3/16/15
(Cleveland)- Family Promise of White County has scheduled its second Community Meeting for Thursday, March 19th to review with interested citizens, stakeholders, and supporters progress being made toward reopening the Day Center and resuming the hosting of homeless families. This meeting will be hosted by Faith Lutheran Church, on Highway 115 East, at 6:00 PM in its newly built fellowship hall – which was designed with the needs of Family Promise in mind.
By providing experienced advisors, Family Promise National continues to work closely with the FPWC board of directors and the local network of churches to re-establish the residential program for hosting homeless families. FPWC continues to focus on developing a plan to secure financial supporters.
Family Promise of White County spokesperson Bill Owen said, one very positive step was the FPWC Reverse Raffle held at Unicoi Lodge on March 12th, which generated more than $10,000 of much-needed funding. Owens said, over the next few months, the board and some newly formed committees will be working to establish not only a capital reserve fund but also sustainable income sources that will enable resumption of the housing program as soon as possible. More than a dozen local churches that house and feed the homeless families are also providing much appreciated funding and volunteer support.
The greatest need continues to be recruiting more volunteers who can staff committees to help with fund-raising, special events, and communications. Additional board members are also needed. Anyone with a heart-felt commitment for helping homeless children and their families and wanting to see Family Promise return better and stronger is encouraged to join in the community meeting to rally support and resources toward these goals.
Thursday’s meeting will focus on some of the upcoming steps needed to rebuild this program; additional meetings are planned in April and coming months. Owens said, we sincerely hope that many will attend and will encourage attendance from friends and others in their congregations. At this meeting we will update the status of the on-going plan and identify resources still necessary to resume serving families. The phone at FPWC remains active and inquiries are being responded to.
For more information, please contact Bill Owen (FPWC) at (407) 808-6414 or Tom Cioffi (Family Promise National) at (770) 985-7353.
