Another great Friday at The Pirates House! President Cindy Kelley reminded everyone of the Rotary Cocktail Hour at The Pirates House on Thursday, October 4th from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm. She encouraged everyone to attend and to bring a guest! Once all Rotary items were discussed, Laura Lane McKinnon introduced the Executive Director of Family Promise, Katrina Bostick.
Katrina began by telling a story about a lady named Caroline who was an Army veteran with a Masters in Education. Due to a child with special needs, a divorce, and an illness, she found herself homeless. Family Promise of Greater Savannah was founded to alleviate homelessness among families with children by providing emergency shelter, meals, and inclusive support. They partner with local churches and congregations to provide food and shelter for families. The families move every week to a new church and each church can house up to four families at a time. The average length of stay for a family is 32 days. While they are in the program, families are required to save 80% of their income. Family Promise has a 93% success rate with families who maintain stability for five or more years. So far in 2018, Family Promise has helped 37 families transition into permanent housing.
Family Promise receives at least 50 calls a day from families in need of housing. They have an extensive wait list. Due to the long wait list, they try and refer as many families to other organizations that also offer services. They partner with the City of Savannah to help keep people from becoming homeless and were able to keep 564 households in their homes last year. Once someone transitions out of the program, Family Promise offers many classes to help them continue to be successful. Some of the classes are finance, parenting, food and nutrition, and life skills training. The budget for Family Promise is $734,000 for the year. They rely on state and federal funding, grants, corporate sponsors, and individual donations.