Forward Foundation: Empowering Action to Move Forward

Are you a working single parent?

Forward Foundation is a is a nonprofit dedicated to assisting working, single parents and their children in the Greater Richmond area who are in the midst of a financial crisis. Forward Foundation works with single parents who have encountered a life-altering event resulting in financial crisis.

Many parents fear they will be unable to work because they can’t afford the astronomical cost of childcare, but Forward Foundation can help.

Its program requirements include completion of educational workshops led by its community partners. These consist of leading professionals in the financial, legal, career advancement, and family counseling fields. The foundation provides its families with a multitude of educational resources, tools, and community support. In order to achieve long term sustainability and financial independence, it is imperative that families obtain basic knowledge in the areas they need to best care for their children.

In addition to the workshops, participating parents are required to complete 2 volunteer hours per month. The Forward Foundation believes that its families need to be vested; it doesn’t offer a handout, but a hand up.

“I will be forever grateful to the Forward Foundation for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my dreams of becoming a nurse and being able to support myself and my children completely independently!” one client said. “The sense of being brought in to a family who loves us and is rooting for us has been life-changing. Being a single parent can be incredibly stressful and lonely but the Forward Foundation has created a safety net and sense of community that has repeatedly saved me, and I’m so thankful to have them.”

“Forward Foundation provides some calm during the eye of the storm,” said another.

Forward Foundation is working to help its clients navigate life’s challenges as a community with strength, perseverance, persistence, and purposefulness.

Forward Foundation goals
• Foster resilience and financial independence
• Build community and gain valuable skills • Bring awareness and advocate for this immense need

Program requirements
• Are you a single working parent who is employed full time, going to school full time, or a combination of working while finishing up a degree?
• Have you encountered a life altering event which has resulted in financial crisis?  (ie: divorce, death, illness, family member caretaker role, extended litigation, etc.)
• Are you utilizing, or in need of childcare?
• Are your children under the age of 12?
• Are you ineligible for DSS (Virginia Department of Social Services) services due to earning too high of an income?

“The Forward Foundation has helped me know that I am not on this journey alone,” one client said. “It’s nice to have such strong women in my corner. The workshops have given me knowledge and hope that good things are still possible as a single parent. I am grateful for the Forward Foundation every day. Thank you!”

To learn more about the Forward Foundation and its program opportunities, visit https://forwardfoundationva.org/.

Benefit bike ride
On Saturday, Oct. 5, Forward Foundation will host the Go Forward Together Ride, a 30- or 50-mile bike ride and afterparty to help benefit the organization’s work. The start, finish and party will occur at Final Gravity Brewing, 6118 Lakeside Avenue. Registration is $65; visit www.goforwardtogetherride.com to learn more or sign up.