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Family Promise is a nonprofit organization committed to helping low-income families achieve lasting independence.
The problem of poverty is complex. It won't yield to a simple solution or a quick fix. It requires an integrated approach that begins with meeting immediate needs but reaches much further to help people achieve independence and to alleviate the root causes of poverty.
Our strategy is to focus our efforts on five programs that work together in a holistic, integrated approach. Because the five programs support one another, each of them is far more effective than it could be alone.
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Our volunteers see beyond the abstractions and statistics of poverty. They come to know real people with real needs. They begin with the basics, providing shelter, meals, and support services to homeless families. But many of them go on to do much more, creating new programs and partnerships to solve local problems and meet local needs.
One of the Community Initiatives that we are proud of in Charlotte is the Furniture Ministry. We have been blessed with donations of furniture and housewares from Charlotte furniture stores and private citizens. When an item is donated, it goes into our warehouse. When one of our families moves into permanent housing, this family gets to go "shopping" in our warehouse for furnishings for their new home. Our Furniture Ministry truly helps make a HOME for our families. |
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Just Neighbors is an interactive poverty awareness program designed to help schools, organizations, and religious congregations understand poverty in the USA. This program helps users "walk in the shoes of the poor."
You'll be forced to answer the question: Could you live on $22,050 per year? That's the federal poverty level for a family of four!
You'll learn humbling facts like: A minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $15,080.00 before taxes.
Only by fully understanding poverty, can we make a difference.
To purchase this program for your school, organization, or congregation, please visit our Online Store
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What is family mentoring and how does it help?
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Low-income families face enormous stresses. The pressure can severely disrupt family life and lead to homelessness. Our Family Mentoring program is designed to help families overcome these stresses and to prevent homelessness. It serves as a model for replication by Family Promise IHNs. In the Family Mentoring program, economically vulnerable families are matched with trained volunteer mentors who work with them, one-on-one, over an extended period.
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Family Mentors help individual families define and meet goals to:
- develop life skills
- connect with community resources
- improve housing and employment situations
- nurture and support their children.
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Interfaith Hospitality Network |
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Is there a really a homelessness problem in Charlotte?
A mother loses her job, a father is kept from working by an injury, a family is forced from their home by fire or natural disaster. Healthcare costs soar, public transportation is underfunded, affordable housing is almost impossible to find. These are the reasons why families now make up 40 percent of the homeless population, and why one out of every four homeless people is a child.
What are Interfaith Hospitality Networks (IHN's)?
In response to this crisis, the Interfaith Hospitality Network brings the faith community together to help families regain their housing, their independence, and their dignity. IHN is a partnership of congregations within a community helping families who are facing homelessness. It offers an opportunity for volunteers of all faiths to reduce homelessness and transform lives.
Interfaith Hospitality Networks are currently operating in 39 states and the District of Columbia, in large cities, suburbs, and rural counties. 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.
Are IHN's successful?
Nationally, 80 percent of the families that IHNs serve go on to long-term housing. In 2008, Family Promise affiliates served more than 45,000 children and adults and involved more than 125,000 volunteers in 5,000 congregations.
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Our Work
