Family Promise program in works

By Joel Davis
of The Daily Times Staff

Eight of the 13 churches needed to get a Family Promise program up and running in Blount County have signed on, but more help is needed.

That’s part of the news that will be discussed during an informational meeting about the effort to be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Sycamore Tree United Methodist Church, 1830 Clydesdale St., Maryville.

The program would allow local churches to network together to provide overnight accommodations and meals for homeless families on a rotating basis. There is a shelter in Blount County that serves men and women separately, but there is no place that takes families as a whole.

“We’re up to eight host congregations already, which is amazing,” said Robert Sliker, one of the volunteers involved in the program. “We’ll have five more we need to get.”
The effort began on Oct. 1 with an informational meeting that drew representatives from 16 area churches.

It would take about $100,000 and about a year to set up the Family Promise program in Blount County. 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.

Volunteers are preparing to file for tax-exempt status for the organization to allow fundraising to begin. The group is also looking at a potential site for a day center, Sliker said.

“The land behind the Kmart, where the children’s home used to be, is a prospective spot somebody might donate to us,” he said.

Sliker is also involved in arranging field trips to Knoxville to look at the facilities of the Knox County Family Promise program.