Christian Relief Services, Inc.

Running Strong helps American Indian people meet their immediate survival needs while creating opportunities for self-sufficiency and self-esteem in American Indian youth.

Through our project Americans Helping Americans® we nurture inclusive communities, unite to create support networks and determine the necessary strategic actions to address chronic, but preventable problems. Americans Helping Americans partners with community based agencies that identify and target the emergency needs of severely poverty stricken families and individuals in rural Appalachia. The basic needs of food, shoes and boots, winter coats, medical assistance, school supplies, household assistance and home repairs are met for families, veterans and their families, people with disabilities and elderly individuals who suffer due to economic and physical hardship.

Our goal is to ease unnecessary and chronic suffering by creating long-term solutions to the problems of hunger, limited education, substandard housing and insufficient medical care.

Our work focuses on supporting local youth programs (afterschool and summer camps), home rehabilitation, providing for basic needs of food, clothing and personal hygiene needs and veteran support.

Christian Relief Services is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and even though many of our programs serve outside of the metro area, we have dedicated a large part of our work to address the need for affordable housing in Fairfax County, and have done so for the last 25 years. Safe Places Transitional Housing program is dedicated to serving victims of domestic violence and their children with safe, affordable housing with supportive services for up to two years in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The mission of Safe Places is to provide families who are homeless as a result of domestic violence with safety and shelter while empowering them to break the cycle and live free of abuse.

Simply stated Safe Places saves lives every day. Safe Places offers hope and support for women and their children fleeing domestic violence through safe, affordable housing, victim advocacy and strength-based case management. Our goal is not only to protect families from immediate danger but to help families live a life safe from violence - a complete life built on respect, love and compassion.

Safe Places provides safe, affordable housing in confidential scattered sites for up two years with support services to help survivors secure safety, work to recover from the trauma they have endured and begin rebuilding their lives. Our program works in a variety of ways to address survivors' safety needs through individualized safety planning and victim advocacy helping survivors navigate the complex legal system to seek orders of protection, child custody, address immigration issues and secure legal aid.

Two full-time case managers work with survivors' healing offering crisis support and connect them with on-going resources for individual and group counseling and children's programming. Economic advocacy is provided through one-on-one financial education acknowledging past economic abuse, and counseling on credit repair, budgeting and savings. Case managers help survivors to obtain and retain employment and/or vocational training in order to increase their incomes and eventually secure permanent housing. Program participants are involved in weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one sessions or home visits.

Safe Places currently serves 33 households which includes 123 individuals, of which 90 are children, all of which fall in the extremely low income category when using the FY2012 CCFP/CDBG Income Limits form (Source: HUD).

To provide laptop computers for economically disadvantaged students so they can thrive in the classroom and be an active part of the digital age.