Interfaith Hospitality Network

The Family Promise - Greater Phoenix, an Interfaith Hospitality Network is a consortium of churches that house families in transition four times a year.  Our Lady of Perpetual Help was the first Catholic Church in the diocese to enter this partnership.

In the year 2001, there were 1,059 homeless families in Arizona on any given day.  Those families included 1,273 adults and 2,266 children.  Unlike single people, homeless families with children rarely end up on the street.  Instead, to avoid the shame associated with homelessness and fearful of being separated from their children, they usually live undetected in cars or, in some extreme cases, in tents in the desert.  More commonly, they bounce from one apartment to another, sleeping on floors, exhausting every bit of goodwill they can from friends and relatives until they either get another place of their own or show up at the door of a homeless shelter.

For sixty days, the Network provides food and shelter to each individual family and continued participation is dependent on the family's progress in moving toward self-sufficiency and following the program's guidelines.  The Network thoroughly screens the families before accepting them into the program and the success rate for the families is currently calculated at 82%.

At O.L.P.H., the families arrive at Maguire Hall at dinnertime and are picked up early the next morning for transportation to the day center at United Bethel Methodist Church, where shower facilities exist and job counseling is provided.  Adults are driven to interviews or to job training, while the children are transported to Day Care.  Each week the cycle starts again, at a different church, until the families are back on their feet.

Volunteer hosts and hostesses are always needed to plan meals and grocery shop, plan activities, do linen laundry and spend evenings with our guests overnight. For additional information on how you can help, please call Linda Rego at 480-945-2202.