Adding Seats to the Table:
A Community-Based Approach to Family Homelessness

In 1996, The National Center launched Adding Seats to the Table to revitalize advocacy efforts around family homelessness by supporting grassroots community organizing and leadership development among homeless, formerly homeless, and at-risk families. Through this innovative project, multi-racial/multi-ethnic families worked to improve city, county and state policies and programs impacting homeless families.

The project demonstrated that homeless and at-risk families, given necessary support, skills and confidence, can engage policymakers and spark tangible policy improvement. When given a seat at the table, these families can enhance their own lives and the lives of those around them. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Adding Seats to the Table was implemented in Trenton, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado; and Hartford, Connecticut.