If you haven’t heard the latest, we have a lot of need in our community.
McKinney Vento, the program established to provide services to homeless students, served 2200 students in the Wichita School District at one point this year. (Read more about their program here.)
Families arrive at a homeless crisis for all kinds of reasons — job loss, eviction, family breakup, health crisis, loss of transportation, and more.
Children experiencing homelessness can have difficulty in multiple areas of life:
- They get sick 4 times as often as other kids.
- They are 4 times more likely to show delayed development.
- They graduate at a lower rate than their peers.
- They are 34 times more likely to end up in foster care.
- 30% of children in foster care could return to their parents if their parents had access to housing.
These statistics are heartbreaking. And beyond statistics, they are the stories of families we meet every day. We started Family Promise to care for these children and their families. Seeing this need, we began our program in 2016 to work with families in a homeless crisis, walking together on a path to a sustainable life.
We have been able to help many families with urgent needs and with our Rotation Program (hosted in faith congregations) designed to get them back on their feet. In 2017, we helped a total of 12 families go from homeless to housed.
The need continues. So next we work to expand this effort — by doubling our capacity to serve more families. This involves doubling our number of committed Host Congregations, creating new space in a Day Center, raising additional funding, and several teams established to work through the process.
As we expand, our need for community support is greater than ever. YOU make the difference! This is our program to work on together. We need Host and Support Congregations, volunteers, donors, connectors, community partners, and a wide variety of skill sets. Can you join this venture or know someone who can? Call or email us! director@familypromisewichita.org or 316-977-7026.
Katy Penner is our Interim Director and Board PR Chair.
Family Promise of Greater Wichita unites hearts and hands to provide compassionate hospitality and empower homeless families with children to achieve sustainable independence. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible.
