Executive Director Melissa Landrum
Welcome to Family Promise of St. Tammany Parish, our third Affiliate in the Louisiana, located across the causeway from New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. St. Tammany Parish has 233,000 residents and is one of the fastest growing parishes in the state.
Efforts began as the parish explored ways to deal with family homelessness. With more than 1,200 children identified without a permanent address in the parish and no shelters for children, there is no disputing the need. Several local nonprofit leaders started meeting and eventually identified Family Promise as a possible part of a solution.
Stocked and ready to open!
The community meeting was held at Christ the King Church, in Mandeville. The Affiliate opens its doors with 18 hosts, a full years funding (including a CDBG from the parish) and a commitment for a Day Center provided by the parish. Temporarily, they are in a house owned by an Episcopal Church in Slidell (where Lucinda Williams, who lived in the parish for a while, went to find her joy).
Tom Cioffi helped the group in formation, and Kathy Fisher and Jeanna Beck provided the final trainings to get them ready to open. The director is Melissa Landrum, a native who has worked in non-profits in Georgia and Florida before returning home. The first host church was St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Slidell.
