Shelter
Our shelter program and warm hospitality is the foundation of Family Promise of Albuquerque .
Across this country, communities offer hospitality to families through Family Promise Affiliates. The innovative model — using existing space like congregations and volunteers motivated by compassion —has helped hundreds of thousands of children and adults in our national network of 200+ Affiliates. Working with community resources, Family Promise Affiliates provide comprehensive and targeted services, including extensive case management. Furthermore, Family Promise Affiliates serve families of all compositions, often providing their only shelter option in a community.
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And it works.
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Family Promise of Albuquerque's shelter program provides families with a safe place to stay and three meals a day. While volunteers provide meals and other essential needs, Family Promise of Albuquerque staff provide families with life skills and employability skills classes, intensive case management, resource referrals, and a safe place to rediscover the strengths and skills that already reside within them. During their shelter stay staff assists families to build on those strengths and develop other skills in order to overcome the barriers that have prevented them from becoming employed, advancing their education, or becoming stably housed.
94 % of the people served in the shelter program secure housing within an average of ninety days. Because of the depth of services and community support, families stay housed, and Family Promise of Albuquerque provides both prevention and stabilization services to increase our impact.
HOW IT WORKS
The resources are already here. In the community, there are congregations with many congregants that can share their time and resources. There are 21 congregations of different faiths in the Albuquerque and Rio Rancho Communities that have volunteers who give their time, make meals, shop for essentials, and share hospitality. Family Promise of Albuquerque has over 700 volunteers from these congregations that help make our programs successful as they build a community of support around the families in our shelter program.
These volunteers are the core of the program. They share food, spend the night, play with children and lend their passion and expertise to help families get back on their feet. They prove that motivated people can solve family homelessness. And, in the process, they truly create “home” – and a community – for families who have no place left to turn.
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A COMMUNITY RESPONSE
Just like in every community with a Family Promise Affiliate, these core elements exist in Albuquerque. By bringing the community together on the issue of family homelessness, Family Promise of Albuquerque addresses a major social problem in a holistic, effective way. Once the community becomes engaged, people understand the root causes of family homelessness and take steps to address them. Family Promise of Albuquerque targets the issues of poverty and homelessness on a local level.
A LONG-TERM SOLUTION
Not only does our 94% success rate mean many more families stably housed, it is also a tremendous cost saving to the community as diversion from far more expensive interventions. Our approach of keeping families together, identifying their strengths, and partnering with the community for solutions means that families are at much lower risk of returning to homelessness.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Family Promise of Albuquerque changes lives. We served 79 parents and children last year in our shelter, giving them the ability to realize their true potential. We also change the lives of our 700 volunteers, giving them a meaningful outreach right in their own communities.