Family Promise of Greater Lafayette wins Purdue award

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Family Promise of Greater Lafayette has received the 13th annual Inspiring Families and Building Communities Award.

The award, given by Purdue University's College of Health and Human Sciences, honors organizations that have directly impacted a community and improved the well-being of Indiana families. The program will receive $1,000 and a certificate. Two other programs, Just Us Kids Outdoors in Wayne County and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Brown County, also were recognized and will receive $500 each.

Family Promise of Greater Lafayette, a local affiliate of a national organization, partners with 17 local churches to provide shelter, food, transportation and case management services to local families that are in housing crisis. The program supports children staying in their current schools, and resources, such as working with a case manager on goals and skills to improve their situation, are shared with the adults. Family Promise can assist three families at a time, and since opening in 2009, the organization has sheltered 86 families that include 102 adults and 169 children. More than 80 percent of the families that completed the program have found permanent housing.

Just Us Kids Outdoors, based in Richmond, Indiana, offers a six-week summer day camp for 250 low-income children. The goal is that all children will be able to attend camp, which helps them discover and explore talents, interests and skills outside of the school setting. The camp also provides child care for low-income parents and guardians so they do not need to pay for child care or leave their children home alone.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Brown County, based in Nashville, Indiana, purchases essential food items such as meat, peanut butter, baking supplies, eggs, and fruit and vegetables for families in need. Funds also support personal care items such as toilet paper, as well as clothing and other items for children. In December 2013, more than 400 children received needed items. The back-to-school program this fall will allow children to purchase a new pair of shoes and school supplies. The organization has no employees and logged 7,600 volunteers last fiscal year.   

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu 

Sources: Denise M. Buhrmester, director of communications for the College of Health and Human Sciences, 765-496-3663, dmbuhmester@purdue.edu