Martin Luther King Jr Family Services Inc

When the rain comes, Martin Luther King Family Services is here to be your umbrella.  Hosting programs that meet you where you are and take you where you need to go, you are at the heart of MLK and we have you in our hearts. 

Our story is told over and over in the lives of our community families and can be told through just one.

One Friday, at 6 PM, a woman who we will call Mrs. Jones came to the MLK offices for help.  She was escaping a difficult and dangerous relationship, and while her extended family was able to help find safe shelter for her and her children, she was in desperate need for food.  She came in hopes of getting food from our food pantry.  Although it was both after hours and the pantry, only open on Thursday, was closed, Executive Director Mr. Ronn Johnson was working late unexpectedly and was there to offer assistance. 

“I immediately got the keys to the panty and began to walk her over to get some food for the family and on the way over the depth of her need became clear—needs MLK was ready and able to help with.”

Not only did she need food, her whole family needed support:

• She was in need of a safe place for her young children after school:
• She wanted to return to school and needed child care:
• The recent upset had de-stabilized her and she needed mental health support:
• Her daughter was involved in an increasingly dangerous relationship and needed help.

Through the MLK emergency food pantry that works with the Food Bank, we were able to give her food.

Through the MLK after school programs that offer an academically enriching environment, we provided a safe place for her children to come to.

Through MLK’s Springfield Clemente Courses, we could help her to begin college-level studies and to earn six transferable college credits while accessing the child care that would allow her to attend class.

Through our Family Support and Mental health program that offers community-based flexible supports that allow our members to focus on recovery, we were able to connect her to the right medical services.

Through our Young Parents Support programming, we were able to connect her daughter to our teen domestic violence support programs.

Because of a simple walk around the corner and an impromptu conversation, Executive Director Ronn Johnson was able to not only give our neighbor and new family member the food supplies to see her family though the weekend but to also open the doors to essential services that would build critical bridges in this young women’s life to the support systems that would undergird her and her family through a painful transition period. 

Martin Luther King Family Services has been an integral part of the community since 1977

offering essential services for all ages.  You are our community.  You are our family.

Once family—always family

Now is the time to reach out and give back.