Family Promise of Carbon County – Mission statement
The Mission of Family Promise of Carbon County is to provide temporary shelter, meals, and fellowship in order to meet the basic needs of families without permanent housing in Carbon County. Families will be educated, encouraged, and empowered to become self-sufficient by support from the Faith Community and other local community resources.

Volunteers are essential to our success and provide a wide range of service like cooking and serving meals, playing with children or helping them with homework, interacting with guests with respect and compassion, and providing overnight security. The network depends on its success through its volunteers.
Funds are raised locally from individuals, congregations, foundations, and corporations, through donations, grants and fundraising. Religious judicatories (regional denominational offices, such as the Presbytery, Methodist Conference, and Episcopal Diocese) often provide seed money, as well as ongoing funds, Local foundations within your county or state may also provide seed money.

An Interfaith Hospitality Network has advantages over more traditional shelters:

	It can develop quickly
	Is cost –effective because it utilizes existing community resources
	Doesn’t institutionalize shelter as a solution to homelessness
	Over 70% of the guest families find permanent housing, often with volunteer’s help
	For congregations the Network is a vital outreach ministry within the walls of the members’ own church or synagogue
	A Network is a catalyst for other community initiatives: creation of new programs in areas such as parenting and mentoring, transitional housing, and housing renovation

According to Family Promise, more than half of the homeless are women and children, and families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. Carbon County has no homeless shelters, and there is a long waiting list for subsidized housing. Reported on Wednesday, September 9, 2009
By CHRIS PARKER cparker@tnonline.com

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