Family Promise of Carbon County received a $50,000 First Federal Charitable Foundation grant it will use to complete various operations and projects that are required to be done before families can move from a motel into the organization's homeless shelter.
Family Promise of Carbon County serves families who are 100 percent homeless as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Family Promise is the only family shelter in Carbon County and many surrounding counties, including Luzerne, Columbia, Pike and Schuylkill. Its clients enter the shelter for a 90-day program, where they receive intensive case management in which they identify barriers and are empowered to work through them by being educated with different life skills they need to succeed.
The organization recently purchased a former church and rectory through county funding and its goal is to move the families it serves from a motel model to a static site where volunteers and other organizations can help the families. However, the facility needs a new fire escape and to meet other zoning requirements before families can move in. The organization also plans to use the grant money to purchase various health, safety and bed bug prevention items for its beds.
Jaimie Phelps, Family Promise of Carbon County's Interim Director, said, “Given that we are the only family shelter in the county and surrounding counties, this grant will have a great impact on the community because we will be able to move families into the new facility and start taking more families that would otherwise be turned away. The long-term plan is to expand services to include a single women's shelter, as staffing and funding allows, and to have free community laundry and other impactful things for the community.”
The First Federal Charitable Foundation was established to support worthwhile community causes. It strives to nurture nonprofit institutions and programs that will effectively serve those in need from the community, empower nonprofit institutions and programs that will expand their presence in and services to the area, and promote opportunities for new nonprofit institutions and programs that will serve the unserved.
Nonprofit organizations with a 501(c)(3) IRS designation that are located in Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon and Columbia counties are eligible to apply. Any organization whose headquarters is in another county but services either Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon or Columbia counties may apply for a grant to be used in one of those counties.
For more information on the foundation or to obtain a grant application, email