Local family homeless program expanding into Octorara area

KENNETT SQUARE >> Family Promise of Southern Chester County, an organization that aids local families who are homeless, is expanding into the Octorara area. The program currently supports families in Avon Grove, Oxford, Kennett Consolidated and Unionville-Chadds Ford school districts.

Susan Minarchi, executive director of Family Promise of Southern Chester County, Minarchi

will lead the expansion of the local program to families in the Octorara school district. She was selected from a national pool of candidates to serve on the National Affiliate Council based on her leadership of the local affiliate that opened in 2015 to provide emergency shelter, meals and social services to homeless families.

Since the program began in Southern Chester County, 45 families with 100 children and 59 adults have participated in the program and 28 families graduated

into sustainable housing.

“Working closely with the board, Sue’s day-to-day leadership has moved the local program from a start-up in a converted convent in West Grove to a growing operation with a Resource Center in Kennett Square and network of 28 host and support congregations that house and feed families in the program 365 days a year with the help of hundreds of volunteers and many community partners,” said Board President Rev. Annalie Korengel. “She will make many valuable

contributions on a national level, as she has in the local community.”

New program services are supported by donations, grants and fund raising. The next community fundraiser for Family Promise of Southern Chester County, Evening of Promise, will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at Hartefeld National.

Family Promise of Southern Chester County is part of a national, nonprofit initiative founded in 1988 with over 200 affiliates across the nation.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Sue Minarchi