Family Promise® of Northern New Castle County is an independent nonprofit organization that was envisioned, created, and led by a partnership between St. Philip's Lutheran Church and several other churches in New Castle County. Family Promise of Northern New Castle County helps homeless families with children move toward lasting independence by providing a safe place to eat and sleep, intensive case management, life skills training, support, and encouragement. We do this through the network of participating congregations that host these families directly in their houses of worship, staffed by caring volunteers who have put their faith into action.
Every quarter, St. Philip's hosts homeless children and families in our church. We provide them with shelter, fellowship, meals, and transportation. Because taking care of guests takes a lot of work, our members are exclusively responsible for all kinds of hosting jobs during the weeks we are hosting our families.
Those jobs include:
Cleaning the "bedroom areas" prior arrival and after departure
Setting up and taking down the bedroom furniture prior to arrival and after departure
Providing a dinner meal each night of our guests' stay
Providing fellowship during the early evening hours
Overnight hosts who sleep at the church and see the guests off by 6 a.m. the next morning
Van drivers who transport the guests to the Family Promise center in the morning and then back to St. Philip's that night
People willing to donate some of the "staples" for breakfast and lunch meals
As you can see, our volunteers provide so much to making these weeks special times for our members and our guests. Because of the generosity of our volunteers and our congregations, we have been successful for providing food and shelter for countless homeless families and children during the time they have struggled to get back on their feet. Our congregations provide safe and warm places for children as parents work to regain their independence. What a blessing it is that they have been able to be part of our lives during their stay! What a blessing it is to celebrate these families moving out of our network and regaining their independence!
If you would like to be a part of this ministry at St. Philip's contact the church office and we will connect you with our Family Promise coordinator.
For those that are hearing impaired, St. Philips has listening devices.
These devices are stored in a rack above the guest register in the narthex.
It would be greatly appreciated if they are turned off after each usage.
