FamilyPromise of Burlington County social services agency will commemorate 25 years of service to the community in March but is kicking off that anniversary at the Community House of Moorestown today.
Leaders will thank past, present and future supporters in the Community House library.
“We’ve also invited some people that are in government, because one of the things that we want to get involved in in the future is more advocacy for the people that we serve,” said Scott Rush, executive director of FamilyPromise.
Rush and fellow leaders will also debut “Our City, Your Orchestra,” a series of free online concerts that combine a Philadelphia Orchestra performance with a spotlight on a nonprofit organization in the Philadelphia area.
Randy Gardner, a FamilyPromise volunteer from Medford United Methodist Church, made the connection between the social services agency and “Our City, Your Orchestra.” The two-part program will be released on Jan. 1 and Jan. 15, with music from the orchestra and interviews with Gardner, Rush and one of the program’s graduates.
FamilyPromise will also discuss plans to open its first static shelter site in 2022. Since the start of the pandemic, the agency has placed guest families in motels and churches throughout Burlington County, a situation Rush explained is problematic.
“We don’t think that this hotel model is long-term sustainable,” he said. “What the future holds for us is, we are going to find what we call a static site location which will be a place where we can provide shelter to families who are experiencing homelessness, but also house our offices, our staff and our volunteers.”
Before, families moved around to churches weekly.
“With our static site model, they won’t have to move,” Rush said of clients. “As long as they are in our program, they will have a stable place to live.”
Since its inception in 1996, FamilyPromise has helped more than 920 children and provided over 1,000 nights of shelter during the pandemic.
“We’re solving problems for people but it would be great if we could make sure that the problems don’t exist in the future,” Rush said.
