If all goes as planned in the next few months, a Canyon Country church will join more than a dozen congregations in the Santa Clarita Valley in opening their doors to local families seeking food and shelter.



It’s a big ball to get rolling, but momentum is gaining, thanks to several religious organizations that banded together to form Family Promise SCV, a developing affiliate of the national Family Promise organization www.familypromise.org. So far, Family Promise SCV has seven confirmed host congregations – Valencia United Methodist Church, North Oaks Church of Christ, Newhall Church of the Nazarene, Real Life Church, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Temple Beth Ami and Santa Clarita United Methodist. The goal is to reach 13 and be operational by January 2011. The concept of Family Promise is to help provide food, shelter and support to homeless families who have suffered an economic set back.



SCV residents may be surprised to learn that there are 850 homeless students in the William S. Hart District, says Larry Comp, who helped spearhead the Santa Clarita Valley Family Promise chapter. Comp and his wife, Terry, are members of the Valencia United Methodist Church (VUMC).



Congregation member Cathy Taff, a Stevenson Ranch mother of two, jumped on board early when she found out how many kids don’t have a place to call home. “I was surprised by the number of homeless kids in our area and can’t imagine my kids in that situation,” says Taff, a general manager for the Disney Music Group in Burbank, who supports the program’s emphasis on teaching life and work skills to help parents get their lives back on track. “I believe strongly in the old saying, ‘give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime.’ This group helps families learn to fish by providing support, aid and opportunity.”



The way it works is that each of the 13 host congregations will house three or four families as guests for one week, four times a year. Congregation members help by cooking and serving breakfast and dinner, setting up guest rooms in fellowship halls or other available space, and helping children with homework. Volunteers will also dine and visit with guests to provide support and encouragement.



The overnight program requires that guest families (who are screened for drug, alcohol and mental illness issues) arrive by around 6 p.m. and leave at 7 a.m. the following day. Volunteers will drive children to school while parents receive credit counseling and job assistance from social workers.



“We expect that each congregation will involve a minimum of 30 volunteers each week of housing guests,” says Terry Comp.



The program relies on its Interfaith Hospitality Network

(the participating congregations and assisting facilities)

to fill in the gaps and provide shower facilities and transportation services.

Family Promise SCV supporters have faith that the local network will be successful based on the national organization’s track record. Nationwide there are 153 affiliates in 40 states and the District of Columbia. In 2008, the average stay in a host congregation was 58.3 days. That’s a 77 percent success rate in placing families in apartments, homes or transitional homes, says Larry Comp.



Although still in the toddling stages of building up the local network, Family Promise SCV is making good progress. Most recently, it was approved as a 501c3 corporation by the Internal Revenue Service.

Members meet monthly to discuss program developments and upcoming events, such as “Box City,” scheduled for September 2010.To help raise awareness of homeless families in the SCV, participants will sleep overnight in a cardboard box “home” as residents of Box City, explains Terry Comp. “We will have a soup kitchen to host a simple but nourishing dinner, and breakfast the

next morning,” she says. The event will include activities, music, entertainment and food.



Participants will be asked to raise a minimum of $100 in pledges and contributions; each member will also need to bring his or her own dwelling, consisting of a cardboard box, sleeping bag, pillow and flashlight. Funds will benefit Family Promise SCV’s first year of operation.



While the focus of Family Promise is to provide support and aid to homeless families, the program is also rewarding for volunteers, says Terry Comp. “Many of the religious leaders who currently serve as host sites (nationwide) tell us the benefits of participating are as significant as the rewards to Family Promise guests. The people who serve as volunteers (including kids and youth) experience a great sense of satisfaction from serving, while gaining a deeper feeling of gratitude for their own life circumstances,” she says.



That’s an experience that Cathy Taff hopes her daughters, Lindsay, 10, and Megan, 8, embrace when they become involved in the program next year. “It’s important to teach kids to be philanthropic. Lots of times we can get too caught up in the ‘haves,’ we forget about the ‘have nots,’ and it’s our job as parents to guide our kids to do good works for those who have fallen on hard times,” says Taff, whose daughters already volunteer for VUMC’s mission projects.



Ultimately, says Terry Comp, people learn that homeless families are just people who have simply encountered a bump in the road.



Congregations interested in joining the Family Promise network may contact Terry Comp at tcomp@ltcperformance.com or Larry Comp at lcomp@ltcperformance.com.



For more information about Family Promise SCV, visit www.familypromisescv.org.