We are just getting started with Family Promise here in Pickens

County, and the future is bright! With the help and support of over 20 church congregations, we have some real success stories. In the past 4 months we have served 6 families; 9 children and 6 adults. We have two families now living in sustainable housing and three adults who’ve found new employment. We hope to serve as many as 70 in the next year. Our goal is to grow and expand services and supports for homeless families. We will be tracking and measuring their success and ours.

Family Promise of Pickens County (FPPC) offers so much more than shelter.

In addition to solving problems related to employment, education, benefits, health issues, and emotional stability, families are taught to develop support systems and survival skills.

Although most homeless shelters do offer a bed, meal and emergency assistance they separate family members based on age and gender. At FPPC, we keep families together as guests of congregations on a weekly basis and provide opportunities for strengthening the family unit in an intimate environment.

Each family receives five hours a week of intense counseling and each adult undergoes a skills assessment. On any given day a Family Promise case manager is a mental health counselor, job coach, real estate agent, crisis

interventionist, baby sitter, health coordinator, school liaison, and housekeeper. A lot of love and care happens here at the Day Center each and every day.

Our families enjoy three home cooked meals a day provided by our churches. The support and various contributions of multiple congregations allow families to concentrate on employment and developing long term plans for housing and childcare. Our host and support churches are the heart of our program.

We serve a maximum of 14 people at a time. This helps to ensure that we create a safe environment for the church families and the guest families. Through this program more than 400 volunteers work together to provide hospitality, to mobilize resources, and to concentrate on problem solving. This program really works. With a national success rate of 80%, we know that our methods are proven.

We can help families leave our program with not only housing and financial stability and new relationships with the faith based community, but also with the skills to navigate community resources, and the ability to preserve their family unit.

It is a real joy to work with our families, our volunteers, and the staff here at Family Promise. Please join with us as we “Build Community and Strengthen Lives”!

From Our Director

Building Community. Strengthening Lives.

Winter 2015 Volume 1, No. 1

HospitalityHost Congregations

A Publication of Family Promise of Pickens County

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Trinity Point Church

Arial Baptist Church

Easley First Baptist Church

Fort Hill Presbyterian Church

Powdersville First Baptist Church

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church

Calvary Hill Baptist Church

Bethesda United Methodist Church

Rock Springs Baptist Church

Clemson First Baptist Church

Marathon Church

Clemson Presbyterian Church

Pickens Presbyterian Church

Blue Ridge View Baptist Church

Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church

Support Congregations

St. Andrews Catholic Church

Awakening Church

Clemson United Methodist Church

University Lutheran Church

Providence Presbyterian Church

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Clemson

Meet Our Staff

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Family Promise of Pickens County

Armilla has 30 years experience in human resource management and comes to Family

Promise after serving as head of another non-profit with a large staff and a lot of red tape. She’d left her position because she wanted a more direct involvement with people in need and felt she wasn’t really changing lives.

This position has given her a chance to help families in a most direct way. It’s a long term commitment but the end result is a stable family unit with a positive future. That makes all the hard work worthwhile. She gets to see the transformation of guests as they move from a place of despair to one of hope.

Family Promise does not separate families but works to keep them together, teaching them life skills that make the impossible possible. Armilla has really enjoyed the seamless collaboration among the different congregations which participate in the Family Promise Program. She says that it doesn’t seem to matter what denomination they are affiliated with - they’re focused on the same outcome and forget about differences. The attitude is ‘What do you need’ and ‘How to get it done.’

Armilla is married to Fred Moore, Chief Credit Officer of Independence National Bank. They live in Greenville and are the parents of two daughters; Dr. Lauren Moore, an anesthesiologist in Syracuse New York and Leslie Moore, a first year medical student at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Family Promise is a nonprofit organization that helps homeless families become independent.

Churches and volunteers join forces to meet homeless families’ immediate needs for shelter, meals, and comprehensive support services.

We mobilize:

• Houses of Worship for lodging

• Congregations for volunteers

• Our Day Center facility for intense case management, skills training, financial counseling, career development and more

• Social Service agencies for assessment and referrals.

This combined approach helps homeless families become independent at a third of the cost of a traditional shelter.

Who Are We?

“ Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by

everybody, I think that is a much greater

hunger, a much greater poverty, than the person who has

nothing to eat. - Mother Teresa

“Armilla MooreFamily Promise Director

JoAnn BrinkCase Manager

Jo Ann Brink is new to Family Promise but not new to her mission of helping families.

A licensed social worker with a master’s degree in counseling and member of St. Andrews Catholic Church in Clemson, she was part of the grass roots committee instrumental is getting Family Promise off the ground in Pickens County.

Brink loves cutting through the red tape to help families get what they need. She also enjoys working with volunteers from the interfaith communities who are involved with the

programs, saying it’s a wonderful feeling to see them unite in a common cause for good. She’s all about helping children. A big part of her job is helping overwhelmed parents meet physical and emotional needs of their children so they feel less afraid.

Once children learn that each night there will be a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in, a hot meal, a place to bathe and responsible adults to keep them safe and handle problems they visibly relax.

