Programs and Services
We recognize that family homelessness and poverty are complex issues that require comprehensive, innovative solutions. Solving homelessness is not just about housing. Our holistic approach to the crisis of family homelessness includes four key areas of focus: prevention, shelter, stabilization, and additional community services.
To view program eligibility requirements and frequently asked questions, click here.
Prevention
With more than 40% of Americans a $400 expense away from financial distress, the threat of crisis looms closely for too many families and has become generational. Preventing families from spiraling into homelessness is an essential part of the Family Promise mission.
Proactive Solutions
Family Promise of the South Bay offers a variety of strategies to ensure the people we serve do not fall into the cycle of housing instability that can devastate families and alter the course of children’s lives. These include providing rental assistance and landlord mediation, and community-based approaches that keep families housed.
Diversion/
Prevention
Landlord mediation, utility assistance, and life-coaching help keep families in their homes.
Rental
Assistance
Pending funding via grants and donors, we offer rental assistance on a limited basis
Community Engagment
Building awareness, providing training and creating connections allow everyone to thrive.
Shelter
The resources are already here. In the community, there are congregations and organizations that can provide space in their buildings to serve as temporary homes. Through longtime partnerships, we've identified spaces to serve as shelter. Families stay in their own room and have access to all necessities including laundry, kitchen, showers and outdoor play areas for children. With volunteers giving their time, making meals, and sharing hospitality, family homelessness is addressed with a community-based approach. Across the country, people have realized that this innovative approach truly makes a difference for families experiencing homelessness. Within the South Bay, we utilize more than 1,000 volunteers to continue to make that difference.
These volunteers are the core of the program. They share food, play with children and lend their passion and expertise to help families get back on their feet. When motivated people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences all agree that families need to stay together and, in the process, they truly create “home” and a community for families who have no place left to turn.
Children & Youth Program
Our "CYP" program provides mentorship, multiple resources, and activities designed for all children in our program.
Life-Skills Training
All of our guests have access to life-skills classes including financial literacy, vocational training, parenting, and rental readiness to give them the tools to succeed.
Case Management
Our families are engaged in case management on a regular basis. This holistic approach assesses their needs and provides access to resources necessary for our guests to move forward.
Stabilization & Additional Community Services
Homelessness has many causes and housing stability involves many solutions - workforce development, partners in housing, financial capability, and health and wellness. Family Promise of the South Bay has developed programs that address every aspect of stabilization. Some get to the heart of core needs, such as childcare and job training, families face in order to regain self-sufficiency. Other initiatives find ways to match the strengths of local volunteers and the interests of local corporations with the needs of our guests, like financial literacy and mentoring. Probably no community initiative is more vital than the housing programs we run.
But our goal is not simply getting families into housing; it is keeping them in housing. The key to this is identifying needs specific to the local community and tapping into the diverse resources our volunteer pool and partnerships provide. The result is families no longer at risk of homelessness.
Family Advocacy
We provide after-care services to all of our families up to two years post-graduation to ensure they are in a stable and sustainable situation.
Community Connection
Through our extensive volunteer network, we introduce our guests to long-term and lasting relationships that will remain far beyond our program.
Peer-to-Peer Friendship
It is our hope that our families will return after graduation and engage our current families with their stories of success to encourage and educate.