Alternatives For Girls

Alternatives For Girls, a Detroit-based nonprofit tax-exempt organization, operates as a federal grant recipient providing crisis intervention, transitional housing, case management, and victim advocacy services to homeless, runaway, trafficked, and at-risk girls and young women in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, Michigan. The organization acts as both a prime grant recipient (57% of recent awards) and a sub-recipient of state pass-through funding (43% of recent awards), with $44 million in combined obligated federal dollars across 102 awards since 2002.

Alternatives For Girls' federal footprint centers on three core program areas anchored by federal grants. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families funds the largest share of awards: the Street Outreach Program (CFDA not specified), which provides crisis intervention and shelter to runaway and homeless youth under age twenty-two at risk of sexual exploitation or trafficking; the Transitional Living Project serving ages sixteen to under twenty-two for up to eighteen months with life skills, educational support, and employment development; the Maternity Group Home serving pregnant and parenting youth ages sixteen to under twenty-two with parenting skills, child development, and family budgeting education; and the Stepping Stones Basic Center Program providing emergency shelter and counseling to youth under eighteen. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development has awarded Alternatives For Girls multiple Continuum of Care Program grants (CFDA 14.267) since 2022, funding permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and transitional housing projects. The Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women has funded two distinct programs: the Transitional Housing Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking program (CFDA 16.736, $500,000 awarded October 2025 through September 2028, operating twenty-four scattered-site residences), and the Culturally and Linguistically Specific Services Program (CFDA 16.016, $450,000 awarded October 2024 through September 2027, targeting Black and African American victims with employment coaching, vocational skills training, and financial education). The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs' Victims of Crime office has awarded the Safe Choices New Choices Housing Stability Services initiative ($965,096, October 2023 through September 2026) providing rapid rehousing and trauma-informed case management to sex and labor trafficking victims. Alternatives For Girls also received a $344,108 Continuum of Care award from HUD (July 2026 through June 2027) and a community project funding grant from HUD's Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development (August 2024 through August 2032).

Customer concentration reflects the nonprofit's specialization in youth homelessness and victim services. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families and HUD's Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development each anchor twenty-one awards. The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs Victims of Crime office provided eleven awards. The remaining top agencies include the Office on Violence Against Women and additional Administration for Children and Families streams. Across these customers, the organization holds 75% of its award count. The source does not provide a top_customers_by_potential_value block; concentration is therefore characterized by award count rather than dollar share.

Alternatives For Girls receives substantial sub-award pass-through funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which acts as the prime grantee on numerous state programs. Recent sub-recipient awards (October 2025) channel funding through MDHHS for transitional living projects, transitional supportive housing, domestic violence specialized services, STOP Violence victim services, Taking Pride in Prevention, and VOCA-funded transitional housing. Earlier sub-awards from MDHHS (October 2023) similarly covered outreach and basic center operations, ending the HIV epidemic initiatives, and supplemental family violence prevention and services mitigation. Other sub-awards include rapid rehousing through homelessness solutions ESG (January 2026) and emergency shelter provision through unspecified grantors (January and April 2024). This sub-recipient posture reflects Alternatives For Girls' role as an implementing organization within Michigan's homelessness and domestic violence response infrastructure.

Activity has contracted in the past two years after growth through 2023. The organization received five awards in 2022, twenty-four in 2023, nineteen in 2024, fourteen in 2025, and two in 2026 year-to-date. Only three awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, limiting near-term recompete pressure. Teaming is minimal in the source data; Oakland Family Therapy collaborated with Alternatives For Girls on the Transitional Housing Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence project (CFDA 16.736). The organization does not appear to compete on federal contracts, GWACs, or IDIQs — its entire federal footprint is grant-funded social services delivery aligned with HUD, HHS, and DOJ victim and homelessness programs serving the Detroit metropolitan area.