CARE Honor Roll

View a complete list of past winners of the coveted CARE Award

View Honor Roll

Over the decades, Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) family counselors and social workers have reported time and again that job-related issues are a major factor in raising the stress level within clients' families. In the early 1990s, NVFS staff began to notice an alarming increase in the number of clients whose work-related issues were exacerbating difficult family situations and leading to family breakdown, substance abuse and domestic violence.

NVFS staff and Board of Directors began to explore how NVFS could help change the work climate to relieve work-related stress on families. Board members-many of them business leaders-empathized with the plight of these families, and were also concerned about family stress from a business standpoint. They also recognized that businesses strengthen families when they adopt policies that support family life and help employees balance the demands of work and home.

NVFS enlisted the support of the business community, creating the CARE Advisory Committee in 1992. The CARE Advisory Committee established the annual CARE Awards program with four primary goals:

  1. To recognize Northern Virginia companies who are leaders in providing family-friendly benefits and policies that help their employees meet the challenges of balancing work and life,
  2. To encourage companies to institute family-friendly programs by exposing them to ideas and thoughtful discussions with business leaders who have already embraced such policies,
  3. To strengthen families by promoting family-friendly policies among businesses,
  4. To build awareness and support among the business community of Northern Virginia Family Service programs.

The CARE program has helped change the business climate in Northern Virginia by exposing business leaders to new ideas and has given them specific, workable steps to follow for making important workplace changes. Because of the CARE program, many business leaders have begun to think seriously about ways family-friendly policies can impact the day-to-day operation of their businesses and how they can be implemented in companies of any size and configuration.

Companies covet the CARE Award because it gives them the opportunity to showcase to their colleagues the good things they have done to support their workers. Additionally, many business leaders believe that the recognition gives them an edge in hiring skilled and motivated workers. Many companies have discovered that the self-assessment, combined with the outside evaluation by the CARE team of experts, gives them valuable information about the strengths and weaknesses of their policies. Many past CARE Awards competitors report the process of entering the competition was time well spent, regardless of whether they won an award.

NVFS and the Northern Virginia business community see continued support of CARE as a tremendous opportunity to be on the leading edge of change and innovation in the workplace of Northern Virginia. Work and family are intertwined in most people's lives. Helping support and strengthen families is what we do at Northern Virginia Family Service. The CARE initiative is a logical outgrowth of our mission to empower individuals and families to improve their quality of life and promote community cooperation in responding to family needs.