Families Flourish: Building Inclusive Communities Empowering Families to Create a Successful Future

(LLI Week 4, Spring 2024) Bessie Jackson was once a home health aide making around $26,000 a year. After graduating from Families Flourish, a unique non-profit founded in Central Ohio in 2016, Bessie was able to secure a job making $75,000 a year, thereby tripling her income thanks to the program. Families Flourish is an initiative that serves 17 communities in Central Ohio and provides support and opportunities to low-wage families. This program empowers families to address their total needs over a 3-year period, reversing historic barriers by fostering greater inclusivity, equality, opportunity and access to housing, education, and family wellness. Families enrolled in the program receive monthly skill-building programming and coaching, including career training, educational opportunities, financial guidance, and personal wellness training. Families Flourish helps communities create and embrace housing that is accessible to all. In this class, Todorov will discuss this unique non-profit and how it works to help people like Bessie achieve economic stability. Shiloh Todorov joined Families Flourish (formerly Move to PROSPER) as a volunteer in September 2020 and then joined the staff in June 2021. She has over a decade of nonprofit experience, including her previous roles as fundraiser for The Matriots PAC, as Executive Director of the German Village Society, and as the Marketing/PR Director for The Wellington School. Prior to her career in nonprofit and development, Shiloh was a television journalist, most recently serving as a Managing Editor for KETV.COM. Shiloh was born and raised in rural Nebraska and holds a Masters degree in Broadcast and Public Policy from American University in Washington, DC, where she also covered the White House.