Footbridge for Families

Footbridge provides one-of-a-kind rapid support and service coordination for individuals facing financial crises which have no other solution.

Footbridge provides rapid financial support to families facing short-term financial crises which have no other solution. Founded in 2020, the organization has filled in the gap and prevented a crisis for over 2,000 families in Pennsylvania to date.

Both survey and administrative data about our clients six months post-intervention indicate that despite being in a highly vulnerable situation, they were able to avoid utilization of our community's most expensive systems following Footbridge's help. In the six months following Footbridge aid, 0.04% of our clients had to use an emergency shelter with none of our clients having to use a day shelter; less than 1% of clients had an inpatient hospitalization; and only 1.5% sought services for a mental health crisis. One-third of our clients state that we helped mitigate a mental health crisis and 74% report that receiving financial assistance from Footbridge has enabled them to be their best selves when parenting. Excluding families with child welfare involvement prior to our intervention, only 2% of our clients had to have a child welfare case opened in the six months following our aid and 0.5% had a placement.

Testimonials

"By the time our patients contact us for financial resources, it is at the critical level and the resources were needed yesterday. The type of rapid response funding that Footbridge for Families offers is both needed and necessary to assisting families with closing relatively small financial gaps." -Kiva Fisher-Green, Referral Partner