Partner Spotlight: Families Flourish
Q. Tell us a little about your organization. Where are you located? Who do you serve and what do you focus on?
A. Families Flourish offers a three-year program that transforms the lives of low-wage working families and their children by providing a comprehensive path to economic mobility and wellness. This is accomplished through life coaching, rent support and monthly required programs that promote housing and economic stability, career advancement, and generational change.
We create a future where our families are empowered to unleash their talents and pursue their goals and aspirations.
With programs in Central Ohio and soon in the Miami Valley, Families Flourish serves low-wage working families with children ages 13 and younger who earn approximately 30 to 55 percent of Area Median Income and are experiencing housing insecurity without access to Housing Choice Vouchers. About half of the children in our program are 5 and under.
Q. When was your organization founded, and what inspired your mission?
A. Our three co-founders began doing the research and outreach to create Families Flourish in 2016, and the first families were admitted in 2018. The inspiration to create a holistic program aimed at wraparound services around families was inspired by frustration that many longstanding projects and programs meant to build housing and economic stability keep doing the same things and not getting significant results. We based our design on existing data, and we continue to collect our program outcomes to understand how to best serve families.
Q. What’s a recent project, program, or win that you're especially proud of?
A. In August of 2026, we welcomed our 145th family into the program – a HUGE growth accomplishment since Families Flourish started the program serving only 10 families.
Q. What’s one issue you're keeping a close eye on right now?
A. There is so much economic pressure on our families that are outside of the program’s ability to control – disappearing social programs, rising prices, and stagnant work opportunities are compounding the difficulties they face.
Q. How do you partner with families and communities in your work?
A. The 3-year partnership between our coaches and our families is the heart of the work. Life coaches listen to where each family is – what their needs are, how their experiences have shaped them, and what goals they want to set. Then, together they work toward achieving those goals. In the community, our social service managers partner with dozens of other nonprofits to provide services and expertise for needs beyond the coaching. The most prominent community partnerships are with our 24 landlord partners, who house our families in healthy housing located in safer neighborhoods.
Q. How did you first hear about or get involved with Groundwork Ohio?
A. President & CEO Amy Klaben has been collaborating with Groundwork Ohio nearly since its inception. With half of our children being 5 and under, Families Flourish’s mission is aligned with Groundwork Ohio’s.
Q. What do you wish more people understood about the families you serve or the work you do?
A. Our families come to us with – yes, barriers and problems to solve – but they come, too, with so much talent, drive, and focus on making a brighter future for their children. It’s really inspiring.
Q. How do you work with other organizations or community partners to create change?
A. The change we create is one family at a time. For one family to complete our 3-year program, it might take a referral from another agency to apply; then a landlord with a unit that fits that family’s needs; then a good coaching match to partner with, encourage, and hold a mom or dad accountable; a great social services manager who has contacts around the city to solve emerging problems; and employers or educational entities ready to accept a great candidate. There’s no single design or single pathway of partnerships.
Q. What keeps your team inspired or grounded in this work?
A. The families’ successes are the inspiration.
Q. Why is advocacy important to your work?
A. If we want to solve poverty, we have to try new things. Our partners, funders and collaborators in the work are helping us tell a story – with data – of approaching low-wage working families in a different way that WORKS.
Q. What do you think is important to help make Ohio the best place to be a young child?
A. Opportunity and a community-wide agreement that EVERY child has potential and talent waiting to be unleashed. We all have to invest.
