Community Corner

Save the Family Save the Family

The average age of a homeless person is 9 years old. Yet as we all know, it's adult's problems, not children's issues that put them on the street.

The mission of Save the Family is to help children in homeless families by treating the whole family with programs to break the negative cycles of poverty, abuse and homelessness. They strengthen the Valley's communities by facilitating the transition of families to financial and emotional self-sufficiency.

Homeless families experience poverty, deprivations, domestic violence, persistent serious conflicts and chaos. Children of these families are the innocent victims of homelessness and the most vulnerable to its devastating effects. Studies show that these children often suffer developmental deprivation, depression, anxiety, behavior and health problems. Many of these children are at great risk for repeating self-destructive unless the paradigm is altered.

Save the Family was founded in 1988 in response to the need for a comprehensive community service dedicated to assisting homeless families with children. In 1989 they housed 4 families as part of their Transitional Living Program. To meet the needs of the community they have grown by leaps and bounds and in 2006 they served 184 families including 376 children in this program.

Save the Family pioneered the Homeless Families Intervention Project (HFIP). HFIP provides a safe, consistent, and reinforcing environment for adults and children to learn how to replace survival skills with other pro-social, protective, non-violent life skills vital to their success beyond the program. No other homeless assistance provider provides such comprehensive personal development programs. Their programs include:

The Turnbow Foundation is a proud contributor to Save the Family and hopes to continue collaborating with them to make our community stronger. For more information on Save the Family and their programs please visit their website, www.savethefamily.org