The Family Promise Club in front of the national office. New Jersey Attorney General Chris Porrino (center) raised the celebrity quotient.
Family Promise Week kicked off on October 16 in Summit, New Jersey, with Pursue the Promise, an innovative event to raise awareness and funds for the national leader addressing family homelessness. Organized by the Family Promise Club at Summit High School and students from Governor Livingston, Oratory Prep, Westfield High School, and student volunteers for Allied Health, the event brought together more than 60 students and offered local teens a glimpse into family homelessness and ways to get involved.
Let the games begin!
Students recruited teams and organized their own challenges for an Amazing Race-style event that included educational components about family homelessness. The challenges were run at host sites around Summit where guest families are provided emergency shelter through the Family Promise program.
Pursue the Promise also served as the launch event for Share the Promise, a semester-long student giving campaign aimed to raise $15,000 for Family Promise’s work. Student musicians from Summit High School will perform at the organization’s upcoming fundraiser, Fall Fling on November 4. Students will take part in a social media campaign for Giving Tuesday on November 29 and organize an item drive, “Wall of Wishes” for families leading into the holidays.
The fourth annual Family Promise Week is an opportunity for more than 200 Affiliates nationwide to celebrate their successes, recognize the work of their volunteers and, perhaps most important, raise awareness of the crisis of family homelessness in their communities. Affiliates hold fundraising events, open their facilities to the public, recognize the contributions of their congregations, and reach out to local officials and media to promote their work.
