A Success Story for Thousands of Children, Parents and Job Seekers
The Better Together story began in 2015 when Megan Rose took the helm of a Chicago-based nonprofit that hadn’t yet taken hold in the Southwest Florida community. After 10 years of working in the Florida child welfare system, she brought real-world experience and a heartfelt desire to prevent child abuse and neglect with an alternative to foster care.
Megan modified the program, shifting from a state-funded approach to one that is 100% privately funded. As a result, she was able to inspire volunteerism at new levels and assure families that their children wouldn’t be taken away just because they needed help.
Soon, she recognized that what at-risk parents need most is jobs. So, she began the Better Jobs program, partnering with churches and employers to restore people’s income and dignity. Thus, Better Together families and many others in the community have overcome significant barriers to employment and become self-sufficient, thriving members of society.
Since its inception, Better Together has provided temporary homes to more than 2,500 Southwest Florida children. And they are successfully helping parents who wish to keep their families together. They have also helped more than 20,000 job seekers find employment in 12 different states.
“We’ve innovated, grown and perfected our own model, learning what really works,” said Megan. “Now, we want to take what we’re doing with Better Families to all of Florida. And we plan to continue expanding Better Jobs by partnering with hundreds of churches across the country.”
Better Families
Our Better Families program was founded first, as a way to offer families an alternative to foster care, as a preventative step, before things escalate. To date, we have served over 2,500 children through Better Families and have been able to keep 96% of the children we serve out of foster care.
Better Jobs
Better Jobs was created when we realized 76% of our families came to us because of an economic hardship tied to unemployment. We wanted to offer a program which was even more preventative and would help us reach more families sooner. Since that time, we have served over 28,000 nationwide through community job fairs hosted at and by local churches.