Masonic Charities Supports Family Promise’s Emergency Shelter Program

Family Promise of Greater Phoenix, a nonprofit organization that rescues primarily first-time homeless families and their pets and helps them return to independence, announced it had received a grant for $1,500 from Masonic Charities of Arizona to support the nonprofit’s emergency shelter program.

Grants from Masonic Charities of Arizona have been provided to a variety of nonprofit organizations in communities across Arizona. Masonic Charities selected Family Promise as a 2020 grant recipient because of their work to keep families experiencing homelessness together on their journey back to independence.

“We aim to support organizations relieving human suffering of any kind, and Family Promise has continued to help some of the Valley’s most vulnerable families despite challenges resulting from the coronavirus pandemic,” said Russell Sayre of Masonic Charities. “We are proud to know our grant will go to support Family Promise’s emergency shelter program so that parents who have lost their home will be able to safely tuck their kids in at night.”

Family Promise focuses on resolving the family’s immediate crisis by offering social services, helping parents find employment, and connecting them to daycare and school for their children. Currently, Family Promise is sheltering more than a dozen families at two-day centers in south Scottsdale where parents and children receive shelter, food, clothing, and other basic needs. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Family Promise relied on its network of volunteer churches and synagogues to shelter and feed the families they serve while Family Promise assisted these families on their journey back to self-sufficiency. Family Promise has had to temporarily pause its community-based model to protect its volunteers and families from the potential spread of the virus.

“We believe that children and parents can draw strength from one another during a stressful time in their lives, such as experiencing homelessness, which is why we are dedicated to keeping families together on their journey back to self-sufficiency,” said Ted Taylor, Executive Director at Family Promise of Greater Phoenix. “We truly thank Masonic Charities for supporting our mission.”

Since the beginning of the year, Family Promise of Greater Phoenix has graduated more than 100 families from their program into independent housing and self-sufficiency and has also assisted 11 families to stay out of the shelter system through their preventative programming. For more information on how to support families experiencing homelessness, visit FamilyPromiseAZ.org.

About Family Promise of Greater Phoenix:

Family Promise envisions a nation in which every family has a home, a livelihood, and the chance to build a better future. Family Promise of Greater Phoenix rescues primarily first-time homeless families from the streets and provides emergency shelter and basic needs in a sixty-day program designed to assist their return to self-sufficiency. Their shelter includes a sanctuary for the family pet, the first such program in Arizona. Learn more at FamilyPromiseAZ.org.