Center for Working Families

Providing a coordinated set of services to help low-income individuals and families get jobs, strengthen their finances and move up the economic ladder.

Low-income families face a variety of overwhelming obstacles in trying to achieve financial stability — a job alone often isn't enough.

One accident or illness can result in expenses that bury them in debt.
Low-income individuals tend to lack access to banks and credit unions, resorting to high-cost products and services that further drain their income.
Many struggle to navigate the different public programs and services designed to supplement their income — or don't even know they're eligible.

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See Where We’re Working

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Arizona

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Arkansas

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in California

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Connecticut

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Delaware

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Florida

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Georgia

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Illinois

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Indiana

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Iowa

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Kentucky

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Maryland

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Massachusetts

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Michigan

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Minnesota

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Missouri

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in New Mexico

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in North Carolina

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Ohio

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Pennsylvania

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Rhode Island

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in South Carolina

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Texas

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Utah

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Virginia

The Center for Working Families approach is helping low-income families in 26 states across America.

See What We’re Doing in Wisconsin

The Foundation's Center for Working Families model helps low-income individuals and families get on a path to financial stability. Funders and organizations throughout the country have taken up and adapted this approach, forming the Working Families Success Network in 2013. Here's how it works:

Offering a coordinated set of three key services in a single, convenient location, making these resources more accessible to individuals and families needing assistance.
Providing financial coaching and education.
Helping people find work and advance their careers.
Improving access to public benefits, such as the earned income tax credit, which can help families make ends meet.

The Center for Working Families model has been adopted at more than 100 locations throughout the country and at least two dozen states. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national nonprofit focused on community development, has the largest number of affiliated sites — nearly 70.
Sites using the Center for Working Families approach served more than 100,000 people in the past five years. In 2012 alone at the LISC-supported centers, more than 4,400 people found jobs, nearly 3,300 were able to get steady 30-day employment and 2,300 obtained public benefits.
More than 4,300 LISC center participants in 2012 increased their net incomes, 2,800 improved their net worth, and 2,700 improved their credit score.
Program participants also were five times more likely to achieve a major economic outcome — such as buying a car, getting out of debt or completing a training or education program — than their counterparts who did not receive an intensive, coordinated set of services.
Community colleges have seen higher retention rates for students who participated in their programs based on the Center for Working Families model.

Building evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Center for Working Families approach (which also is called the Working Families Success Network strategy) and improving site data collection by developing broadly accepted measurements of success.
Ensuring sustainability by cultivating a mix of primarily public funding with some private funding to support the work.
Working with policymakers to adopt policies and regulations that support the integrated-services-delivery model.
Gaining buy-in and commitment from funders, intermediaries and other stakeholders.
Encouraging broader takeup of this approach using community colleges as a platform.

Discover how the Center for Working Families went from prototype to national model.

Many students from low-income families attend community college to get ahead — but often end up struggling to juggle school with supporting themselves and their families. Center for Working Families at Community Colleges reveals how our approach is clearing financial barriers to student success.

What do Centers for Working Families look like on the ground? Learn how three sites have implemented the model, and check out this guide for steps to create a successful center.

We work with a number of partners to advance the Center for Working Families model:

From the Blog

Upcoming Webinar: How Your School or Nonprofit Can Better Engage Parents

An Aug. 9 Foundation webinar will highlight a new tool that helps nonprofits and schools better engage parents in their work and develop parent leaders.

Five Questions with Casey: Irene Lee and the Foundation’s Work on Immigration Issues

Irene Lee directs the Foundation’s work focused on ensuring individuals and families have access to economic opportunity and started our grant making around refugee and immigrant families. She sits down for Five Questions with Casey.

The Center for Working Families Inc. Helps Return $1.5 Million to the Community

The Center for Working Families in Atlanta prepared more than 1,000 tax returns this spring, resulting in more than $1.5 million in refunds for low-income families and communities.

Providing More Than a Job

Working Families Success Network

The Foundation and other funders formed a national network to make an integrated-services approach standard practice for helping low-income individuals and families achieve financial stability.

The Case for Coordinated Services

Families struggling to make ends meet can find it difficult to access available services that could help move them to stability. Weaving such services together not only makes sense — it makes a real difference.

A Resource for Practitioners

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation's Integrated Services Delivery site is a comprehensive resource for practitioners or anyone interested in an up-close look at this successful strategy.