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Article published Dec 26, 2008 Family Promise progress: Church plans day center for homeless as project gathers steam
By Joel Davis of The Daily Times Staff 1633 Louisville Road, Alcoa, Tennessee 37701 It is 2009, but there's still no room at the inn.
Fifteen months after the faithful of 16 area churches drew together to discuss how to help the forgotten homeless of Blount County, a local Family Promise program remains just that — a promise. But, but there is still hope.
The Blount County Family Promise program is meant as a "hand up, not a hand out" that serves families undergoing financial crises, according to Susan Hughes, who heads up the volunteer effort.
"They could be your neighbor one day and out on the street the next," Hughes said.
According to the Blount County Family Promise Web site, throughout the average school year there will be children in local schools who have a housing crisis of some sort — anything from having to sleep in a car to living in a small home with another family. In Tennessee there are nearly 10,000 homeless children in any given year, and the number is rising.
"It's a lot higher than we know," Hughes said. "We have people all the time saying 'there is a homeless (student) in my daughter's classroom.'"
Establishing a Family Promise program would allow local churches to network together to provide overnight accommodations and meals for homeless families on a rotating basis.
"Churches are generally empty at night," said Ann Drake, one of the volunteers. "You've got all these needs and all this space. You just try to bring them together."
During the day, however, families need a place to stay while they look for housing and work. So to make the program work, volunteers had to find a location to serve as a day center to provide a stable telephone number, mailing address and a base of operations for participants.Church steps up
The search has been long as the volunteers investigated several possibilities that, ultimately, all fell through. Now, the search is over. Enter Green Meadow United Methodist Church, 1633 Louisville Road in Alcoa. The church community has agreed to make $17,000 in modification to the facility, including the installation of separate showers, to serve as a day center.
"It just fits for us," said Glenda Eastridge, a member of the church community and a Family Promise volunteer. "There were no nay-sayers."
Drake, who chairs the Family Promise Day Center Committee, praised the church's decision.
"It's been a challenge," she said. "This was such a perfect fit. Everything seemed to fall in place."
The Green Meadow community is small. About 25 people attend services on average, but the church council still voted to allow the use of the facility.
"The only thing we had to give already belonged to God -- the facility," said Frank "Buzz" Trexler, the pastor of Green Meadow, adding that, as happy as he was that Green Meadow would serve the day center, he wished the program was already in place.
"It is a shame ... that this is not up and running because the need is already here," he said.
The Maryville District of Holston Conference United Methodist Church Committee is giving a $4,250 grant through Green Meadow United Methodist Church to help fund the infrastructure changes necessary for the day center. The Green Meadow community also raised a little more than $700 through its annual Christmas Benefit Dinner and Auction.
As modeled after the national Family Promise organization, guests of the program will use the day center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., where the program director, a professional social worker, provides case management services. There, guests can pursue employment, tend pre-school children, shower and do laundry.
Volunteers had originally hoped that the Family Promise program would be in operation by August 2008, but challenges remain.
"We hope to be up-and-running by summer 2009," Hughes said. "The biggest sadness is we're ready to open right now. With the cold and the economy, the need is great. We have enough buildings available."More money needed
What the group doesn't have is enough money in the bank. It needs at least $50,000 to $60,000 available before starting operations.
"We want to make sure we're sustainable," Hughes said. "We don't want to have to close the doors in six months."
The churches that have agreed to participate so far are Maryville First United Methodist, Friendsville First Baptist, Sycamore Tree United Methodist, Fairview United Methodist, Carpenter's Campground United Methodist, First Baptist Church of Maryville, St. Andrew's Episcopal and Monte Viste Baptist Church.
"We could open the doors with eight churches," Hughes said.
The magic number, however, is 13. The group is trying to convince other churches to join the effort.
"To me, the biggest challenge is getting churches to commit to be host churches," Hughes said. "The fire codes are holding back a lot of churches."
If 13 churches participated, each church would host from three to five families for a week each quarter. Budgets for each church would be between $200 and $250 each week.
Co-pastor Brenda Carroll of the Maryville First United Methodist Church said Family Promise is the kind of ministry that her congregation especially enjoys.
"It's a much more hands-on kind of ministry," Carroll said. "... It doesn't solve the problem, but it is a piece of the pie that will eventually solve the problem."
Ideally, the families are in the program for no more than three months. The families are required to seek employment and housing. Not working toward independence means termination from the program. Families are referred to Family Promise through the school systems, social services and various non-profit organizations.
There is a shelter in Blount County that serves men and women separately, but there is no place that takes families as a whole. Family Promise would allow families to stay together.
The volunteers are working hard to get the program running, especially now because of the economic problems.
"In October 2007, the economy was pretty darn good," Hughes said. "Someone must have had a crystal ball to say 'we need this in '08 or '09'. The seeds were planted."