Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley

the hardest thing about being homeless is that you basically have to restructure your time things that you see other people doing a normal daily basis you can't do those things especially when you don't have a place to do those things in the meals and where you're gonna sleep and the clothing part and the bathing part and there's just so many things that you have to do that you just don't know how they're all gonna get done is you just need to know that you're gonna get through it the hardest thing about being homeless is not having a place to lay your head at night not not having a place for your children to to just me a couch to sit a table to feed them dinner at lunch or breakfast that was the hardest part about being homeless just in terms of the scope and the magnitude of homelessness we're really seeing a crisis in LA County we have coming up close to 60,000 homeless people now that's not all children but we do know in the state of California that there's about half a million children that at some point in their childhood have experienced homelessness so the actual mission of Family Promise is to help homeless families by assisting their families to regain employment and stable housing within a supportive volunteer-driven network that is the stated mission of our program our real focus is the fact that we believe that every child should have a home these are families that are in transition so they're people just like us who may be going through a little bit a loss of a job a financial situation a health situation that caused a financial hardship so we're just here to really help serve people that just need a little bit extra help we really have two kind of core areas that we focus on one is our congregational Network which is a group of conditions that provide some emergency shelter for our family so they families go and they stay with them basically for a week and so they stay overnight with them the families get dinner they get breakfast and they get a lunch that goes with them probably more important than the actual physical needs to the church provides them some emotional support that really helps see them through this difficult time in their life then the second component of our program is we have a day center in the city of Rosemead and the center provides primary the case management that's kind of focused on helping the families the parents really get employed and then also look for housing we serve the family as an intact unit whenever we can and we try to support them as an intact unit I think when you're homeless the scariest thing is for a mom to have to split up from the dad because you don't want to be a part you want to be together they take it in and that was amazing because a lot of people were trying to help it but they're trying to separate us too and Family Promise just opened their arms most people on a normal basis on a daily basis are not working face-to-face serving homeless people when we have given our church members an opportunity to see these people as families as moms and dads who love their kids who are trying their hardest to get on their feet so they can support their families it really humanizes the homeless issue and it takes it from being an issue to this is something that people deal with people that God loves this was a place where we could all serve as a family and our children played a very important role they weren't just people helping out they were integral volunteers where they would be playing with the other children you just bring dinner we all have to eat dinner anyway and it's a time for the children to meet people and to play with them and we can talk with people that you know if they want to talk we are there to listen the dreams for me and my family include the normal things advancing forward in our homes I mean stay in our apartment while we can and eventually buy a home for us to continue climbing forward and both of our jobs for me to finish school scarlet to start school soon I work for Family Promise now I Drive my job is to pick up the families every morning and take them to the Resource Center before we became homeless I was trying to get into nursing school I want to finish that and for my kids I just want them to go to school and to to get their careers we're survivors and I want my children to be survivors and to be successful in life we're in ministry and it would've never happened if we wouldn't have been in this situation but sometimes God allows certain things to happen so we see our future a lot clearer now and we're ready to go we're ready to do it the homelessness is an issue that has risen to the forefront right now in our community because it has reached such a severe crisis point we can take our resources as individuals and join and link with other individuals and other members of our community and other parts of our community to really serve these families we will begin to make a dent as best we can if it hadn't been for Family Promise I really don't know where I'd be I mean obviously I'd like to say oh I would have figured it out for myself but to be perfectly honest I don't know how I would have figured it out with myself we've met up a lot of wonderful people you know the family promise that you know again helped us and like my wife said a minute to minister to us we've been able able to maintain you know family structure you don't just focus on what we need to do and then go forward knowing that God is in control of everything Helen God is in control of everything there's nothing you can't do in this world I'm Jessica pronounced and I'm Joel Pernell we are family promise we are family promise we are family promise we are family promise we are family promise we are family promise [Music]

Channel: Family Promise San Gabriel Valley

Views: 1,219

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Family Promise, San Gabriel Valley, homelessness, homeless families, homeless children

Id: KSEHXPnaMc0

Length: 6min 15sec (375 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2016