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I’m excited to be the new Chairperson for Family Promise of Waukesha County as we endeavor on our new Community Shelter Program. We have an energetic Board of Trustees that is supporting this effort as we begin involving more of our volunteers again.
The past three years have brought about a lot of change for our organization due to the pandemic, but out of change comes great things. We have a prevention program in place that helps prevent the lifelong trauma children and families endure when they become homeless. We have an apartment shelter program that has grown to five apartments housing both families and single women.
And now we are beginning our new Community Shelter program, which will allow us to house up to another five families. We are especially excited to get our wonderful volunteers back in similar roles that they were accustomed to when we were operating solely under the congregational model. It’s also great to see the number of new volunteers that are starting with us. We couldn’t do this without everyone.
I’ve lived in Lake Country for more than 25 years along with my husband, Jim. We have three children -Brandon, Evan, and Sydney. Sydney volunteered with me as a teenager whenever our congregation was hosting and it was eye opening to her to see that homelessness existed in our rather affluent Lake Country area. We enjoyed playing with the kids, serving the meals, as well as sitting down to eat with the families. I feel this is what makes volunteering with Family Promise so special - really seeing how you can impact someone’s life when they are going through a rough time and being able to raise your children to show that same kindness.
I joined the Board of Trustees in May 2019 at a time when my kids were older and I was able to devote more time and use my skill sets in finance and business to help the organization grow and transform through the pandemic. I became the Treasurer in May 2020 and now most recently accepted the role of Chairperson. I look forward to continuing to grow our organization with the other trustees and the committed staff at Family Promise so we can help families navigate homelessness in our community.