Occasionally one of her small clients will ask to call her Grandma. Nothing pleases her more. A poster in her office bears this message: “In this room we don’t do easy. We make easy happen through hard work and learning.” It’s her job to make this happen.

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Family Promise of Pickens County

Wish List

Approximately $150,000 a

year is needed to operate FPPC. All

financial gifts are welcomed

and tax deductible.

Butler has been with Family Promise for several months now, and it’s clear that she has found

the perfect fit. “I know that God sent me here,” she says, “I love helping these kids - helping them make good choices.” It’s more like a mission for Butler than a job.

She’s spent her life working hard and caring for others. From raising six of her own children to running her successful yard maintenance business, “The Yard Woman”, Butler has found meaning helping folks who need help. During the day, she helps the elderly with odd jobs around their homes as well as their yards. Each early morning (7:00am pick up) and late afternoon (leaving the

Day Center around 5:00pm) she helps the families by transporting them each to and from their church home. Often the drive is an hour long, depending on the location of the church where our guests are staying on a particular week. This gives her the great opportunity to listen to the young folks and offer her advise. Debra has a big heart and it shows. “At the end of the day, I feel like I’ve really done something. I would do anything I could to help these families.”

What a gift to the families of FPPC - to have Butler as their friend, mentor and guide!

Debra ButlerDriver

If you would like to partner with FPPC to help homeless families, there are many opportunities available to you.

We need:• Your money

For only $25 a month you become a member of Club300. With your financial gift, you help provide the following for our families:

• A safe place to sleep • Healthy meals • Counseling and case management• Job training • Transportation • Classes in basic life skills• Your time • Help with families - Resumes, childcare, personal grooming,

haircuts, etc.• Help in our office - publicity; advisors for financial, legal and

marketing matters; data entry; other office work• Help in our physical space - carpentry, plumbing, etc.• Donated items

For our families :• School, home and health supplies• Sports equipment, gift cards for gas, food and hair cuts.

For our Day Center Room :• Child safety equipment (i.e. gates, outlet covers, etc.), • Faux leather sofas and/or chairs, • Coffee pot & supplies

For our FPPC Office: • Office equipment (i.e. stapler, heavy duty paper cutter, 3 hole

punch, etc.)• Office supplies

This combined approach helps homeless families become independent at a third of the cost of a traditional shelter.

Family Promise Of Pickens County

Family Promise of Pickens County

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Many thanks to all who have made Family Promise a reality in Pickens County - So many have given so much of their time

and energy to help us provide hospitality to homeless families in Pickens County!

We are especially thankful to the United Way of Pickens County for all its efforts to enlighten our community about homeless issues and for its leadership in the formation of our Family Promise affiliate.

Due to In-Kind-Donations from our host and support congregations, the Family Promise operating budget is about one-third that of a traditional shelter. Family Promise operating expenses are being sustained through contributions from congregations, individuals and civic groups. Thus far 33% of donations have come from individuals, 30% from congregations, 25% from civic groups, and the remainder from a grant and a fund raiser.

During this first year of operations, United Way of Pickens County, Rotary Club of Pickens, Clemson Presbyterian Church, and Rock Springs Baptist Church have each made contributions to Family

Promise in excess of $10,000. These donations represent a substantial commitment to Family Promise’s mission and provide a foundation upon which to build programs to assist homeless families.

Contributions ranging between $1,000 and $10,000 have been made by the Pickens Women’s Association , the Rotary Club of Clemson, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, Clemson First Baptist Church, Easley First Baptist Church, Easley Presbyterian Church, Fort Hill Presbyterian Church, Marathon Church-Pickens, McKinney Chapel, St. Andrews Catholic Church, Trinity Wesleyan Church, Tammie Collins, Wendy Giblin, Robert Fennell Family, Leslie Flynn & Doug Snyder, Doc & Robin Giddings, and other anonymous donors.

A most sincere thank you to each person, church and civic group that feels drawn to this ministry. Donations at any level are needed to help maintain and grow our assistance to homeless families and can be made on-line at familypromisepickens.org or sent to FPPC, Box 1165, Easley, SC 29641

Our Donors

Our Board of Directors

Alisaun Crenshawalisauncrenshaw@gmail.comJoined Board: December 2014

Tammie Collinsctoots1989@gmail.comJoined Board: June 2014

Karen Baker Ellerskarenellers@clemsoncommunity-care.orgJoined Board: June 2014

Robert FennellPresidentrsfennell43@gmail.com Joined Board: January 2014

Robert Ensley Feemster, Sr. Treasurerensleyf@yahoo.com Joined Board: January 2012

Leslie FlynnSecretarylakflynn@yahoo.comJoined Board: June 2014 Robin B. Giddingsrobin.giddings@yahoo.comJoined Board: January 2014

Judy Goosen jgoosen10@yahoo.comJoined Board: January 2015

Kevin Hugheshugheskev@aol.comJoined Board: January 2015

Bryan Owensbryan.owens@blueliondigital.comJoined Board: January 2015