Lots of exciting changes happening!

Family Promise of South Sarasota County is expanding to better serve the families in need in South County.  Many of the changes have already been implemented and we are so excited!  We now have some new programs and are expanding current programs to give the children and families we serve hope for a brighter future.  This is all made possible by our generous donors and volunteers.  

FPSSC Access Point:  We are now an Access Point for South Sarasota County for families with minor children.  The county is using a 'One by 1: Coordinated Entry/Exit' system for homeless clients through Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness.  Homeless families in South County can come to our Access Point to do an intake and be processed for eligibility for the many programs in the county to assist them.  We will then connect the family to services based on the clients choice of programs that they qualify for.  At this time, there are 7 Access Points between Sarasota and Manatee Counties.  Our Access Point is currently open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am to 2 pm.  

Our new "Safe Overnight Stay: Emergency Shelter Program" allows us to provide homeless families who are residents of South Sarasota County a safe place to stay while we connect them to available services through our Access Point. We are utilizing local hotels and providing qualifying families with 1-3 nights of shelter initially while we connect them to needed services or process them for entry into our Transitional Shelter Program at the local congregations.  

Growing Pains:  Due to some of the changes that are happening, we have found the need to expand our space as we expand our services.  We are now renting office space in the strip mall next to our Day Center.  The Administrative Offices along with the Access Point office are now located at 722 Shamrock Blvd.  The Day Center, 720 Shamrock Blvd will be limited strictly to current client services for our Transitional Shelter Program and will house the Family Service Coordinator and Office Angels only.  This will limit the amount of traffic in and out of the Day Center to allow the families in our program more privacy and security while staying in our program.

Expanding Current Day Center Services:  Our Day Center is now open 7 days a week due to the generosity of our volunteers who offer Office Angel support.  Previously, our families had to find somewhere else to go on the days we were closed but we have now added a weekend staff position and more Office Angel coverage to allow us to be open 7 days a week from 8-5 for our families. This is only for our current clients at the Day Center and the Administrative Office has separate hours (Monday - Friday, 9-3) in our new location at 722 Shamrock Blvd.

Additional Staff:  I am very pleased to say that we have gone from 1 or 2 staff members not so long ago to 3 current staff members with one more coming soon!  We now employ an Executive Director, Family Service Coordinator, and weekend Assistant Coordinator and will be adding an Administrative Assistant in the coming weeks.  We are also proud to have an intern this year from the social work field and have been asked to interview more possible interns for the coming school year.

The families in our program had a great Christmas and New Year.  They are all moving closer to stable housing and we are very proud of them.

We also had another family get a car.  Reliable transportation is so vital to a family being successful and getting where they need to go in a timely and efficient manner.  I cannot thank those enough who donate reliable vehicles to those in need.