Our Programs
Collaborative & Innovative
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.
Stabilization
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.
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. Our Day Center provides families with a safe place when not at work or school, case management, showers, and laundry facilities. There are multiple options for transportation to get families from the host shelters to the Day Center, children to school and parents to work. With volunteers giving their time, making meals, and sharing hospitality, family homelessness is addressed without the creation of expensive shelters. 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, spend the night, 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.