Greetings! 

Can you spare a night or two one week this July to sleep at the cathedral to help homeless families? Or could you bring groceries, covered dish meals or breakfast items to the church to feed the same families during that week? We are looking for volunteers!

Our recently completed 10:15 a.m. Dean's Forum highlighted a number of ministries doing amazing work in downtown Jacksonville. On a Sunday a few weeks ago, we welcomed speakers from Family Promise of Jacksonville, based just across the street from us in offices at First United Methodist Church. This is a unique program that provides housing inside churches for homeless families, in addition to help with job placement and other services.

Our homelessness task force, led by Rolland Kohls, met a few months ago with Mark Landschoot, director of Family Promise, and subsequently proposed to our Vestry that we support this program. The Vestry gave the green light, so St. John's Cathedral is about to become one of the many local "host churches" where Family Promise clients are housed temporarily.

Here's how Family Promise works: families in economic crisis apply for help through the program and are carefully screened before being accepted. These are good, drug-free, law-abiding people who have lost jobs or faced emergency bills that have rendered them homeless. In most cases, these are intact families who are not eligible to stay together at Sulzbacher or other shelters. During the day, the adults are either at job interviews, or at the Family Promise office with counselors who help them find work and permanent housing.  The children ride to and from school in the Family Promise van. At the end of the day, Family Promise transports its clients (two or three families) to a host church where they stay for a week at a time, usually in Sunday School classrooms on airbeds that Family Promise provides. Each family needs its own room. Church volunteers provide linens and towels, feed them dinner, and also stay at the church overnight, visiting with the families, watching TV with the kids, maybe helping with homework. In the morning, after parishioners provide breakfast, the Family Promise van picks up the guests to get the children to school and the adults back to the main office.

Clients stay Sunday to Sunday at a given church, after which the families move to a new host church. Each host church houses families for two or three weeks each year.

I called around to some of the local churches that host Family Promise clients, and heard very positive feedback. Volunteers report that the families are so grateful to receive Christian hospitality in a safe, welcoming environment.

St. John's will be hosting Family Promise clients the week of July 24-31. We welcome volunteers who can give one night or more, or who would like to provide one meal or more. Contact Rolland Kohls if you are available.

In Christ,

Theresa

Theresa Johnson, Cathedral Executive