By Marianne Lincoln

Early next year will be a lot faster than 4 years from now*. That is the plan of the newly formed affiliate startup, Family Promise of Pierce County. Pastor Samara Jenkins, of Spanaway United Methodist Church, already involved in the Safe Parking program, was out visiting group after group, pitching this idea. January 13, 2023, a call was made for a group of individuals to come together for a debriefing, specifically to talk about forming a chapter. Family Promise is for assisting homeless families with children.

The first few meetings were at the Bethel Family Center. Then, May 15, the Spanaway church gathered a core group to submit incorporation documents. The initial founders were Samara Jenkins, Tom Seigel, Marianne Lincoln and Jessica Pair. From there, they hosted a committee meeting with the National organizer and submitted a 501(c)(3) to the IRS along with some grant applications to the state, county and more. In all, by the end of the summer, $500,000 in grants were secured and a call went out to hire a CEO. The school district offered an unused portable near Spanaway Elementary for an office and after approval November 9, the Spanaway United Methodist Church leased its former parsonage for use as a startup shelter.

At this writing, the CEO, Steve Decker is on board and working to get the facilities prepared to host the office and planning how to get the parsonage ready for remodeling into a shelter. On November 27, he hosted an Open House for potential volunteers.

Volunteers are certainly needed. Although the organization has some money, the more they can use volunteer services, the farther the money stretches to provide more services. Here are some of the needs that volunteers can assist with.  Any families that want to volunteer, could participate in activities with young children that are in the program on-site at the day center.

• The office portable will be used as a day shelter and intake facility. It has almost a full kitchen but is missing the stove (range/oven) unit.
• The district provided paint, but people are needed to do the painting.
• Signs, like the ones candidates use, would be good to let people who are homeless know where to go and other community members know where they can assist with donations.
• The parsonage needs a drafted house plan so permits can be applied for. Then it will need lumber, wallboard, paint, nails, plumbing, etc. to create the doors and walls, spaces for up to 6 families for overnight shelter.
• The interiors will need beds and furnishings after the construction is completed.
• Clothing linens, towels, shoes, school supplies etc. will be needed in the near future as well. 

Decker will also be hiring a program director and 2 case managers who will work evenings and weekends to assist these families to get back on their feet. He will also be looking for continued funding from the state, county and other organizations to assist with future years to continue getting homeless families in the unincorporated communities the assistance they need.

To volunteer, please go to this website and sign up. Let them know what you have to offer.

To make a donation, please use this link. The more they have, the more they can do.

For more information this is their website: https://www.familypromisepiercecounty.org/

Citizens of Spanaway and the Bethel School District have started this Family Promise Chapter to help families of unincorporated Pierce County, where there have been no facilities up to now. They will soon be assisting families. With your help it will happen even faster. 

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*The Tacoma Rescue Mission plan for a homeless village near Spanaway Creek will take several years to develop and only assist single, long term homeless, chemical dependency and mental health issues.