What is Footbridge for Families?

Footbridge for Families is a 501c3 offering government agencies and health insurers a turn-key, low cost solution to providing emergency support, coupling human discernment with an efficient, purpose-built infrastructure to ensure strong outcomes.

Footbridge for Families also provides the means for community members to support families in their most vulnerable moments. Our goals are to 1) protect children by relieving the stress that caregivers face in financial crises; 2) give families an opportunity to ask for the help they need and avoid more costly interventions; and 3) give donors a clear, trustworthy means of helping their community members’ real needs in real time.

The organization fills a crucial gap in our society’s prevention landscape by acknowledging that a short-term financial crisis can lead to exponentially worse circumstances and offers a solution to the financial challenges that families face. This model diverges from today’s dominant paradigm in which tax-dollars and donations meant for families in need are filtered through several levels of intermediaries and directed toward services that professionals have deemed worthwhile, rather than directly to needs and solutions offered by families themselves.