FAMILY PROMISE OF BERGEN COUNTY A NEW JERSEY NONPROFIT CORPORATION
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Mission Statement
The mission of Family Promise of Bergen County is to provide hospitality to working homeless families, primarily female head of household (95%), and keep them together in times of crisis, shepherding them through temporary periods of homelessness by helping them create an achievable vision of and develop a strong foundation for self-sufficiency.
About This Cause
Founded in 1986 as the Interreligious Fellowship for the Homeless of Bergen County, Family Promise of Bergen County (hereafter FPBC) has provided shelter and sustenance for thousands of homeless individuals and families that have at least one working parent. We are the only organization in Bergen County that serves the latter population. Since then, we have adapted to the changing needs of homeless families and individuals, creating programs and initiatives including the New Leaf Transitional Housing Program (New Leaf), a mandatory savings plan, financial literacy workshops, Break the Cycle Scholarships, Camp Lots-of-Fun, and an After School Program (the latter two specifically directed at keeping children safe, secure, happy and occupied while their mothers are at work). In the agency’s latest fiscal year, FPBC—through the Family Promise Network and New Leaf programs—provided 8,920 bed nights to working homeless families. It is the vision of more promising futures for our families on which we are concentrating our efforts and directing significant human and financial resources moving forward. FPBC also mobilizes the services of thousands of volunteers through various religious congregations, as well as civic and social groups, to cook, deliver and serve a nutritious dinner for up to 150 of our homeless and/or hungry neighbors at the Bergen County Housing, Health and Human Services Center, 365 days a year (no exceptions). Last year, 212,000 meals were served, valued at $1 million. This program is supported by a small subsidy from the County of Bergen to help offset a small portion of the salary of FPBC's Director of Volunteers who coordinates the program as part of her duties and responsibilities. After sheltering families for over 25 years, we know that housing and food security are vital for families but are simply not enough! Job training and development are the critical pieces that need to be put into place to ensure that our working parents free themselves from the shackles of low paying, often minimum wage jobs and launch themselves on a path that will lead the way to building true economic security for their families. In doing so, they break the cycle of poverty, elevating themselves and becoming role models for their children and the generations to follow. We are actively seeking funding from Foundations, corporations and individuals to build a model program, called The Way Home Initiative, that will help parents (95% of whom are women) in our sheltering programs complete job/career training programs, secure well-paying jobs as a result and successfully return to independent living. We anticipate that this will be an ongoing, replicable model that can be adopted/adapted by other Family Promise affiliates as well as other organizations across the country that serve working homeless families.