Valley Interfaith Promise (VIP)

An affiliate of the national Family Promise organization, Valley Interfaith Promise is a network of churches in the Columbus and Phenix City area that provide help to homeless families in the form of accommodations, meals, transportation, and counseling that typically enables them to transition to permanent housing in 30-90 days. Each church hosts the families (up to 3 at a time) on their premises for one week per quarter. Families stay in church facilities (typically Sunday School rooms) over night and church members provide all meals, evening and weekend activities, and other support as needed. The VIP Day Center downtown provides a daytime base of operations for the families as they seek jobs, permanent housing, and receive one-on-one counseling from the executive director of the program. Families are carefully screened before admission to the program, in order to assure that they are likely to benefit from the program, and pose no threat to church members, staff, or property.