Families Forward

Families Forward Services and Shelter is a local organization that we are so glad to support this year. Families Forward provides compassionate, life-changing assistance to families and their path to self-sufficiency right here in Des Moines.

If you have not heard of Families Forward, you may have heard of the decades old programs that were combined in July 2023 under this name. Bidwell Riverside Center and Hawthorn Hill officially merged into Families Forward, an organization that consists of four programs: 

1. Bidwell Pantry provides families with food;

2. Child Development Center provides families with affordable childcare; 

3. New Directions Shelter provides families with short-term emergency housing 

4. The Home Connection provides families with supportive housing

that helps get them back on their feet and into their own homes

Thank you for supporting this much needed organization as they work to meet the needs of families right here in Des Moines. For more information on all the good work Families Forward does and/or to join their e-newsletter, please visit https://www.familiesforward.org/.

P.S. Please consider joining us at their fundraising gala on Friday, November 6!