Center For Family Services Inc.

Center For Family Services Inc., a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Camden, New Jersey, is the prime recipient of federal grants funding residential shelter, transitional housing, early childhood education, violence intervention, and trauma-informed victim services for vulnerable populations across Southern New Jersey. The organization operates exclusively as a grant recipient, not as a federal contractor; it competes for cooperative agreements and project grants across human services, youth services, homelessness prevention, and criminal justice reform programs rather than contracting vehicles.

Center For Family Services is Southern New Jersey's largest social services agency, with a diversified federal grant portfolio spanning five years of recent awards (2022–2026) totaling $760.2 million across 305 prime and sub-awards. The organization acts as prime recipient on 180 awards (59%) and as sub-recipient on 125 awards (41%), with sub-work routed primarily through New Jersey state agencies. Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward HUD's Continuum of Care (CoC) homelessness programs and HHS child and family services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development leads by award count with 99 awards, followed by HHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (48 awards), the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (25 awards), the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Victims of Crime (20 awards), and HHS Administration for Children and Families (17 awards). These five agencies account for 69% of all awards.

The organization's prime-recipient capability portfolio centers on four core service lines. First, residential and transitional housing for unaccompanied alien children under Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) cooperative agreements, including a newly awarded $6.14 million cooperative agreement effective April 2026 through March 2029 and prior experience with an $8.3 million ORR award. Second, early childhood education and family support through a $14 million five-year Head Start and Early Head Start Project Grant from the Office of Head Start (CFDA 93.600) effective March 2026, requiring a 20 percent non-federal match. Third, homelessness and housing assistance through multiple Continuum of Care project grants from HUD's Community Planning and Development office, with CoC awards addressing permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and transitional housing for homeless individuals and families in Camden County and across Southern New Jersey. Fourth, violence intervention, youth reintegration, and trauma-informed services funded by the Department of Justice and HHS, including the $2 million Cure4Camden Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CFDA 16.045) effective October 2024, a $750,000 Project Reconnect grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention addressing youth reentry (CFDA 16.812), and specialized victim services for trafficking survivors and domestic violence survivors through cooperative agreements with the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Office on Violence Against Women.

Activity has grown materially over the past five years, from 15 awards in 2022 to a peak of 64 awards in 2024, with 45 awards in 2025 and 4 recorded to date in 2026. Fifteen awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing potential recompete opportunity. The organization's sub-award footprint is concentrated in state pass-throughs; recent notable sub-work includes State Opioid Response grants, Mental Health Block Grant subrecipient awards, and family support programs all flowing through the New Jersey Department of Human Services, as well as food security and school nutrition programming through the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. Center For Family Services has also engaged as a sub-recipient under Rowan University on hospital-based victim services coordination and sub-specializes in serving historically underserved and marginalized communities, including Black and Latinx populations, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and persons with disabilities and Deaf individuals experiencing violence, homelessness, or trafficking.