National Center for Children and Families

2,182 Children and Youth. 1,231 Families. 1,135 Adults. 3,600 individuals who better understand.

Total National Capital Region Impact: 6,917

That's how many clients and community members The National Center for Children and Families (NCCF) served throughout the Washington metropolitan area last year. Founded as an orphanage in 1915, NCCF is a force for human change. We serve homeless families, victims of domestic violence, and abused and neglected adolescents, in addition to providing foster care and adoption services. It is our mission to ensure that those who have suffered significant assaults on their childhood have the opportunity to heal and grow.

Why donate to NCCF?

A gift to NCCF is an investment in an individual life. For nearly a century, NCCF has reached out to the vulnerable and needy. We help people transform, from the 15-year-old boy healing from abuse and neglect to the 45-year-old mother of three escaping domestic violence. We fight to keep kids out of the child welfare system and place them in safe, loving homes. We give homeless families the hope they so often need.  

And what we're doing is working. Last year, all of the high-school seniors in our Greentree Adolescent Program and FutureBound Independent Living Program received their diplomas. More than 90 percent of the homeless families in our Greentree Shelter in Bethesda moved into stable housing. Our KinNet grandparenting program kept 112 vulnerable youth out of the child welfare system.

Our clients often beat the odds. MiMi, a single mother of three, moved into the Greentree Shelter on our campus in Bethesda, Maryland in 2008. She’d graduated from a Montgomery County High School with a 3.9 grade-point average and had a stable job with a home-improvement company for seven years. When her company was sold, she was laid off. She had two young sons, rent to pay, a car loan, utilities, and no income. She wasn’t receiving any child support. And she was six months pregnant.

“When I got to the shelter it was like, Wow, me?” says MiMi. “It was a slap in the face. You just never know what the face of poverty is. It could be anybody.”

Room 206 was home to MiMi and her family for nearly three months. “I told my kids it was our new house. I had to mask it that way,” she says. She’d play cards with the boys, work on coloring books, and let them run around outside. “I didn’t have to worry about my kids not eating. If we couldn’t make it for a meal, I’d call and say, ‘Save us a plate.’ ”

MiMi gave birth to her daughter while she was living at Greentree. “When I got back to the shelter, there was a rocking chair waiting for me, a car seat, clothes with tags on them.” She moved into NCCF’s Family Stabilization Program (FSP), which provides community-based support and subsidized housing for formerly homeless families. She didn't have to worry about starting from scratch, so she was able to focus on finding a good job. The staff at FSP helped her with job-searching tools and gave her tips on how to work on her credit. Soon she found a job with the federal government and signed up for classes towards her accounting degree. Says MiMi, “On Monday, I’m closing on my first home.”

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