Excerpted from Irvine Community News and Views
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris has announced her selection of Families Forward of Irvine, as the 74th Assembly District’s 2020 Non-Profit of the Year.
Families Forward is a non-profit focused on ending homelessness for local Orange County families. Families Forward exists to help families in need achieve and maintain self-sufficiency through housing, food, counseling, education, and other support services.
Assemblywoman Petrie-Norris stated: “I am honored to have the opportunity to recognize the work of Families Forward as this year’s non-profit of the year. For 36 years Families Forward has helped families get back on their feet after facing unexpected crisis. I am so grateful to the team at Families Forward for their commitment to serving our community, and I hope the good-news bell, the bell they ring when they help a family find housing, continues to ring for many decades to come.”
Families Forward provides families with food, therapy, counseling and assistance on finding employment. The organization also helps families find new housing through a variety of means. Families Forward also showed great leadership, helping form Family Solutions Collaborative in 2017, a group of about two dozen non-profits who work collaborative to help families who are in need of assistance.
“We are thrilled to be selected by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris as the 2020 Nonprofit of the Year for Assembly District 74,” said CEO Madelynn Hirneise. “Families Forward has served nearly 10,000 families in Orange County through food and diaper assistance and provided 96 families with housing since the COVID-19 outbreak began and we know there are many challenges yet to come. As we look toward an uncertain future, Families Forward will continue to provide a beacon of hope to families at risk of homelessness in our community.”
Gary Cohn, President of the Families Forward Board added, “On behalf of the Board of Directors I am honored to learn that Families Forward was selected as 2020 Nonprofit of the Year for Assembly District 74. I am proud to be connected to an organization that was prepared to meet this crisis head-on and has continued to provide services without interruption to families in need throughout Orange County. This is a time of critical need and Families Forward is committed to providing assistance to vulnerable families in our community.”
Families Forward will be recognized in a digital ceremony on October 13, 2020.