Family Promise of SPBC

Letter From Henricus Cox, President of Family Promise of South Palm Beach County 

Good News:  Get Ready! After nearly two years of planning, we are now targeting the launch of our Family Promise network here in South Palm Beach County for this September!  This is great news for those whom we will serve because the need to provide tangible support to families without a home has never been greater.  Especially here in Palm Beach.  I am pleased to announce that Ms. Kokie Dinnan has accepted the position of Executive Director of our network.  Kokie has an extensive background in social work, case management, counseling and special needs education.  In addition, she earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) from Florida Atlantic University School of Social Work.  As our Executive Director, Kokie will be responsible to manage the day-to-day affairs of our network, coordinate with the congregations and local agencies, and in general see to it that our guests receive the care and support they need to escape homelessness.  Kokie, who lives in Boynton Beach, will start August 18.  Please join me in welcoming Kokie to Family Promise and I know she can count on all of us to achive her mission.Some other important pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place recently:·         B’nai Torah of Boca Raton formally agreed to become our 8^th host congregation!  We are delighted to welcome them to our network especially since eight host congregations is the minimum number needed to operate a network.  Discussions are on-going with two more congregations to bring the number of hosts to ten, which allows for a more convenient rotation of host congregations.  Of course, we also are blessed with five supporting congregations who will provide tangible support and assistance to our network.·         We have found our Day Center! St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church of Delray Beach has allowed us the use of a floor in a two story building where our guests will spend the day and use resources such as newspapers, computers, Internet, voice mail, and fax machines, to find a place to live or look for work.  Children will go to school from this Day Center and return here after school.·         We are establishing the Family Promise office in our Day Center as well; office furniture, computers, phones etc. are in the process of being installed.·         We have been blessed with sufficient financial donations to hire our Executive Director, purchase the van and launch operations.  Yet more is needed to sustain us annually.   Therefore, we will start an important fund raising campaign that allows us to build a broad support base in our local community.·         We have bought a van which we will use to shuttle our guests from the Day Center to the Host congregation and back.