For 110 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 & Tarrant County to the Center for Transforming Lives to more clearly articulate its mission.
Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Carol Klocek, the Center for Transforming Lives has an annual operating budget of more than $7 million and will serve 3,500 low-income and homeless women, children and families this year, breaking the cycle of poverty.