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Dunwoody Digest

Family Promise Opens New Roswell Headquarters

ROSWELL, Ga. — After years of hard work serving families out of donated church basement space in Dunwoody, Family Promise of North Fulton/DeKalb finally has a permanent home.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Grove Way Community Center in Roswell Nov. 9, North Fulton community members officially welcomed Family Promise into its new space, where members will work to serve families in the community experiencing homelessness.

With a base of operations so centrally located to all of their partner church congregations, the organization now has greater ability to serve the community, Family Promise Executive Director Andrea Brantley said.

“I’m just really excited about this new relationship that we’re going to have,” Brantley said. “I think it’s going to help us really grow and get the word out about what Family Promise does.”

Family Promise is a nationwide non-profit group that fights homelessness by providing resources, transitional housing and support to struggling families. Brantley said this three-pronged approach is what has made the group so successful over the years.

At any given time, Family Promise is likely serving about 14 people – families, parents and kids – with its rotational shelter system, where people are temporarily housed at local church congregations on a weekly basis.

In addition to that, Brantley said the organization served more than 1,000 people in 2021 with its Emergency Response Program, providing gift cards, toiletries, groceries and gas cards to people at risk of becoming homeless. The charity also served 33 individuals in 2021 who were able to graduate from the Family Promise system, she said.

The organization faces more need than ever in the North Fulton community, which makes the move to the area so much more important, she said.

“We’re definitely seeing more families who have never experienced homelessness before,” she said. “I think COVID put us in a desperate situation for many folks.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made many families choose between working and keeping kids at home when schools closed, which was especially hard for their clients, many of them single parents, she said.

But with the help of their community partnerships, like the churches that house their families, business partnerships like they have with the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, the volunteers who keep the organization running, that need was filled.

“Our congregations are very invested in our success not only do they house a lot of our families, but most of them also support us financially,” she said. “Our ministers spend the night with our families, our ministers cook, it’s just a great community that we have.”

To learn more about Family Promise of North Fulton/DeKalb, volunteer opportunities and more, visit familypromisenfd.org.

Article by Alexander Popp at Appen Media