Family Promise Brings Hope
to Homeless Families
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TheJournalNJ.com | APRIL 2020 33
Through a community-based response, one organization’s mission
is to help families experiencing homelessness and low-income
families achieve sustainable independence.
Family Promise of Monmouth County, an afliate of Family
Promise National, was started by a group of local interfaith leaders
who understood the importance of keeping families together while
serving them in a way that offers dignity and hope. This organization
works with families with children, providing prevention, emergency
shelter and stabilization services to move them from homelessness
to stable lives. Thanks to prayer, an army of volunteers and community
partners, Family Promise is proud to report it has a 100 percent
success rate! That means that 100 percent of program graduates have
secured transitional/permanent housing, have established bank
accounts, cleared nes, restored credit, secured government-issued
identication, childcare/school for children, health insurance, nancial
literacy, life-skills to wrap-around services and on-going case
management to ensure long-term self sufciency.
One of the emergency shelter’s most recent graduates, Aniyah
Winkey-Lebron, is a mother of two living in her own apartment. She is
now gainfully employed, has a reliable vehicle and has been accepted
to attend Ocean County College where she plans to study nursing.
There’s also Amy, a mother of ve who now has her own apartment
and is thriving. There are countless success stories because Family
Promise works together as a community through collaboration, innovation,
education, vision and love.
Band of Two Rivers
The Band of Two Rivers will be performing free concerts this summer
and invites all to attend the various shows. The band, now in
its rd season, is a nonprot c communit band that meets
weekly in Fair Haven for rehearsals. Rehearsals are open to the public,
as are the shows listed below. Outdoor concerts are subject to weather
conditions and cancellation.
Saturday, May 2 from noon to 1 pm
Thompson Park, 805 Newman Springs Rd. in Lincroft
Creative Arts & Music Festival under the music tent
Wednesday, July 1 at 7 pm
Middletown Public Library,
55 New Monmouth Rd.
Independence Day Concert
Wednesday, July 15 at 7 pm
Fair Haven Dock
Navesink River pier is at the North End
of Fair Haven Road
Christine Carter Love is the executive director of Family Promise of Monmouth
County. She took on the role she loves in 2018, to lead the organization
through transformational change. Love’s personal story is one of great challenges,
including her own experience of homelessness as a child, and also one of
great triumph. Today, working with more than 60 interfaith organizations and
1,200 volunteers, she and her staff continue to achieve incredible outcomes and
work hard to build new programs and pathways to help even more families.
Some of those new programs are the New Beginnings Financial Literacy
Program, the Workforce Development Program, the Academic Tutoring Program,
the Trauma-Informed Care Health and Wellness Initiative, and the TEACH-Youth
Division of Family Promise.
If you would like to help homeless families, please consider attending the
seventh annual Tapping Toes for Hope and Homes evening of music and munchies,
currently scheduled for Thursday, April 23 from 7 to 8:30 pm at Lincroft Presbyterian
Church, 270 Everett Rd. in Lincroft. This fun evening includes the Bash
Brothers Band, great snacks and a white elephant sale. Donations of any size are
accepted.
In light of the coronavirus, the annual Promise of Spring fundraiser has
been postponed indenitely. But the need has not. Families still need shelter
and comprehensive services. To nd out how you can join the movement, visit
FamilyPromiseMC.org or call 732-495-1050.
/www.profi
/
/TheJournalNJ.com
/FamilyPromiseMC.org