Family Promise of Linn County – planning started 2009, exec director Becky Knudson expects to begin operation this weekend or next week….

Referrals from Waypoint, HACAP, shelters, schools, 211, etc;

Members of about a dozen local host congregations provide meals and other needs. Hosting rotates among Host Congregations, four to six times a year, for one week, providing lodging for three to five families from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

Volunteers are the heart of the Network; without them, it cannot exist. Volunteers provide a variety of services: cooking and serving meals, playing with children or helping them with homework, and staying overnight. Beyond providing lodging and meals, volunteers interact with the guests, treating them with respect and responding with compassion.

Program’s day center provides guests with a mailing address and a home base from which to conduct their housing and employment searches. It operates from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for guests to shower and care for pre-school children.

BK: “This (day center) may be an empty place many days, because we hope they’ll be working..we’re trying to make this place, because our hope is they’ll be working…we’re trying to make this as home-like as we can..”

Last July 25, Linn Co’s twice-yearly point-in-time survey counted 87 children among 362 people in shelters, temporary housing, etc. (Survey doesn’t specifically count families)….that’s fairly stable over past 5 years.