Community Family Life Services, Inc.

Since 1969, CFLS has provided transformational services for low income and homeless persons through shelters, youth after-school and summer camps, emergency services, HIV case management and employment placement.  Impressive outcomes!

How do you help people in my community?

Community Family Life Services has been meeting the needs of Washington, DC residents for more than 30 years. With offices in all four quadrants of the city, we are accessible to a wide variety of low-income and homeless people who need assistance.

In downtown DC, we operate an emergency assistance center, an employment center, a youth center, a transitional apartment building for homeless families, and 3rd & Eats, a restaurant that serves as a job training program for the poor and homeless. In Northeast DC, we provide housing, and employment services. In Southeast and Southwest, we offer transitional housing, community organizing, employment assistance and youth programs. In January 2001, we opened a new community center at 305 E Street, NW that serves about 1,000 people every month.

Why do you need my support?

Every day, we meet families and individuals in Washington, DC who need a hand up from poverty. They are families living in boarded-up buildings or on the streets, single parents who need a job to support their families, seniors who need assistance to keep their electricity, and more. They are people who know more about hunger than about hope. At Community Family Life Services, we identify needs and then make sure that people get the short-term or long-term help they require to become self-sufficient.

Every contribution to Community Family Life Services makes a difference in the life of someone who needs help. For example:

$5.00 per week - Transportation to work for a newly employed Welfare to Work client until they receive their first paycheck.

$10.00 per week - Help a DC teen dropout get his/her high school diploma, develop work skills and values.

$25.00 per week - Academic tutoring five nights per week for a formerly homeless child living in a CFLS Transitional Housing Program.

$50.00 per week - Family therapy for a mother and her children, whom had been placed in the Foster Care System, building a new life in the Reunification Housing Program at CFLS.

How can I be sure that you will use my money wisely and won't waste it?

In more than 30 years of uninterrupted service, Community Family Life Services has maintained a strong reputation for fiscal responsibility. We keep management and fundraising expenses low and rely on more than 23,000 hours of volunteer service each year.

Our award-winning programs are led by a strong management team. This management team is headed up by Executive Director Tom Knoll, who has served in his position since 1982, and Deputy Director Mary Lou Tietz, who has been with CFLS for more than 13 years.

In May 2000, Community Family Life Services was awarded first prize in the Washington Post Awards for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. We were selected as the best-managed nonprofit agency in the area by a committee of management experts, who recognized us especially for:

Can I Volunteer? How?

Yes! Volunteers are an essential part of the work we do at Community Family Life Services. Last year, volunteers contributed more than 23,000 hours of services to help make life brighter for homeless and low-income people.

Volunteers work for each and every program at CFLS, both in day-to-day operations and for one-time activities. Although the number of activities is too numerous to mention, the following are a few of the roles volunteers play to help CFLS meet the needs of its clients:

• Tutors, field trip chaperones and camp counselors for children
• Board and committee members
• Caregivers for low-income homebound seniors
• Mentors for recently employed clients
• Workshop leaders and adult tutors
• Special event volunteers for our annual Auction, Casino Night or Toy Drive
• CFLS "Work Day" volunteers fixing up or painting at our housing sites