About Family Promise

Family Promise of the Capital Region (FPCR) is a community response to family homelessness. Our trained volunteers and participating congregations have been serving homeless families since April, 2015.

FPCR is not a contracted shelter. We receive support from foundations, businesses and individuals who seek to directly assist homeless families. Our goal is for each family to secure affordable and safe housing. “Graduated” families continue to receive help and support after securing their own homes.

What sets us apart?

We offer highly individualized assistance tailored to each family’s needs. There is no charge for shelter services provided. We rely on the compassion of our community and a network of faith communities and hundreds of volunteers to meet the needs of our guest families. The interaction of families with community members and volunteers creates a sense of belonging and opens up potential leads to housing and employment.As we are not a government-contracted shelter program, we can serve families that have been turned away from other shelters who require proof of homelessness such as an eviction letter and other documentation. We follow our graduated families for at least a year and continue to offer them support and guidance to ensure they do not relapse into homelessness.

The Families We Serve

When a family requests help from our organization or we receive a referral of a family from a social service agency, school, or other source, we complete a thorough intake interview/evaluation to determine how best to help. Our families generally fall into three categories:

1.Families that require immediate shelter, clothing, and food, help applying for health insurance and registering their children for school, and case management. These families may also need legal advice/representation, job training, and English language instruction.

2.Families who have already secured housing but need assistance with one or more of the following: rental assistance, securing health insurance, obtaining clothing, registering children for school, legal assistance, or urgent medical/dental care not covered by health insurance.

3.Families that may need help covering a necessary expense, such as purchasing a monthly bus pass for travel to a new job/job interview, or need a care package that includes household supplies, personal hygiene products, diapers, cleaning supplies and food/gift card.

The success of our program is measured by the stability and security of the families we serve in the areas of housing, food, health care access, job retention, and education. Once families secure housing Family Promise continues to provide ongoing counseling and support for a minimum of 1 year – and often longer – so that they do not lapse into homelessness.