(Washington, DC) Today, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) announced that Louisville’s Family & Children First, a non-profit dedicated to helping families find solutions to difficult and traumatic situations through counseling and education, will receive $998,379 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  The organization annually serves more than 3,500 families through neighborhood based centers, outreach services and a crisis treatment center.  

“We are very fortunate in Louisville to have a place for families to get the help and compassion they need to make it through their toughest times,” Congressman Yarmuth said.  “Family and Children First offers our community indispensable resources to ensure that parents can stand on their own and give their children the love, care, and attention they need to thrive.” 

The services Family & Children First offers include New Parent Support Service, a starting point for young, overwhelmed first time parents; Family Counseling Service, which addresses a host of family, child, couple, and individual problems; and Family and School Service to help strengthen families’ relationships and improve their students’ success; a Child Advocacy Center, which provides child sexual abuse trauma response and offers a haven for children and families overcoming horrific personal experiences; and a Homeless Prevention Service that also reacts during crises as families are threatened by enormous disruptions to their lives.  

Family & Children First will use the funding to better assess needs and craft programs more suitable to local realities, enhance group education to reach a larger segment of the community through faith-based and community organizations, and create more focused prevention programs for systemic reforms in health and social service institutions.  They will work with faith based and community organizations to decrease child victimization and delinquency. 

Yarmuth serves on the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, where he is developing a reputation for confronting issues facing at-risk youth.  This summer, the Congressman brought Louisville witnesses to Washington to testify at a hearing on runaway, homeless, and missing children, and he hosted more than 100 regional organizations at a forum on disconnected youth in Louisville. Yarmuth is also lead sponsor of the expansion and reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.