For 113 years, the organization now known as the Center for Transforming Lives (CTL) has provided anti-poverty programs for women and children in Tarrant County. It was founded in 1907 as the first YWCA in Texas serving as a boarding house for poor women, expanded to include child care for working mothers in the 1930s, and in 2015 changed its name from the YWCA Fort Worth and Tarrant County to the Center for Transforming Lives to more clearly articulate its mission.
Today, the Center for Transforming Lives lifts women with children from poverty to possibility through:
– Homeless Services – an on-site homeless shelter for women and off-site homes for families
– Early Childhood Education – providing free or subsidized early childhood education to impoverished and homeless families
– Economic Mobility – individual financial coaching and other programs to promote financial self-sufficiency