Family Promise

Family Promise, an interfaith non-profit aiming to support homeless families is another partner of ours. I met with the Executive Director, Joyce Shoudy to learn more about Family Promise and the community they serve.

Joyce was in a meeting when I arrived, so I took a seat in the living room. As I was watching TV, I heard one of the children come in from school. He and his mom were going  through his backpack, only to find out that he’d left his lunchbox at school. When his mother asked him what he’d do the next day without a lunchbox, he wittily replied that he’d just use her purse. Within the first few moments of my encounter with Family Promise, I was able to get a glimpse of the families. And that was enough to warrant my continued interest in our affiliation with them.

As Joyce and I sat down, I explained to her that though I didn’t know much about Family Promise; however, I did know that it is different than most homeless shelters. Joyce told me that Family Promise takes in  four families or up to fourteen people. The families move each week to a different host church, where they have a meal and shelter.  There are twelve host churches and thirty support churches, the latter of which provide volunteers, meals and laundry services for the families. The Day Center, which is where I met with Joyce, provides the families with a place to use the computer, receive mail and use the telephone, along with case management, support and follow up. According to Joyce, the relationships that are formed between the volunteers, staff and families are the key component to Family Promises’ success.

I talked with Joyce about the health of the families that she works with. Currently, the health issues are being addressed by a nutrition class provided by the UT extension office. This class is taught once a week and may potentially be supported in the future by our produce.

Our meeting ended on a hopeful note with the plan to collaborate together to teach more people in Knoxville about gardening and healthy diets. I was happy to learn more about Family Promise and will gladly spread the word about the good work that they do. Check out their website : http://www.familypromiseknoxville.org/ and see how you can be involved.

Leave Your Comment