Throughout history, varying cultures have celebrated in various ways the themes of renewal or re-birth. Typically these “New Year” celebrations contain a time to look back, reflect on the past year, and then look ahead to what a new cycle or year might bring. I thought it would be appropriate as Family Promise heads into its third year of operation, to do some reflecting and some dreaming. While I think it is hard to quantify the work Family Promise does in terms of numbers, the numbers are nonetheless intriguing. We have served over 56 children in 21 months of operation. We have placed 17 families in housing, 11 of those families in 2011. Of those 17 families, 16 are still currently housed. We have seen two individuals get their driver’s license while in our program, 4 have started or completed some type of schooling, and well over 80% of our adult guests have gotten employment while with us.
In 2011, our 14 Host Congregations have logged over 5,000 volunteer hours, and with our Support Congregations served over 1,000 meals. Typically, congregations average between 20-30 volunteers per rotation, which means over 500 unique individuals have supported our program through volunteering, providing meals, or helping at our Day Center.
But having watched Family Promise over this past year, I know those numbers don’t begin to tell the story of what we do. There are literally thousands of individuals who give financial support, prayer support, volunteer support, and what I like to call “roll up your sleeves” support. We have mechanics donating labor to help maintain guest vehicles, hair stylists donating haircuts, entire school systems collecting money and goods for our Day Center, property owners allowing guests to live at greatly reduced rent, anonymous donors who give furniture, appliances, clothing, and toys for our guests—the list is literally endless. My frustration is we have so many people giving so graciously, it is difficult just to keep up with properly thanking them for their gifts! So I take this moment to thank each and every one of you who have given of yourself, your resources, and your heart to make this program successful.
Unfortunately, for every family we have brought in, there have been countless families we have had to turn away. According to District 5, close to 200 children have been identified as homeless in District 5—these are only the school-age children, and national statistics suggest that nearly 1/3 of all homeless children are preschoolers. In addition, we currently receive no grant funding at all. We are working toward that end, but grant funding is difficult to secure as a new non-profit agency, and so we rely solely on the generosity of individuals, churches, and local businesses for our operating budget. This has, at times, forced us to turn away some guests desperately in need of shelter and hope.
As our guests transition from the program to independence, they are forced to make a choice between housing that is safe and housing that is affordable. These are not people “living off the system,” these are employed moms and dads who work full time but still do not make enough money to live. If you are a single mom who works full time at $8 per hour (minimum wage is only $7.25, so this is an above minimum wage job), you bring home roughly $1,000 per month after taxes. According to HUD, this means you should spend no more than $300 a month on housing (30% of net income). If you haven’t experienced our local rental market lately, $300 a month does not go far. Some of our former guests still come to our office each week and sit down with our Carol, or Case Manager and budget their paycheck—it is so painful to see how hard they are working and how little they have left at the end of the month.
So if I could dream for our future I would like to see even more individuals, congregations, and local businesses involved in our work. As more people see that our guest families are not the stereotypical “homeless people” portrayed on television or lampooned in campaign speeches, our community will begin to realize how great the need is around them, and how little it takes to make a lifelong difference in the lives of families.
I see congregations partnering to help maintain transitional houses that keep guests from having to choose between safe and affordable; I see established families stepping forward to mentor or help shepherd guest families as they graduate, helping them learn the ropes of the middle class; I see children in our network learning that people care about who they are, their hopes and their dreams; I see guests experiencing the hope that caring individuals can bring to a life.
Now that all the wrapping paper has made it to the trash can, the wrong-sized gifts have been returned, and the last New Year’s horn has been sounded, what next? What will you do this year? How will you make a difference? When you are gone, what will people say about you? Will they remember the gift you gave them for Christmas this year? Will they remember your stunning toast at New Years? Andy Dufresne said to his confidant Red in the motion picture The Shawshank Redemption: “I guess it comes down to a simple choice really, get busy living or get busy dying.” Interested in tasting the very marrow of life? Join us as we transform lives, give hope, and spread grace. Get busy living.
