Interview with the First Director of FPCC, Joan Cantor
This year Family Promise of Carteret County (FPCC) is celebrating our 10th Anniversary! In recognition, we sat down with former Executive Director Joan Cantor, who established our FPCC non-profit 10 years ago.
We talk about the struggles that inspired this much needed initiative in Carteret County, and how Mrs. Cantor learned about the Family Promise National organization. Cantor recounts the first of many lives that have been touched by our program.
If you are a former guest or a part of our Outreach program in the past 10 years, we’d love to talk to you. We are looking back on your successes and what your future holds alongside our own advancements.
Please reach out to us, by phone or email, to tell your story or even just to say “Hi!” We are always glad to hear from our families.
Call the office at 252-222-0019, or send an email to contact(at)familypromisecarteret.org
Volunteer Spotlight
Patricia Pate, known in the office as “Miss Pat”, is our volunteer of the month! Miss Pat handles everything with warmth and grace, no matter the chaos around her. In the grip of a pandemic lockdown, she has been here helping to keep the lights on, so to speak.
Miss Pat answers the phone, takes applications, reads to our children, cleans, organizes, drives guests to appointments, and anything else she can offer. She is generous in every way. She is admired by everyone that meets her and FPCC is a welcoming, safe place because of her kindness to everyone she meets.
We also hope she knows just how incredibly grateful the staff is for her weekly Bojangles delivery.
Volunteers Welcome!
As the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end we are going to need Volunteers to help in many ways, from answering the phones and helping with light paperwork, to reading with our kids and talking with our parents, the list is endless. With the reopening of businesses and the end of the eviction moratorium, we know FPCC is going to be very busy very soon. Whether you would like to volunteer as an individual helping our families, assisting with our Outreach program, and helping in the office, or creating a group to help with lawn maintenance, family activities, and more, now is the time.
We need YOU! Through our Volunteers and our local churches, we are building our community and strengthening lives.
Please contact us at 252-222-0019, or send an email to contact(at)familypromisecarteret.org to start helping “the least of these”.
Ten years ago, Joan Cantor founded the WIN Refuge, which soon became the Carteret County affiliate of Family Promise’s Interfaith Hospitality Initiative. In preparation for the interview, Joan Cantor brought a box full of memories from the first years of the program. As we went through them, we talked about the beginnings and the past 10 years of Family Promise of Carteret County.
In 2010, Cantor worked as the Mental Health coordinator in Carteret County. Interacting with many people, she discovered a trend of small needs adding up to major struggles for her clients. A woman with a baby out of wedlock found herself disowned and unable to care for her child, a teen avoiding her abusive parents found herself dependent on strangers, and an injured mother found herself asking her own son to give up his education to keep a roof over their heads. Cantor saw many people forced to choose between homelessness or helplessness. She decided to create the What I Need (WIN) Refuge, a support network forged through Carteret County churches for the homeless or soon to be homeless population of the county.
IT’S A GOD THING
Phenomenal efforts to organize and coordinate 110 church representatives.
Using a newspaper listing, Cantor sent invites to 110 local churches. More than half of those invited across the county sent representation to a luncheon at Glad Tidings Church in Morehead City. After Joan Cantor explained her goals, thirty-nine churches signed up that day to provide resources for the WIN Refuge, with more to follow later.
Mayor Jones issues an official statement of support for Family Promise.
The overwhelming enthusiasm of the audience made it clear they were on the right path, and that was only the beginning. Lockwood Phillips shown a spotlight on the program from conception, with articles in Carteret News Times putting Cantor’s vision front and center. Between his reporting and Cheryl Burke’s, the community was aware and excited for the prospect of WIN Refuge. Even the mayor, Jerry Jones, was excited for the potential of the program and officially signed his support for it.
Guide for the Interfaith Hospitality Network, beginning as a program of Family Promise National
Pastor Charles Royal, an attendee of the luncheon, heard the concept of the WIN Refuge and drew connections to a program operating nationally through Family Promise. The Interfaith Hospitality Network, headed by Claas Ehlers, had a very similar setup to Joan Cantor’s inspiring idea. He bridged the communication between the programs. When Cantor and Ehlers connected, it became clear the groundwork had been laid by both parties. Family Promise of Carteret County was soon formed.
HOME AGAIN
Family Promise of Carteret County has seen many changes in the past ten years, not the least being the location. Supporters of Cantor’s vision offered several buildings, including a house with office space on the ground floor on 35th Street. With proximity to the hospital and several care resources, it was gladly chosen as the Day Center of Family Promise of Carteret County. At first, the focus was on outreach. Cantor’s non-profit provided access to showers, washing machines, and support, with only a few people needing shelter.
Building community through families and their children.
Blessings abounded, and most of the sturdy furniture that Family Promise uses to this day was donated with the 35th street location. Four families benefited in the first few months, and guests turned their lives around to give back to the program. One former graduate of another affiliate came to teach parents to build their self-worth. Instead of homelessness, parents and children were coming through adversity stronger and more capable.
