History of National Program
Family Promise began with a businesswoman who regularly encountered homeless people on her way to New York City. Karen Olson, now President of Family Promise, came to know many of the city's homeless people after she and her two sons began to bring food to them weekly. With knowledge came understanding of the profound loss and disconnection that homelessness causes.
Olson learned that in her home community of Union County, NJ, there were hundreds of homeless people, including families. She looked to the religious community for help, convinced that there were many who shared her concern and that together they could do what they couldn't do alone.
Within ten months, 11 area congregations came forward to provide hospitality space within their buildings. The local YMCA agreed to provide showers and a day center for families. A car dealer discounted a van. On October 27, 1986, the first Interfaith Hospitality Network opened its doors.
As word spread, ten more congregations formed a second Network. Programs such as transitional housing, childcare, and family mentoring followed-outgrowths of increased awareness and involvement.
The success of the Networks led other congregations to seek help in developing similar programs. By 1989, National Interfaith Hospitality Network, (now Family Promise) was formed to bring the program to other areas where neighbors could work together to help homeless families.To date, Family Promise has established 114 affiliates in 37 states, using the services of more than 100,000 volunteers and 4,000 congregations. The IHNs provide shelter, meals, and housing and job placement support to more than 17,000 homeless family members annually, 58 percent of them children.
What is the LAKESHORE INTERFAITH HOSPITALITY NETWORK OF MANITOWOC COUNTY, (LIHN), and how can I help?
Homelessness can seem like an overwhelming problem, especially in Manitowoc County, where we have no shelter, and where the Sheriff's Department had 73 evictions and 122 foreclosures to perform in 2004. Many people wonder what one person or one congregation can do to truly make a difference.
The Interfaith Hospitality Network of Manitowoc County, (LIHN), provides a way for congregations to work together to help homeless families. Each host congregation participating in the Network provides overnight lodging in some church or school space, and meals for three to five families (up to fourteen people) for one week each two or three months on a rotating basis. Homeless families, or guests, stay at the church site from approximately 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily. Each morning, guests are taken by a LIHN van to a Day Center facility where they meet with the Network Director/Social Worker, care for their own children, look for housing and employment, or go out to school or work.
LIHN enables congregations to meet the most important basic needs of homeless families, who represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. LIHN is affiliated with and modeled after a highly successful program that started 18 years ago in New Jersey, and now serves the homeless in over 100 cities in the U.S. In most networks, more than half the guests in the program are children, and most children are less than five years old. Nationally, more than 2,000 congregations participate in Interfaith Hospitality Networks, with many thousands of volunteers helping families achieve and sustain independence.