'We've Evolved': Northern Virginia Family Service Continues To Expand In 100th Year

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The legacy of Northern Virginia Family Service helping people in need dates back to 1924, when volunteers in Alexandria organized to help families with basic needs like coats for children and coal to heat their homes. In more recent decades, the nonprofit led a survivors fund project for 9/11 survivors and families in 2001 as well as the Katrina Project for people evacuating from New Orleans during 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

One hundred years after its founding, the nonprofit is still going strong and continues to grow. Most recently, Northern Virginia Family Service established its Fund for Families to better help its clients get mental health care, close early childhood education gaps, assist with housing cost burdens and address racial and social disparities.

"We provide a holistic array of services, everything from early childhood education to mental health services, youth initiatives, serving families who are experiencing crisis," Northern Virginia Family Service president and CEO Stephanie Berkowitz told Patch. "Really at the core what we do is that we help families that are struggling, who are in need of services in need of some support or access to services. And our goal is to work with every individual family to identify what the root cause of the situation is, and to help families ultimately thrive."

As the name suggests, Northern Virginia Family has a regional approach. It serves all areas of Northern Virginia, from Arlington County, Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria to Loudoun County and Prince William County. For example, the nonprofit's Hunger Resource Center assists hundreds of families in Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, and its SERVE Family Shelter is located in Manassas. It also has a thrift shop called Clock Tower in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County.

So how does the nonprofit identify clients? According to Berkowitz, Northern Virginia Family Service staff are "embedded within communities" in places like schools, community centers and health care facilities. It also gets referrals from trusted partners like faith communities, other nonprofits and government agencies to address gaps in services for residents.

To help families facing the daunting cost of child care and early childhood education, the organization has Head Start or Early Head Start locations in Arlington, Manassas and Woodbridge. Its newest early childhood center will open in Ashburn in the coming months. The new location will offer 75 preschool slots.

"This is just a tremendous step forward for the community and starting to continue to address that affordable childcare gap, so we're really excited about that," said Berkowitz.

Another new change will be offering high-impact programs in every Northern Virginia locality, such as mental health, youth violence prevention and the Healthy Families program.

The new Fund for Families is a $5 million initiative to "help us more swiftly and sustainably meet the needs in the community," Berkowitz says. The greatest issues the fund addresses, the mental health crisis, affordable early childhood education, housing costs and disparities among racial and social groups. According to Berkowitz, there's not enough affordable, accessible preschool and child-care, while the high costs of housing has a "domino effect" that creates other challenges for struggling families. The fourth issue the fund addresses is the widening gap between residents living well in Northern Virginia and lower-income families.

"While Northern Virginia in general has a very strong economy — it truly is a great place to live, that's what all the different counties what we rally around, and it is true," said Berkowitz. "And it can also be true at the same time that the widening gap between folks that have the means to live in this location and those who don't, that widening gap is disproportionately impacting lower income families."

Berkowitz said that while Northern Virginia Family Service's 100 years speaks to its legacy as a trusted provider, it also brings into question why organizations like it are still needed to address poverty.

"We all have to really pause and keep doing the work that we're doing and step up as a society, step up our advocacy, making sure that we're looking at true systemic root causes of the reasons that families are even still living in poverty or still experiencing the crises and disparate access to resources and services that are out there," said Berkowitz.

There are different ways the community can help Northern Virginia Family Service, according to Berkowitz. The nonprofit holds fundraisers like diaper drives, food drives and backpack drives and welcomes financial donations. It also provides volunteer opportunities and relies on help from thousands of volunteers to supplement staff's work. Volunteer opportunities can range from picking up and sorting food for the Hunger Resource Center to coordinating activities and reading to children at early childhood centers and sorting goods at the thrift shop.

"The number one message always for any organization who's delivering human services is simply to get involved in whatever way is most meaningful," said Berkowitz. "It could be through your company, it could be through your faith community. It could be directly contacting an organization. Just simply being involved in community helps the entire community thrive."

Since Northern Virginia Family Service originated with Alexandria volunteers, it was only fitting it celebrated a century of service in Alexandria. Hundreds in the community turned out at Alexandria's Torpedo Factory Art Center for the 100 Years of Service Celebration in May.

"We've evolved, we've adapted, we've responded to crises," said Berkowitz. "There's been crises after crises: 911 and recessions and government shutdowns and the pandemic, so we are adaptable. We're there. We're responsible. We respond. We're trusted. And so that in and of itself is something to applaud as long as there is need in the community."