• 20 Ways NVFS Prepares Job Trainees for Success 
• Providing Opportunities and Creating Brighter Futures: 2016 Annual Report 
• More Than 2,100 Children Enjoyed a Brighter Holiday Season
  
• Strikes for Stronger Families Bowl-a-thon 
• Looking for Ways to Help Your Community in the New Year? 

• NVFS Home Page
• About NVFS

Given how highly educated the Northern Virginia region is on the whole, it may be easy to forget that not everyone in the area always has access to such opportunities. Without certain skills and credentials, residents may have difficulty obtaining higher-paying, career-track jobs. Programs such as NVFS’ Training Futures help to bridge that gap. 

Julie Mullen, NVFS director of workforce development, shares: “We teach [Training Futures clients] hard skills, such as Microsoft Office Suite, customer service, office administrative skills and business communications. But our real competitive advantage and our real value in the marketplace is that we teach soft skills – the attitudes and behaviors necessary to be successful in the corporate environment.”

See 20 ways that Training Futures is benefiting its graduates and helping them thrive >>

More than 34,000 children and adults served. A community made stronger. Among our many accomplishments, this year we opened two additional Early Head Start classrooms, launched a new hunger prevention and nutrition program in Prince Wililam County and took on the operations of two additional homeless shelters.  

There’s a lot of holiday spirit in Northern Virginia; thanks to our community’s generosity, NVFS was able to provide more than 2,100 children with gifts last month through our Gifting for Families program!

A special thank you for brightening the season for vulnerable children to the following Gifting for Families donors: Capital One, Concur, Ellucian, Healthways, Laurie Kohsmann, ProChain and Virginia Women Attorneys Association. What a difference you made!

Registration for the Strikes for Stronger Families bowl-a-thon on Saturday, March 11 is now open! This benefit for NVFS’ SERVE campus is a great way for families, friends, companies and civic groups to get involved in strengthening the Greater Prince William community. All proceeds benefit SERVE, helping to address the immediate needs of local families and individuals, and to enable them to become self-sufficient.

You can create a bowling team, sponsor the event or make a direct donation. Thank you for strengthening families in the Greater Prince William area!

Below are a few of our high-priority volunteer and item needs. Want more regular updates throughout the month? Follow NVFS on Facebook and/or Twitter to stay up-to-date on local opportunities to give back.

• Call for Volunteers in Falls Church: NVFS thrift stores provide revenue for NVFS client services, and we need volunteers to help that happen! Sort and organize donations, ensure shopping area is organized, and assist with customer checkout. Details >>
  
• Call for Volunteers in Manassas: Help keep food from going to waste while families in our community go hungry! Food Recovery Drivers are needed weekday mornings, especially Mondays, to pick up donations from local grocery stores and restaurants and deliver them to our Hunger Resource Center, where it is distributed to the more than 700 families we serve each month. Volunteers must be able to lift up to 50 lbs. Drivers must be at least 18 with a valid driver’s license. Teens can ride with drivers to assist. Ride-along training with experienced volunteer is provided. Contact Navara Cannon: ncannon@nvfs.org or 571.748.2536.
  
• Top Item Needs: The Hunger Resource Center at SERVE, in addition to providing food assistance and nutrition guidance, distributes non-food items to families in crisis so that they can make ends meet. These include diapers, laundry detergent, wipes and personal care products. Details and other donation opportunities available online. Visit our wishlist >>