For more than 40 years, For Love of Children has created innovative services in response to the needs of children and families. We are proud of the effective programs we have created and the powerful impact we have had in the lives of thousands of children and their families.

The climate for nonprofit agencies has become more challenging, however. For Love of Children's Board of Directors determined in 2005 that, to remain a strong force serving DC's most vulnerable children, FLOC needed to sharpen its focus. Beginning in 2006, FLOC will focus on providing opportunities for each child to achieve educational success as the most effective tool for breaking the cycle of poverty – through our ongoing tutoring, academic enrichment, educational counseling, scholarship support, leadership training, and experiential education programs.

For Love of Children's other well known, well loved, and impactful programs were transitioned to new homes in 2005:

FLOC's Hope and A Home transitional housing program helps parents create nurturing and stable homes within the caring and loving support of a community. By setting goals and participating in the Hope and A Home community, children succeed in school, parents become financially independent, and families bring stability to their lives and move to permanent housing.

In 2005, Hope and A Home incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) agency. FLOC's board and staff worked with the dedicated Hope and A Home team and with public and private partners to ensure a smooth transition. FLOC looks forward to continuing Hope and A Home's collaborative partnerships with other FLOC programs. Please visit Hope and A Home at www.hopeandahome.org to keep informed of their progress.

FLOC's chapter of Healthy Families DC rejoined the Healthy Families parent site and continue serving their families from Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care. Contact Healthy Families at (202) 483-8319 extensions 316, 321 or 329.

For Love of Children's Learning Center completed its final year in June 2005, as DC Public Schools seeks to transition special education students back into DCPS' own programs.

Finally, For Love of Children is no longer a foster care provider. FLOC is very proud of the Family Intervention Program (FIP), a strength-based, family-centered model for foster care that FLOC began developing in 1999 in collaboration with Casey Family Programs and DC's Child and Family Services Agency.

The cornerstone of FLOC's foster care practice was the involvement of the family in a close partnership – a model that results in the swift resolution of cases with good decisions that are in the best interests of the child. To achieve the partnership with families, the FIP model uses Family Group Decision Making conferences, Solution Focused Interviewing techniques and Family Based team meetings. The city has endorsed FIP as an effective model for the health and safety of children and families, and now incorporates FIP's basic principles into their expectations for service providers.

However, the quality of service FLOC provided is costly, and FLOC was ultimately not able to attain the size and scale needed in this contract program to assure its long-term success. In 2005, FLOC worked with the city's Child and Family Services Agency to transfer FLOC's FIP program intact to a larger nonprofit agency whose primary focus is providing foster care. We were proud to transfer our entire FIP team, along with the foster parents we have supported and trained, and the children and families we served, to the National Center for Children and Families, who will provide an excellent new home for this powerful program.