Family Promise Of Orange County Inc

In 1982, Karen Olson was a marketing executive who developed promotional campaigns for consumer products. One morning, on her way to a meeting, she saw a homeless woman, someone she'd seen over and over again on her way to work. She decided to buy a sandwich for the woman. The stranger accepted the sandwich but asked for something else - a moment to be heard, to be comforted, and to be considered as more than a mere statistic on a cold street corner. Karen was intrigued, and began to educate herself on homelessness. What she found horrified her. She learned that there were hundreds of homeless people, including families, in her home community of Union County, New Jersey. She turned to the religious community for help. Within ten months, eleven area congregations came forward to provide hospitality space within their buildings. The first Family Promise affiliate was born. Today Family Promise is the only national nonprofit dedicated solely to providing a comprehensive approach to help homeless and low-income families achieve financial independence. Today there are over 200 independent affiliates in 44 states, with over 30 in development. Each year Family Promise assists over 5,000 families, with one goal - return vulnerable members of our community to stable housing. The core of each affiliate is a network of congregations that come together to offer support, meals, shelter and hospitality. Each congregation agrees to allow up to four families to spend their evenings at the congregation itself, four weeks out of the year. During the days, guests of the program receive the benefits of wraparound case-management, including job skills and resume training, credit counseling, and individual and family therapy. This intensive support allows families to quickly transition to permanent housing. Family Promise of Orange County welcomed its first family on Super Bowl Sunday of 2012. Since our launch we have consistently been a top ranking affiliate, both in terms of client success rate and organizational growth. We are committed to providing the best care and individualized assistance to every family that comes through our doors, and to ensuring that all families return to stable housing within two months of entering our program. We also continue to offer supportive services to every family that graduates to safeguard that families do not return to homelessness in the future.