History
Families Helping Families of Northwest Louisiana, Inc. (FHF of NWLA) is a non-profit Family Resource Center that is part of a state-wide network of nine Resource Centers. Families Helping Families is part of ACT 378 of the 1989 Community & Family Support Act. It is the "Parent to Parent Support" part of this legislation. We are governed by a board of directors comprised of at least 51% of individuals with special needs and/or family members.
The Louisiana Families Helping Families network is divided into ten regions, with Northwest Louisiana designated as Region VII. The parishes served in Region VII include Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine and Webster.
FHF of NWLA began with a grant from the Louisiana State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities in February 1992. We originally operated through the Child Development Center of Northwest Louisiana D.B.A. Access. The first seven months were spent acquiring a location and staff. We served people that contacted us, went to many trainings and put in place the forms to gather information for our grantees. We then focused on getting our name out to parents and professionals. This was done through outreach in the parishes that we serve. Through these efforts, we now have over 2000 families/professionals that are on our mail list. A quarterly newsletter is produced so that these families/professionals can keep informed about current issues related to disabilities, upcoming trainings, support groups, and FHF of NWLA activities.
Since our beginning we have added a staff that is funded from different resources but is supervised by the Executive Director. The majority of the staff at Families Helping Families are parents of children with disabilities. In January 1996 the decision was made by the Board of Directors of Access for us to become independent and incorporated. On March 12, 1996 Families Helping Families of Northwest Louisiana incorporated and became a separate entity.
After incorporation we were located on the campus of Louisiana State University-Shreveport for approximately two and one-half years. On February 25, 1999 we moved to 2620 Centenary Blvd. Currently, we are located in a newly remodeled centrally located facility at 1545 Line Avenue, Suite 330 in Shreveport.
