Our mission has remained the same for the last 57 years. We work to serve those in need.
Food insecurity rates for the most severely impacted parts of ACCA’s service areas are between 40% and 55% and child poverty rates are at 27% in Fairfax County. ACCA’s human services work helps to relieve hunger and related needs with three major programs: food delivery, financial assistance, and furniture delivery. Since 2020, ACCA has assisted 27,000 individuals in nearly 9,000 households.
The ACCA Child Development Center (CDC) program in FY2024 served more than 296 infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-agers, and their families by meeting or surpassing NAEYC standards and consistently providing healthy learning environments and high-quality early childhood programming.
The CDC also provided special needs services and referrals. Hearing, vision, and developmental screenings are provided to all infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. View a recent story about how the CDC is teaching democracy to the children.
The CDC staff continues to strive to provide high-quality care to the children and has completed many hours of professional development this year. Many of our teachers have their Child Development Associate credentials, as well as associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.
The Family Emergency Assistance Program (FEAP) ministry assists low-income individuals and families facing financial crises, including some of the most vulnerable among us: families with young children, the elderly on fixed incomes, victims of domestic violence, individuals with permanent physical and mental challenges, and veterans of military service.
In FY2024, 347 local families received emergency funds for rent, security deposits, utilities, medical bills, and other essentials. Since 2020, the family emergency assistance program has served 1853 local families.
A client requested help with one month’s rent and the electric bill. Her significant other has been in and out of the hospital and has not been able to work for almost a month. ACCA paid the rent and electric bill for the amount requested.
The Food and Nutrition program provides nutritious food and other essentials to families and individuals in need in our community. ACCA works with Fairfax County social workers to provide nutritious food and other essentials to families and individuals in need. Pantry volunteers deliver a 7 – 10 day supply of food and hygiene products. Our volunteers and community partners work tirelessly to stock our pantry with produce, dairy products, bread, meats, soaps, baby supplies, and a variety of canned and packaged foods. 1397 households received emergency grocery supplies in FY2024 and since 2020, the pantry has served 6453 local families. View a video about the pantry and its wonderful volunteers.
“I am so grateful, I have no words to describe how wonderful you are. God bless you. I know that my girls will enjoy this food a lot and I am very grateful and I hope you continue to help many more families who need it. God bless you very much.” (from a text message that one of our drivers received after delivering groceries to a local family).
The Furniture Program team collected and delivered furniture to 69 families this year. They received beds, sofas, tables, chairs, lamps, and other essentials to make their homes more liveable in FY2024. Since 2020, the furniture teams have delivered to 360 homes. View a video about the ACCA furniture program.
An Afghani refugee family had a softer landing in our area after the ACCA Furniture Team came knocking on their door with bedroom, dining, and living room essentials. The parents spoke only Dari, but their young son let the team know how grateful they were for ACCA turning the empty apartment into a comfortable home!
The Housing Program worked with Rebuilding Together on repairing and upgrading two homes on the annual workday in April of 2024. With the help of 7 churches and 29 volunteers, we repaired and upgraded two homes owned and operated by the Hartwood Foundation, which develops and operates residential service programs for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Virginia. Since 1990, ACCA volunteers have donated thousands of hours and rehabilitated 132 houses and group homes in our community.
The Annandale CROP Hunger Walk in October 2023 raised a total of $17,298 for Church World Service (CWS) to provide hunger, disaster, and refugee relief. CWS returned $4324 to ACCA for our local efforts to fight hunger and poverty.
Ruffing Scholarships – provided $4,000 per year for college education to four local students with disabilities.
More Outreach
- The combined Shepherd’s Center of Annandale Springfield/ACCA Transportation provided 586 round-trip rides.
- Neighbor to Neighbor – Through financial and volunteer support, ACCA assisted refugee children with schoolwork and helped parents with English skills.
- Just Neighbors – provides legal services to low-income immigrants in the ACCA service area. ACCA funding helped with 1 DACA renewal case, 4 green cards, and 2 work permits for clients from 5 different countries.
Volunteers
Our work was made possible by about 200 repeat volunteers and many one-time volunteers in addition to the staff of the Child Development Center. We celebrated our many volunteers at a picnic at Mason District Park in May.
Partners
We received generous support from the community including numerous individuals, businesses, churches, and community organizations. We appreciate the help from the Boy Scouts, Rotary, Knights of Columbus, Stuff the Bus, Whole Foods, Fairfax County Police Department, BRAWS, and National Active and Retired Federal Employees. We also are grateful for the support of our many partners.
Initiatives
Behind the scenes at ACCA, we are automating our processes to serve our community more efficiently. With the technical skills of many new volunteers, we are working to improve our processes through the use of new technologies. We have also been fortunate to partner with several local sources for diapers and feminine hygiene products to provide these essential items to families. We are working to improve our on-site vegetable garden and working with a local food rescue group to help provide fresh foods to clients while reducing waste in our community.
Finances
For complete information on ACCA’s finances including audits and IRS forms, visit this page.
