Family Promise is a program hosted by religious congregations in Sacramento for families experiencing crisis homelessness. A host church or congregation agrees to provide housing and meals for up to four families at their church for a week. The Family Promise organization then provides transportation to schools and work or training for work. It also provides other services to assist the family. A family stays in the program moving from church to church for enough time to get back on their feet and save enough money to enable it to move back into housing. St. Ignatius would like to be a support parish to the congregations that are actually providing housing. This would mean that a group of volunteers from St. Ignatius would bring a meal to the facilities housing the families. Volunteers would prepare a designated portion of a dinner and bring it and share it with the families. They would have an opportunity to meet and get to know the families as well as some of the volunteers from the host congregation. If you are willing to volunteer, you can anticipate being asked to assist in this way around once every couple of months. St. Ignatius is expecting to assist the Unitarian Universalist Society and Fremont Presbyterian Church. The only requirement is a generous heart and the willingness to prepare and share a meal. Family Promise, although not large, has been successful in saving families from long-term homelessness. You can find out more details about Family Promise at http://sacfamilypromise.org. If you are interested in helping with this ministry please contact Patty or Joe Symkowick at psymkowick@hotmail.com or
jrsymkowick@gmail.com.