The Full Frame Initiative grows from our founder Katya Fels Smyth’s experience launching and leading (1995 through 2006) what would now be called a Full Frame Intervention, On The Rise, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Despite On The Rise’s success in supporting women who are homeless or in crisis in achieving important new levels of control, choice and connections, she felt that the work and impact of the organization was often misunderstood, but could not find an existing framework that described the approach On The Rise takes.
In 2004, Katya began working with Dr. Lisa Goodman of Boston College. Together, they set out to identify what makes On The Rise and a few other organizations successful where others have not been. The result was identification of a set of principles and practices they came to call The Full Frame Approach, an initial version of which was published in 2006.
Over the next two years, Katya and Lisa’s work elicited a groundswell of interest from community practitioners interested in learning from other practitioners, and making a collective case for this Full Frame way of working.
In 2007, after leaving On The Rise, Katya launched the Full Frame Initiative under the fiscal sponsorship of the Cambridge Community Foundation. The Full Frame Initiative, Inc. became an independent organization in 2009 with its own federal 501(c)(3) status.
Our history and future are written by those who shape it. We welcome your alliance and interest, and hope you will contact us.
