One Family aims to prevent homelessness and break the cycle of family poverty in Massachusetts by promoting pathways to economic independence through advocacy, education, and innovation. We envision a Commonwealth where all families have secure housing, access to education leading to employment, and the ability to build assets to create a brighter future. We believe that if policies are focused on prevention and programs are designed to promote opportunities, then we can end family homelessness in Massachusetts.

One Family’s unique approach addresses the issue of family homelessness in Massachusetts from all sides. The foundation of our organization is direct-service: we offer two programs—One Family Scholars (OFS) and Credential to Career Coaching (C2C)—both of which help families experiencing or at risk of homelessness increase their income and achieve long-term stability. In OFS, we do this by offering comprehensive coaching and flexible financial aid to single parents in college. This support dramatically improves college success rates (One Family Scholars graduate at a rate of 79%, compared to only 28% for single mothers nationwide) which in turn opens the door to family-sustaining careers, stable housing, and financial security. Similarly, C2C helps unemployed and underemployed parents create a specific plan to achieve their education and career goals, leading to economic self-sufficiency. This highly-individualized program builds on participants’ existing skills and interests, matching them to careers in their region. By the end of the program, each participant has a detailed “roadmap” to enter a family-sustaining career. We also amplify the voices of the families we serve through our Public Policy work. This includes advocating for policies that will improve affordable housing and help families living in poverty become self-sufficient, with a particular focus on policies that prevent family homelessness before it occurs. Finally, we provide Technical Assistance to train direct-service providers from government agencies and other nonprofits in our coaching methods. This helps them incorporate education and career coaching into the work they do with families around housing and asset-building.

Founded in 2000, One Family has two decades of experience serving families experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and helping them along their paths to self-sufficiency. We have developed deep expertise in education and career access and success, and we refine our programs annually to incorporate learnings from the prior year. One Family coaches are well-versed in the obstacles commonly faced by low-income parents who must work, go to school, and raise children at the same time, and thus are able to provide client-centered and effective guidance. At One Family we know that housing, education, and career are three essential and intertwined components of family self-sufficiency. Many other services that exist to serve low-income families address one facet of this work, but rarely all three together. By building off of parents’ existing strengths and interests to help them reach their education, career, and housing goals, we are truly enacting lasting change in the lives of Massachusetts families.

We use both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methodologies to get a complete picture of the impact of our work. For parents in the One Family Scholars program and Credential to Career Coaching, this includes tracking short-term progress (such as credential enrollment, degree attainment, gainful employment, and salary), and long-term achievements (such as career advancement, employer benefits, and housing stability). Our specific programmatic goals include: For One Family Scholars: - Enrollment of 100 Scholars each year - Retention rate of 80% or higher - College graduation rate of 70% or higher - Scholar grade point average of 3. 0 or above - Employment or re-enrollment in higher education by 80% or more of recent One Family Scholars alumni - Average full-time salary of $37,000 or more within six months of graduation. For Credential to Career Coaching: - Enrollment of at least 75 parents in FY 2020 - Retention rate of 80% or higher - Credential graduation rate of 70% or higher - 80% of participants increase their income or enroll in a credential within one year of C2C - 75% of participants are employed in their field within one year of completing C2C - Average salary of participants employed in their field exceeds 200% of the Federal Poverty Level Ultimately, however, our work is not only aimed at preventing homelessness for individual families, but at addressing the crisis of family homelessness for our entire Commonwealth. Through our Public Policy work, we build off of the lived experiences of the families we serve, and the best practices in our coaching, to advocate for policies that will work to end the crisis of family homelessness state-wide.

Over the past 20 years, One Family Scholars have earned 412 college degrees from universities across the Commonwealth. This educational accomplishment propels our Scholars forward into long-term career success and financial stability. According to a recent survey of One Family Scholars alumni, the average full-time salary for working alumni is $55,708. For families moving out of poverty and homelessness, this wage makes an enduring and life-changing difference. Our newer program, Credential to Career Coaching, has already served 106 low-income families in the MetroWest region in its first two years with exciting results: new jobs secured by participants led to an average salary increase of $20,727. And this is just the beginning. By building participants’ knowledge and confidence around credentials and career paths, and by equipping them with detailed plans to achieve their career goals, we set up each parent we serve for long-term stability and success. Based on the remarkable successes of C2C to date, we are now expanding the program to serve more communities across the state, including Brockton, Worcester, and Boston. Through these programs, One Family has built deep expertise helping families experiencing or at risk of homelessness achieve their education and career goals, which has in turn led to the launch of our new Technical Assistance work. Through Technical Assistance, we are able to train other service providers from nonprofits and government agencies in our coaching methodologies, so that they can incorporate education and career supports into the self-sufficiency work they are already doing with low-income families across the state.