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It Takes a Village: How Safe Families for Children Builds Community Around Moms and Families

Posted on Nov 12, 2026

When life becomes overwhelming, what many families need most is not a program or a service. They need people. They need someone to walk alongside them, offer encouragement, share wisdom, and remind them they are not alone to build their community.

Since 2023, the Women’s Fund has been proud to support Safe Families for Children Green Bay/Fox Cities through our annual Impact Grant cycle, investing $30,000 to help strengthen the organization’s work with women and families across the region. This strategic grantmaking helps advance innovative solutions that address the barriers facing women while building stronger, more connected communities.

Recently, the Women’s Fund had the opportunity to visit Safe Families for Children, an organization helping families thrive through the power of relationships and community. What we heard was a powerful reminder that lasting change often begins with something simple: connection.

Community Supporting Community

Safe Families for Children operates on a model that is both practical and deeply personal. Volunteers step into the lives of families facing challenges by offering support, friendship, temporary hosting, and access to resources. Their goal is not to replace families, but to strengthen them.

Today, nearly 98% of the parents they serve are single mothers. Many are navigating poverty, housing instability, isolation, domestic violence situations, or the challenges that come with building a life in a new community.

At its heart, Safe Families is about creating what many moms are missing: a village.

As staff members explained during our visit, “sometimes you just need a friend.”

That friend might be someone who drops off diapers, delivers a meal, offers transportation, or simply checks in to see how you’re doing. It is community supporting community.

Relationships That Change Lives

One story shared during our visit centered on a local couple, Leann and Gary, who were matched with a refugee family newly arrived from Africa. The family spoke little English and was navigating the enormous challenge of adapting to a new country while pregnant with their fifth child.

What began as volunteer support grew into a meaningful relationship. When the mother went into labor, staff helped with practical needs such as transportation and obtaining clothing, while Leann and Gary stood by the family to watch their other children. Over the past two years, the relationship has grown so strong that the family now refers to them as “Grandma” and “Grandpa.”

Their story reflects what makes Safe Families unique. Volunteers are not simply providing services. They are building relationships that endure.

More Than Case Management

The organization currently engages approximately 340 volunteers from Green Bay to Oshkosh. These volunteers serve in many ways, including as host families and resource friends who provide essentials such as food, diapers, clothing, and other supports.

Yet Safe Families leaders emphasized that volunteers offer something different than traditional case management.

Professionals can connect families to services, but volunteers can become trusted members of a family’s support network. They celebrate milestones, offer encouragement during setbacks, and provide the kind of consistent human connection that helps families build confidence and resilience.

The work is not always easy.

Relationships take time. Trust must be earned. Staff carefully match volunteers and families based on personalities, interests, and strengths because meaningful connection matters. As they described it, moms need moms. Families need people who understand what they are experiencing and genuinely care about their well-being.

The Power of One Caring Relationship

During the visit, we also heard Betsy’s story, Safe Families Executive Director.

On her thrid day with the organization, Betsy welcomed a 17-year-old girl experiencing homelessness into her home. What was intended to be a temporary arrangement turned into a 10- to 11-month stay, allowing the teenager to remain in school and complete high school.

Today, she remains part of Betsy’s family.

Stories like this demonstrate how a single caring relationship can alter the course of a young person’s life.

Another story involved a mother living in her car with two children after leaving an unsafe domestic violence situation. Through Safe Families, she was connected to support during a critical time. While not every match becomes a lifelong relationship, even short-term connections can provide stability, hope, and a path forward when families need it most.

Addressing Isolation Alongside Poverty

Poverty often extends beyond financial hardship. It can also mean a lack of relationships, support systems, and trusted people to turn to when challenges arise.

Safe Families recognizes that reality.

The organization not only helps meet immediate needs but also connects families to community resources, opportunities, and networks of support they may not have known existed. Through these relationships, parents gain access to advice, encouragement, and practical help that can interrupt cycles of isolation and hardship.

Their approach reminds us that thriving communities are built not only through programs and funding, but through people who show up for one another.

Investing in Stronger Support Networks

The Women’s Fund believes that when women have access to meaningful support systems, entire families and communities benefit.

That is why we have partnered with Safe Families for Children Green Bay/Fox Cities through our Impact Grant cycle since 2023, providing $30,000 in strategic grant funding to support their relationship-based approach. Their work aligns closely with our vision of creating pathways for women to achieve economic security, stability, and well-being.

During our visit, Safe Families leaders shared that receiving support from the Women’s Fund has meant more than financial investment. They noted that the Women’s Fund’s belief in their mission and decision to fund their work brought added credibility to the organization and affirmed that they were making a meaningful difference in the lives of women and families.

They also described the Women’s Fund as an important partner beyond grantmaking. In addition to financial support, they shared appreciation for the relationships, encouragement, and genuine connection the Women’s Fund provides. As one of our grantees, they expressed that the Women’s Fund has been an incredible resource not only financially, but on a human level as well.

By connecting mothers with trusted volunteers, resources, and community networks, Safe Families is helping women navigate challenges that might otherwise feel insurmountable. Their model recognizes that lasting change is not created through one-time assistance alone. It happens when people feel seen, supported, and connected to a community that believes in their success.

Still, the mission remains the same.

As one theme echoed throughout our visit, this work is about far more than providing “things and stuff.” It is about creating community.

It is about ensuring that women and families know they are valued, welcomed, and supported.

It is love in action.

The Women’s Fund is proud to support Safe Families for Children Green Bay/Fox Cities through strategic grantmaking and partnership, helping expand the relationships and support systems that allow women and families to move from crisis toward stability and belonging. Together, we are investing in stronger communities where women and families have not only the resources they need, but also the relationships that help them thrive. For the hundreds of families served each year, those connections can make all the difference.

Posted in General, Impact Grant