MARBLEHEAD — A growing number of residents in Marblehead are participating in Future Forward, a partnership between the Marblehead Housing Authority and the Salem Housing Authority.

The program is designed to help public housing residents pursue personal, educational, and career goals.

Announced in October 2025, the Future Forward program offers individualized coaching, resource navigation, and support aimed at helping participants build long-term financial stability.

Through one-on-one work with the Program Coordinator, participants can identify and pursue goals such as higher education, employment, career advancement, and improved financial health.

Cathy Sheehan, executive director of the Housing Authority, said there are currently nine families in Marblehead enrolled in the program and 11 enrolled from Salem.

She said the enrollment cap is 35 participants. The participation cap was lowered from 50 “because they felt like the intensive case management services that are being provided were more effective for a smaller number of families involved.”

One of the program’s key features is an escrow savings component tied to increases in participants’ income. As a family’s income rises, their public housing rent is reevaluated and increases, but rather than those additional funds being lost to rent, they are placed into an escrow account that participants can use to build savings.

Across all participants, there is currently $5,011 in escrow.

“It goes up, and then we escrow the amount that it goes up. So the more that people earn, the more opportunity they have to escrow money,” Sheehan said.