Family Promise—what is it?
Families make up 40% of the homeless population. The challenge for such families is getting temporary shelter and keep the family together. Family Promise, in partnership with churches, provides temporary shelter to families. "They mobilize community resources: houses of worship for lodging, congregations for volunteers, social service agencies for assessment and referrals, and existing facilities for day programs. This strategy enables networks to help homeless families achieve lasting independence at a third of the cost of traditional shelters." To learn more about the organization, visit their website.
St. Luke's-a Family Promise Host Site
St. Luke’s serves as a host for the Family Promise families 4-5 times a year. We convert some of our Sunday school rooms into bedrooms and part of the Fellowship Hall into a dining and family room for the families.
Give Famly Promise families warm hospitality
The success of this ministry is entirely dependent on volunteers. It takes 50-60 volunteers each week our Family Promise guests are here. We need volunteers to help make dinners, sleep over as overnight hosts, donate snacks and drinks, wash linens at the end of the week, as well as setting up the beds and taking them down. All ages from toddlers to grandparents can help out. For more information, contact Melinda Lis e-mail at melindalis@earthlink.net. |
Testimonial
The storm is all around the house, but I’m sitting inside all cozy in my favorite pajamas. My family is out, but they will be back any minute, and soon we’ll all be warm and snuggly in our own beds. Sure, it’s nice at the end of the day to crawl into your very own bed, isn’t it? Do you ever wonder what it would be like not to have your own bed? Some of us at St. Luke’s get a glimpse of that reality every few months when we help our church be the host for four homeless families.
These families (mostly working folks) are participating in a program called Family Promise. They spend a week sleeping in designated Sunday school rooms of churches like St. Luke’s that are part of this network. Every Sunday morning at 6:00am, they pack up their few belongings in tubs and suitcases, and move on to the next church to spend the following week. During the day, their kids go to school, they go to work, or they go downtown to the Family Promise center where they do their laundry, work on their resumes, and lean how to work toward getting back on their feet again.
Jean Collins,
Lay member of Family Promise Ministry
|
The United Methodist Church | Contact Us