When a family with children unexpectedly falls into homelessness, it creates a snowball effect of negative consequences that makes recovering without help extremely difficult. The leadership at Family Promise National understands the obstacles these families are facing, and they have worked for the last 35 years on a program assembling the resources to assist families with children experiencing homelessness to get back on their feet. They have built a strong program that relies on the help of our community with over 200 affiliates in the nation.
Family Promise of Cobb County opened its doors in 2014 with the Family Promise Rotational Shelter Program. Each year programs have been added to meet the growing demand for services. The Rotational Shelter Program (RSP) provides shelter, meals, and support services to families without homes through a network of local congregations. The hosting of three to four families rotates weekly among 14 host congregations in the Network. Each host congregation provides lodging, three meals a day, and caring hospitality for up to four weeks a year. Support congregations assist the Network by providing volunteers, meals, and financial donations. The Transitional Housing Program began In 2015 with the opening of the Kirkwood Promise House, offered in partnership with Kirkwood Presbyterian Church. In 2019 Zion’s House of Blessings opened in partnership with Zion Baptist Church. Families staying at these stand-alone housing units have jobs and receive case management support while they seek permanent housing. FPCC also has a Food Box Program and then finally the Graduate Resources and Continuing Education Program (G.R.A.C.E.) launched in 2017 for aftercare and provides additional assistance, mentoring, resources and support for families that have graduated from the Rotational Shelter Programs and Transitional Housing Programs.
One recent graduate family had this to say about their experience with FPCC:
“Our family has never been this blessed to be around the most kind-hearted and loyal bunch of people who did not even know us to help us to get our lives back on track for our children.” – 2023 Graduate Family
This family found themselves without a home like so many who were affected by the reduced hours and income caused by the pandemic. Shortly after they began the program, the father’s company closed its doors for good. FPCC assisted him in a job search, got them into a transitional housing program and worked with them on acquiring the skills they needed to navigate their accumulated debt. An FPCC volunteer even donated a vehicle to the family to help them avoid a troublesome car payment.
Last year there were 1,944 shelter nights provided through this organization. That’s just a part of the amazing story of Family Promise of Cobb County. Recently they became a fundholder at Cobb Community Foundation. As always, we work to connect donors who care with causes that matter, like homelessness. But we also help nonprofits tell their story and we connect them with other nonprofits in their space to bring more resources to the table. This is a valuable resource to nonprofit teams.
If you would like to give financial support the work that Family Promise of Cobb County is doing, you may donate here.
