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By Josh Perry
Hometown Weekly Staff
Family Promise MetroWest will host its seventh annual 5K Walk Away Homelessness on Saturday, April 9 beginning and ending at the Natick Common. The walk starts at 8:45 a.m. and there will be events running until 11.
Among the local residents taking part in this annual event that raises money to support Family Promise MetroWest programs, which helps families in need with case management and other services, are groups of walkers from First Baptist Church and the Congregational Church in Needham.
This is the fourth year that First Baptist will have a team in the Walk Away Homelessness. According to Joyce Lafaver, who organizes the First Baptist team and also volunteers at Family Promise MetroWest, the goal for this year’s event is to raise $100,000.
“You hear about families being homeless living in their cars but you don’t know where or who they are or how to help,” she explained. “As an FPM volunteer we have an opportunity to prepare and share a meal and conversation with the families, help a child with homework, read a book or play a game with them.”
Lafaver added, “It is so rewarding when you see that a family has been able to save enough for the first and last month rent and can move to an apartment of their own.”
First Baptist’s commitment to the event began in 2013 when Family Promise Network Coordinator Judy Mongiardo spoke to the church’s Mission Committee.
She shared the details of how Family Promise’s small staff relies on more than 2,500 volunteers to continue building services for families, including a Day Center where they can shower, do laundry, use computers, or just relax for a few minutes.
There are also congregations in the area who provide meals for the families that the organization serves and use their Sunday School rooms as temporary bedrooms for the families for a week at a time.
“FPM does not receive any state of federal funds,” said Lafaver. “They rely solely on private donations to run the program.”
“It would be great if Needham residents would rally around this cause to help meet this goal.”
For more information about the organization, to get involved in this weekend’s event, or to donate to the First Baptist team, visit www.familypromisemetrowest.org.
Josh Perry is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at news@hometownweekly.net and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.
