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The Family Career and Community Leaders of America wasn’t always the great organization it is today. In fact it wasn’t always called FCCLA, the former name of the Family Career and Community Leaders of America was the FHA, or the Future Homemakers of America. We later changed the name in 1999, because many thought that we could attract more male members by shying away from the humble housewife image that the FHA name seemed to hold.
But like every great organization, FCCLA has gotten its start from a few people and a lot of initiative and leadership. Before 1945, many different home economics teachers wanted to teach youths help skills for later in life. Then in 1945 the many scattered organizations unified under one banner to form the Future Homemakers of America. They created a creed and eight purposes to guide this new organization, the same creed and purposes we use today. They also had an official motto, flower, emblem, and even an FHA song. Then after a lot of organizing and planning, on March 1945, the Future Homemakers of America was born. Then almost a year later the big day came for Michigan to find its way into this wonderful organization. Michigan became the 31st state to join, on May 23, 1946. The first national dues back then were only fifteen cents! And Michigan has made sure that every year our state has been represented at the National Leadership Meetings.
And like every organization, Michigan FHA had its firsts of everything. The first Leadership Training Camp says a lot about the era the organization was founded, the theme of this camp was “Planning for Post War Living”. In March 1947, the first State Leadership Meeting was held at Michigan State University, despite the blizzard. At this meeting the first Honorary Members were selected. Also in 1947, the first National Leadership meeting was held in Delaware, Ohio. These meetings still were very similar to the meetings we have today except for one thing, there were no competitive events. The competitive events didn’t start until 1973.
The Michigan Association of Future Homemakers of America always tried to get more members to join, but eventually despite the humble housewife façade, young men sought to join our superb group, some did, but the FHA could really use more males. In 1985, Michigan FHA really focused on gaining more male members by offering awards to the chapters who had the biggest increase in male membership. But what really helped break the barrier was the name change in 1999, to the Family Career and Community Leaders of America.
FHA or FCCLA...past, present, or future, our organization has stood the test of time. It started with a few teenagers and their teachers and an idea for the future. The first motto of our organization still holds true to our group’s modern day sentiments, “Toward New Horizons.”
    
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Every Organization Has a Beginning: A Brief History of FCCLA