Our friends and neighbors work with us to serve homeless families through Family Promise Metrowest.

Family Promise Metrowest Mission:

to transform the lives of families with children who are homeless by mobilizing a diverse community to provide shelter, education, and comprehensive support. http://www.familypromisemetrowest.org/index.html

The Family Promise model was founded in New Jersey in 1988 by Karen Olson. We use a simple approach of mobilizing existing community resources to serve families who are without a home. Host congregations furnish safe, overnight lodging and meals one week at a time, three to four times a year. Families are provided intensive professional support to regain their sustainability at a Day Center. Since its inception, Family Promise has served 850,000 family members across the United States and includes over 6,000 congregations in over 200 affiliates.

Family Promise Metrowest opened our doors to welcome our first guests in October 2008 with 21 member congregations: 13 host and 8 support congregations. Today, our Shelter Program includes 50 congregations from 12 towns; 70 business and community partners; 3,000 volunteers from faith houses, schools, colleges, civic organizations, businesses, and the community at large.

This remarkable support has enabled us to grow our programming to more effectively serve our families. In 2013, Family Promise Metrowest began a Transitional Living Program to address the needs of families after they left shelter. We offer subsidies and case management for an additional 1-2 years to increase their long- term sustainability and success.

In 2015, we launched Steps to Success, a comprehensive employment initiative assisting families to reach their highest earning potential. Intensive case management is provided along with subsidies for education, training, day care, and transportation, often barriers in pursuing career objectives.

Our newest program LIFE (Local Initiative for Family Empowerment) is a homelessness prevention program. LIFE supports families who are at risk of eviction but not yet homeless by supplying subsidies to pay rent in arrears, advocating with the landlord to prevent eviction, and providing intensive case management.

After a thoughtful needs-assessment process and careful search, in 2017 we purchased and renovated a building that addresses our need for additional space, privacy, and room for future expansion. Our new Day Center, located at 6 Mulligan Street in Natick, has enabled us to provide privacy and dignity for our families, comfortable office space for our staff, and most importantly, room to grow our programming. We are proud of our past, excited for the present and enthusiastic about a future where we can continue meeting the needs of local families.