InterFaith21

Unite 21 interfaith congregations in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach to address homelessness among children and families, and you have Family Promise of South Palm Beach County.

Coming soon is a celebration of the nonprofit organization’s first year of advancing faith-based social service beyond proselytizing to the service that is the true hallmark of faith.

“What really intrigues me is the interfaith nature of Family Promise,” said board member Michael Diamant.

He’s also chairman of the “Bring the Children Home” benefit to aid local homeless families, Nov. 5 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “I think the Family Promise focus on families with children, and the interfaith aspect, yields benefits to the community as a whole, far beyond addressing the problem of homelessness,” Diamant said.

That particular aspect — the distinctive response to temporary homelessness for families with children — began 21 years ago in New Jersey with founder Karen Olson. Family Promise now is in 39 states with 148 affiliates, and has another under development in North Palm Beach.

Olson saw the need to help the needy, and also a way to help congregations of all faiths keep their promises to help by networking their resources and contacts to assist with housing, jobs, counseling, training, etc.

A result here is 10 host congregations providing secure shelter and meals, for a week on a rotating basis, for up to four families going through a difficult time. Other congregations provide other support.

The program isn’t designed to deal with chronic homelessness, said Kokie Dinnan, executive director. “We are primarily focused on children that have become homeless, and their families that have sustained themselves in life for the most part, but been impacted by some sort of circumstance whether it be illness, or divorce, or loss of job.”

The average week begins on Sunday with volunteers packing and trucking the supporting equipment over to the next congregation.

During the week, families rise in the morning for the van ride to the remodeled former convent donated by St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach.

That Day Center is their home address, where they shower and do laundry, have storage for their basic needs, and a phone number. From there, children take buses or walk to school. Parents go to work, hunt for work or work with counselors.

In the evening, families return to the host congregation for dinner, for companionship, for family life.

Dinnan — a former county schoolteacher who is satisfying her love for interfaith, families and children, and for teaching — said to make a week happen takes anywhere from 50 to 70 volunteers at that congregation.

“Hosts use their church or synagogue, or the mosque. We don’t have any mosques, but we’d like to.” Depending on the facility, a congregation “may use sliders that divide the parish hall into four segments, so that each family has privacy for the week that they’re there. Some places use their Sunday school classroom.”

With referrals coming from any and all social service agencies as well as individuals, the hope is for more host congregations, Dinnan said.

“We have probably 50 families right now on our wait list, which is sad to say. Because there are a lot of families with mothers and children sleeping on the beaches and in parks.”

Fadina Middleton might have been among them. She arrived in West Palm Beach on May 11 from Delaware, with her 3-year-old son Jakob, and fumbling with her luggage, promptly lost all her money.

“The plan was to come here, make a new life,” said the Philadelphia native. “Find an apartment, pay for it six months in advance, and find a new life through acting and modeling. But it all crashed when I lost my money.”

Someone at the Salvation Army on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard told her about Family Promise. “I came here, interviewed and I was accepted.” Jakob now attends Youthland Academy in Delray while she looks for work.

While “angry at myself for putting myself in this situation,” she said, “I just have to take the way it is, my life is, and make it better. I still want that luxury house and car and nice job. I just have to work at it. I’ve been on so many job interviews — Miami, Miami Beach, Boca, Deerfield, I don’t care where’s it at. I just have to try extra hard.”

And when she gets there, does she see herself giving back? “I know I will. I asked Miss Kokie’s permission when I ever appear in a magazine can I mention Family Promise, do I have permission to do so? I’m trying every magazine they have here in Florida to see if I can just be in it or on the cover and talk about Family Promise.”

Middleton may get to pose with Family Promise founder Olson, who will be here Nov. 5 for the affiliate’s first anniversary.

“We think it is time for a celebration,” said event chairman Diamant, “because we’ve been fortunate enough to help a number of families in this relatively short time, graduating several families to where they’ve been able to go out and get back on their feet, have some type of housing, have a job, have a plan to get back on a better financial foundation.”

“We really want to show that as a local community this is an issue we feel strongly about, passionately about, and that we believe we can make some steps to impact,” he said. “It is a celebration of what we’ve been able to do in a year, and a call to action, and hopefully it will extend to other people.”

The call to action “is to raise awareness, get people to donate time and money, and make access to their contacts. We want people to know that this is a grassroots local response to an increasing problem in Palm Beach County, one of the most wealthy counties in the nation, yet there is no official county-based homeless shelter.”

Having united congregations of varied faiths to walk their talk, Family Promise already has demonstrated how the whole can be larger than the sum of its parts.

One wonderful thing about being in their meetings, said Diamant, “is truly everybody believes that they are doing God’s work regardless of their denomination.

“I think doing that not only allows us to reach a number of congregations,” he said, “but it helps interfaith understanding across the board, and is an important byproduct of this.”

If You Go

Bring the Children Home

What it’s about: Benefit to aid local homeless families. Family Promise’s mission states a fundamental belief that every child has a right to have a safe and secure home.

When: Thursday, Nov. 5, 6 to 8 p.m.

Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton

Cost: Admission is $25 for the benefit that will feature music by students of the Pine Crest School, silent auction, raffle, food and beverages. Guests include Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons, and Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel. Contact: 561-265-3370, Ext. 103 or www.FamilyPromiseSPBC.org.

(This item first appeared in The Coastal Star with the tagline: C.B. Hanif is a writer, editor and media and inter-religious affairs consultant. He visits or speaks at synagogues, churches and mosques, seeking folks who are making the Golden Rule real, not just an ideal. On the Web at www.interfaith21.com.)