Family Promise

Family Promise is a collaboration of 13 churches in our area that provide temporary housing to homeless families.

Families are identified by social workers, usually via the school system, and referred to the program where they undergo an extensive background check, interview and screenings for drug and alcohol use. Once accepted into the program, the families work with the program social workers to find employment if they are not currently employed. They are also taught financial planning and learn other life skills as they are aided in their search for affordable housing.

Each Sunday the families arrive at a new church. The hosting church will feed them dinner and allow them to prepare lunches for the next day. The guests spend the night at the church and volunteers give them breakfast in the morning. They then are picked up by the program van and taken to the Day Center where they will proceed to work, school or a planned activity for the day at the Day Center that is part of their case plan. The van will return them to the church in the evening for dinner and the process repeats until the week concludes on Sunday morning.

Our church provides volunteers to prepare and serve the evening meals, serve as overnight hosts, and help with set up and clean up on Sundays. Kerri Gould and Kim Watkins are the coordinators for our church. Together, they schedule volunteers and plan the meals for the week. There are lots of opportunities to help whether you donate food items, prepare or serve a meal, spend the night or help with clean up. Great measures are taken to ensure that the guests and our volunteers are safe. This is a highly rewarding experience for our volunteers and we are so excited that more than 90% of the families that have entered the program, leave the program with affordable housing for their families. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Kerri or Kim.