Since 2020, Family Promise of Southwest New Jersey has been awarded $143,000 in Impact100 South Jersey grants. The mission of Family Promise, which is located in Gloucester County, is to provide homeless families an opportunity to achieve stability by providing shelter, food, case management, and hospitality while simultaneously using resources within local congregations and the community.
In 2020, Family Promise was a finalist, and in 2021, they were awarded our $100,000 Core Mission grant. The goal of the project for which they received the Core Mission Grant focuses on Family Promise’s shelter reduction plan, which aims to reduce the number of home-insecure families with whom they work from entering shelters, and instead help them work to stabilize their existing housing situation. One of the main ways our grant does that is through the disbursement of small amounts of financial assistance.
In the last year, Family Promise has disbursed over $18,000 of the Impact100 SJ grant award for direct financial assistance to 18 families. The money has been used for security deposits, to pay back rents and utility payments, and for auto repairs that allow the families to work. Car repairs may seem like a small thing, but many families can’t afford to pay for simple repairs, and that can be the difference between working and becoming unemployed.
In addition to our grant-funded project, the other big news from Family Promise is that they are adding a new transitional house to their Pathway Home Program, which partners with organizations that own vacant homes to provide transitional housing for low to mid income working families that are experiencing housing insecurity. The Bethesda United Methodist Church in Swedesboro is allowing Family Promise the use of a house on their property that has been vacant for two years.
We are so happy that our funding has helped Family Promise lift up many local families while allowing them to stay in their homes. We are also excited for all the headway that Family Promise continues to make in providing housing and resources to the home insecure in our region.