About
Families Helping Families of Iowa (FHF) is a non-profit organization designed to help and support children in foster care. Our vision is to create positive opportunities, relationships, and better overall health for youth in our state who have been removed from their home.
FHF was found in 2004 with $100 and a vision. In 2006, Families Helping Families of Iowa was able to secure 501(c)3 nonprofit status and incorporation.
To learn more or share the mission and programs of Families Helping Families, view our Brochure.
Our Mission
We are a unique nonprofit organization offering programs and services designed specifically to help and assist Iowa’s foster care children, and the families that care for them.
We serve children in foster care in all 99 Iowa counties. However, the majority of requests come from foster care families in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City corridor, with girls and boys from varied ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, aged newborn to 18 years old. The need was identified by those involved in the foster care system — many of our board members and volunteers. We know, firsthand, that there is a lack of resources available to this under-served demographic.
Our Needs
The average foster child moves seven times before the age of 18, usually abruptly leaving their home with very few personal belongings. At Families Helping Families, we feel that our programs and services help make these difficult transitions more bearable.
Currently, there are nearly 10,000 children in foster care in the state of Iowa. Families Helping Families of Iowa exists to provide programs and services for these children and youth in foster care.
Our Support & Growth
Today, with the help of many dedicated volunteers and community partnerships, Families Helping Families of Iowa is fulfilling the needs of foster children. We are a resource to the foster care community by providing access to basic need items 24 hours a day, seven days a week – the only social services organization in our area offering these services.
With thousands of yearly visits to our Clothing Closet, children receiving new shoes through our shoe voucher program, as well as receiving tutoring opportunities and scholarships for extracurricular activities, Families Helping Families of Iowa is dedicated to continuing our mission of “Caring for Iowa’s Children in Foster Care.”