Family Promise
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| Formation | 1988 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Karen Olson |
| Type | Non-profit |
| Registration no. | 501(c)(3) |
| Headquarters | Summit, New Jersey |
| Location | |
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Key people
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Claas Ehlers (President) |
| Mission | "Our mission is to help homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response." |
| Website | familypromise |
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Formerly called
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Interfaith Hospitality Network |
Family Promise (formerly National Interfaith Hospitality Network) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States, founded by Karen Olson in 1988. Family Promise primarily serves families with children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, with the mission of "help[ing] homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response."
Family Promise organizes congregations, social service agencies and community members into volunteer coalitions called Affiliates that provide emergency shelter and wraparound services to homeless and at-risk families. The model of the core program emphasizes sustainability and relies on resources that are already available to the locales served. Though each Affiliate coordinates its own programming for transitional housing, case management, family mentoring, financial literacy classes and childcare, all receive staff training and program assistance from the national office.
The national office of the organization is located in Summit, New Jersey, from where national staff develops new Affiliates and provides technical assistance to existing Affiliates. Presently, Family Promise draws on the efforts of more than 180,000 active volunteers from both secular community organizations and a 6,000 congregation-strong interfaith coalition operating across more than 200 affiliates, in 42 U.S. states.
In 1982, Olson was on her way to a New York City business meeting for her work as a marketing executive for Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer), where Olson developed promotional campaigns for consumer products. On impulse, Olson stopped outside Grand Central Terminal to buy a sandwich for a homeless woman she had noticed previously. As Olson handed the woman the sandwich and made to walk away, the woman held onto her hand to initiate conversation. Olson realized that the homeless woman wanted more than just a sandwich, that she wanted human interaction. She learned the woman's name was Millie, was once married and had two children. Through the conversation, Olson learned how homelessness can cause profound feelings of diminished self-worth and disconnection from society. The encounter motivated Olson and her sons to begin handing out bagged lunches to homeless people in the city.
Olson soon learned that homelessness also impacted many persons in her own home community of Union County, New Jersey, and she was surprised by the large proportion of children in the homeless population. She decided to leave her marketing career and instead focus on helping families in need. Olson organized a conference of 200 people from the local religious and service communities, and brought their attention to the high incidence of homelessness among families in the county. Through subsequent meetings, the new group concluded that traditional shelters could not adequately address the challenges homeless families faced but that the community itself did have the services and resources necessary to move families from homelessness to sustainable independence.
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Wikipedia