Emergency Housing Solutions Based on Our Holistic Approach to Meet Every Family’s Needs
Family Promise uses a variety of shelter models to ensure that each family that needs us has a place where they can feel safe and supported until they find permanent housing.
Rotational Shelter
Rotational shelter is Family Promise’s original shelter model. The rotational shelter model engages a network of community partners, often faith communities, to house families with children in different locations on a rotational basis. This innovative model— mobilizing volunteers to help house families in community space—has helped over one million children and adults in our national network of 200+ Affiliates.
Our core shelter model began as a grassroots, interfaith effort that grew into 6,000 congregations and other organizations hosting families at a third of the traditional shelter cost.
Static Shelter
In static shelter, families stay overnight at the same location throughout their participation in the Family Promise program. It is a fixed site for families to stay and for volunteers to provide hospitality.
Hybrid Static and Rotational Shelter
This approach combines both static and rotational shelter. Families may spend part of their time in the shelter program at a designated shelter site and part of their time at community locations.
Temporary Apartments
Some Family Promise Affiliates work with landlords to rent apartments that can be used to house families in need of shelter services. This solution works well when a family needs to be housed away from others. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Family Promise Union County used temporary emergency shelter apartments to provide shelter to families in a way that allowed them to quarantine and maintain social distancing, while receiving support from Family Promise staff and volunteers through contactless supply deliveries and virtual case management.
Motel Stays
Motel stays also provide a short term and private solution when a family needs shelter.
Family Promise Day Centers
During the day, families work with professional Family Promise staff to find housing and work on related goals such as employment, transportation, education, and childcare. In the rotational model, the day center serves as the base for families, offering a mailing address and providing laundry facilities, computers, playrooms, showers, and storage space for their belongings. In the static site, the day center serves all these functions and usually provides the overnight accommodations.
Volunteers
Volunteers are at the core of the Family Promise model and provide a wide range of services such as cooking and serving meals, playing with children, interacting with guests with respect and compassion, and providing overnight security. Volunteers may also serve on committees, provide skill-based support to guests, and help with administrative tasks. For both rotational and static sites, there are volunteer coordinators who ensure that each week engages an average of 35-50 volunteer opportunities.
Because our shelter solutions leverage community resources, our model is extremely cost effective and efficient. We provide targeted services, including extensive case management, at 1/3 the cost of traditional shelter.
Affiliates
Family Promise Affiliates serve families of all compositions, often providing their only shelter option in a community. Through all we do, we endeavor to keep families together and safe in a trauma-informed environment.
On average, 78 percent of the families in our shelter program exit to stable housing. Because of the depth of services and community support, families stay housed, and Affiliates provide both prevention and stabilization services to increase their impact.