The American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences was founded in 1909, when Professor Ellen H. Richards, the first female graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, saw the need for an organization to look over the training of home and family management. The symbol of the AAFCS is a lamp, which stands to make better. That's also the motto of the organization and the essence of the science which it oversees. The American Association of Family Consumer Sciences aims to promote leadership in professionals within the field of family and consumer sciences.

More specifically, the focus of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences oversees the accreditation process of such programs to achieve the underlying goal of affecting social change through the health of both the individual and the family. If a program of family and consumer sciences is accredited, you can bet the AAFCS is the association overseeing its accreditation. The AAFCS is the only national organization which represents this professional field.

The accreditation parameter of the AAFCS is programmatic only, meaning it oversees the programs of family and consumer sciences only, not entire institutions.