Creating continuity of care through all the churches took a great deal of coordination, and it worked. One of our students, settled in a home with his parent, went off to college, graduating with so many honors, Joan Cantor recalls, “he looked like a rainbow tapestry.” Although our families come for different reasons, they leave the program stronger.
The Day Center on Arendell Street, awaiting renovations to house families on location
When FPCC moved to the corner of 15th and Arendell, we needed more space, because the love Joan Cantor had nourished in the beginning had outgrown the building it was housed in. The community we had built was bringing in more support, and the need was just as great.
We are working to expand that space now, as we continue to grow. Renovations to improve the kitchen and laundry room will provide efficiency and storage, and an addition to add capacity for more families are already in the works. Cantor’s vision continues to grow.
BECAUSE OF YOU
For the first expecting mother in FPCC: invitations to a surprise baby shower at First Baptist Church in Morehead City.
When Hurricane Florence devastated our churches and support network, and the pandemic isolated us, our community took a heavy one-two punch. As Cantor recounted the first baby born in the program, she smoothed out an invitation made by First Baptist Church, who hosted a baby shower for the mother. She recounted how joyful everyone was, especially the parent. There was a great deal of hope in the air, despite the difficulties everyone faced. This, more than anything, reminded me why FPCC is here.
Our churches bring their faith, their hope, and their joy to our program. We build our communities through them, and lives are strengthened because of them. Years later, former guests greet Joan and other volunteers gratefully. In stores, in restaurants, and on the street, they say, “Because of you, and what you did for me.”
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
2018 has been especially challenging this year for Family Promise. Like much of Carteret County, we were hit hard by Hurricane Florence. Four families who graduated from Family Promise found themselves homeless once again after the storm. The Leon Mann Senior Center served as a shelter for weeks, but that ended, and with the help of some great partners we were able to place 3 of those families in a motel. Unfortunately, they do not know where they will live when their time in the motel is up. With the help of FEMA, the remaining family relocated out of the county. We currently support those 4 families in the motel plus 4 families in house. The total number of individuals is 24. We are also working closely with 43 people in our Outreach Program. These are people who are not eligible for Family Promise.
As a result of the storm, the number of homeless families in Carteret County has soared. Family Promise resources are stretched to the limit. 4 of our 12 host churches had damage from the storm that prevented them from hosting our guests. Housing is almost nonexistent and the county as a whole now has a free and reduced breakfast and lunch rate of 52.5%, as opposed to 41.8% before the storm. That 10.7% increase is an excellent measure of how Florence has resulted in an increase in poverty in our county.
The Family Promise Board of Directors and I would like tot hank you for your support this year and to share with you how we have been good stewards of your offerings. So far in 2018, we have welcomed 47 people into our program, including 39 homeless children.
Together, our families and yours
Our program is evolving based on the needs of our guests. Last year we reported that most of our parents required additional skills in order to succeed. To respond, in January 2018 we began a few new initiatives to our program: Parenting Skills and Financial and Budget Management. As we know good parenting is a must for children to grow healthy and well adjusted. We were able to enroll 12 guests in parenting classes with several local organizations and participate in budgeting and financial classes though Woodforest Bank, because when living on a minimum wage income, learning to budget is important. Guests learn to pay bills on time, use food stamps more wisely, prioritize needs before wants, and everyone learned to start saving.
We were successful getting children settled in school with continued tutorial work and remediation as needed. All children either attend after school programming or child care services. All of our children are doing better in school; reading and mathematics skills have improved, and self-esteem has increased. We helped our guests find jobs and housing. Locating affordable housing was a challenge this year because we have had little support from HUD but homes were found, deposits paid and life was good. Then there was Florence.
We continue to assist homeless individuals that do not meet Family Promise requirements by allowing them a place to take a shower, do their laundry, use our computer lab and have a meal. If they are sleeping in their car, under bridges, on a boat or in a tent, we offer mats, pillows and blankets. We also refer them to county human services for additional support.
As you may be aware Family Promise does not receive any federal, state or local government funding. All of our funding comes from our faith-based community, congregations, local grants, foundations,civic clubs and generous individuals like you. Our 2018 operating budget is $85,000. To date we have received $52,500 from generous supporters. We need $32,500 in order to meet our 2018 budget.
A donation of $200.00 keeps Family Promise operational for one day. A smaller donation of $25.00 will purchase a tank of gas, $100.00 helps a family pay for childcare for the month, and$300.00 covers the deposits for electricity and water as our families complete our program and are ready to exit. We are grateful for your past support and hope that we can count on that same support again now.
Here is our continued promise to you. Together we can change our community for the better – right now – with your tax deductible gift to Family Promise. Please consider making a donation so more families can receive the help and services they so desperately need to achieve lasting stability.
As our community’s homelessness has increased these past months, you continue to be the best partner in ending family homelessness in Carteret County.
