Carroll College recently completed the seventh summer of hosting homeless families with children through Family Promise, a collaboration between the college and two dozen local congregations in Helena. Each week, up to 15 people are housed with the college or a church for a week at a time. Each host site is expected to host four weeks during the calendar year. Carroll College has been allowed to host our four weeks during the summer months when we have available beds in campus housing. This summer, we had three weeks of hosting due to a change in the rotation schedule. Over the three weeks of service Carroll College provided to the Family Promise guests this year, 21 dinner meals were prepared, delivered and hosted by Carroll faculty and staff. Our three overnight hosts were students Heather Huguet, Sarah Ladd and Mackenzie Redman. Carroll employees who hosted an evening meal for our Family Promise guests were Maria Brosnan, Stephanie Burkholder, Cathy Day, Kellie Dold, Kathy Gilboy, Ed and Jenn Glowienka, Jim Hardwick, Michelle Harrer, Mary Keefe, Colin Irvine, Leslie Olsen, Jillian Orth, Anna Rolando, Annette Ryerson, Jake Samuelson, Allison Sever, Kyle Strode, Tony Szpilka, Katie Wagner, Emily Weideman and Lynette Zuroff. Many thanks to our Carroll employees and students for their strong support for this community outreach to homeless families with children.
Family Promise is a partnership of Helena-area churches and Carroll College which provides overnight housing and meals for homeless families with children with an infrastructure that supports each family’s progress toward the achievement of employment and housing to achieve sustainable independence.
In the past two years, Family Promise of Greater Helena has served 40 adults (2 expectant moms) and 46 children as well as supported 276 families by referral to other agencies. The success rate—families still sustaining independence—remains at 82%.