To assist newly housed families, we manage the Circles of Support Program which matches trained volunteers with formerly homeless families to help them in their first year of maintaining permanent housing. The Circles of Support Program is run by FMF, but we accept referrals from partner agencies, demonstrating our collective effort to serve Durham’s homeless population through collaboration.

As we have transitioned into an emergency shelter model (stays up to 90 days), some of our long-term families are waiting for a current supportive housing unit to finalize and until then, we are still managing their daily needs in our shelter.

Families Moving Forward collaborates with other agencies in Durham to provide better support to homeless families. The “front door” for our family system is housed at the Durham County Department of Social Services where the Coordinated Intake Program helps families complete a risk-barrier assessment to determine the best program for their needs.  Due to the structure of our program, the size of our facility and the expertise of our case-management staff, FMF receives referrals for families with the greatest barriers or challenges. FMF is classified as an emergency shelter and we work with our staff, volunteers and partners to get every family that we serve rehoused within 90 days or less.

In order to serve more guests and meet the urgent needs of family homelessness our program is evolving to better serve our families. By identifying barriers to a family's success early in their stay, implementing interventions and moving families into permanent housing more quickly, we are able to serve more families per year who are experiencing homelessness.  We have altered our length of stay goal to 90 days or less in order to meet community goals related to ending homelessness and to ensure that our families are entering permanent housing as quickly as possible.