This special North Texas AFN Funders Forum provided grantmakers and nonprofits with an opportunity to take a deep dive into a new approach for moving working families toward financial independence: The Working Family Success model. Working Families Success provides a framework for integrating targeted programming delivery along with targeted financial supports to low income families that are specifically designed to make it easier for low income families to obtain critically needed work-support and financial capability services.
Based on work developed by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, this model is built on the concept that integrating or bundling services in an intentional and thoughtful way helps clients overcome barriers and advance economically. Communities Foundation of Texas brought the approach to North Texas in 2014 through a multi-year pilot engaging nine local agencies serving families across the Metroplex.
This forum brought together the North Texas early adopters and the grantmakers underwriting the implementation of the Working Families Success model in North Texas for a candid discussion about early learning, lessons learned, and plans for 2017 and beyond.