There was no soft landing when Family Promise of Colorado Springs hit rock bottom.

The 27-year-old nonprofit crashed hard last year, losing three-fourths of its budget, closing its shelter for homeless families just 2½ years after opening it and shrinking to one staff member.

It was rough, leaders say now looking back on where they were.

“Everything shut down, except for the interest of the board and the faith community and a lot of volunteers and advocates for families who knew it couldn’t die,” said Michael Royal.

He headed the organization from 2010 to 2020 and returned as co-interim leader until September, when new executive director Ralph Patrick came

onboard.

What a difference 2023 has made.

Under the organization’s resurrection, Patrick said dreams have become “objective elements that prove it’s not only sustainable, but will thrive.” Others agree.

While the organization has endured a few failed reboots and offline periods since the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted services, “there was always the assumption that we’d restart,” said the Rev. Daniel Smith, pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church.

Smith also mentions the dedication of leaders such as Royal, who were bearers of hope when all seemed lost.

“Their diligence in sticking with the program and reaching out to stakeholders, funders, the city and congregations and making sure this thing was still moving was really important,” he said. “This is our ministry of our congregations, and we won’t let it go.”

Smith’s father was a co-founder in 1996 of Interfaith Hospitality Network, a grassroots initiative of residents who were alarmed by rising homelessness in the Pikes Peak region and a lack of support for families, in particular.

The organization adopted the trade name of Family Promise of Colorado Springs in 2014, with Interfaith Hospitality Network referring to the overnight congregation system.

The entity was not set up with faith-based designation, Royal said, but rather as a sectarian nonprofit that uses Christian, Jewish and Muslim houses of worship to help carry out its programs.

For one or two weeks at a time, congregations provide families with sleeping quarters, bathrooms, dinners and hospitality — a commonality among all religious traditions. Families typically stay in the program for 45 to 90 days, Royal said.

The model is valuable, Smith said, because families often are separated at homeless shelters. However, in Colorado Springs, that’s not the case at the Salvation Army’s Family Hope Center, which recently was reconfigured into suites for families.

Family Promise clients often have anxiety before entering the program, said Smith, whose church has been a host from the start.

“The idea of staying in church basements and Sunday school rooms is a little nerve wracking,” he said, “but as it gets underway and connections are made and relationships formed, both the families and churches get our eyes opened to the experiences of each other.”

The pandemic halted Family Promise’s rotational congregation model in 2020. The organization tried to accommodate some families in its longtime downtown day center — a house offering daytime respite for parents and children to bathe, do laundry, attend to babies, finish homework, and work with case managers on obtaining permanent housing, employment, income and other necessities.

But that didn’t work, and the day center closed in 2021.

“During the pandemic when the day center first closed and we couldn’t host families anymore in our congregations, we’d bring food to the New Promise shelter and that was really key in the long run because it kept congregations connected to the program,” Smith said.

An attempt to open a day center last year at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church’s unused parsonage in central Colorado Springs failed after neighbors objected to the plan.

“It was one of those unfortunate things where there’s not an understanding of the focus of this program of families and children, but just the stereotyping of homelessness that raises concerns,” Royal said.

St. Paul’s now provides space for transitional housing for 90 days for one family, with hopes for expansion to allow for more families.

The organization’s New Promise homeless shelter, which operated out of a revamped former motel on South Nevada Avenue, served nearly 400 clients from opening at the start of 2020 and before being shuttered in July 2022.

Running the shelter required 24/7 staffing and a roster of 20 employees, Royal said, which became cost-prohibitive.

Financial troubles arose, he said, as the organization became reliant on temporary government funding that would come and go.

“It became our Achilles’ heel,” he said.

Further eroding revenue was a $150,000 drop in philanthropic contributions in 2021 amid donors’ own struggles to remain solvent during the pandemic.

The budget shrank from $1.4 million to last fiscal year’s $340,000, Royal said.

Today, “There’s great momentum happening here,” he said.

Patrick cites several tangible examples of Family Promise returning to business with renewed strength.

At nearly $800,000, this fiscal year’s budget has more than doubled over last year’s, he said, enabling programs to relaunch and staff to expand from one to six people, with an expert consultant, experienced management and a strategic plan in formation.

A fundraiser in September netted $30,000, and a first holiday donor event happens Nov. 30, leaders said.

“We’re getting unsolicited checks coming in the mail and notes saying, ‘So glad to hear you’re back up and running,” Patrick said. “It is really quite a snowball effect.”

The congregational rotation for homeless families has resumed, with a full schedule of 30 congregations providing volunteers or acting as site hosts for families.

The organization also has new office space inside the downtown First United Methodist Church.

“My heart breaks and is committed to helping folks find their way from the streets or cars to sustainable housing and back to the fullness and goodness that I believe God has for every person on this Earth,” said the Rev. Carrie

West, pastor of discipleship at First United Methodist Church and a Family Promise board member.

“The board, volunteers and staff have that same fire and desire; I think that’s why the organization is making a comeback.”

A new day center also is being reborn.

First United Methodist contributed $50,000 toward an estimated $200,000 remodel of a trilevel building at 324 N. Nevada Ave. The church owns the building and is leasing it to Family Promise.

The building had been an alternative worship center and then a dance studio and now is being renovated into individual rooms for families and community spaces including showers, bathrooms, laundry facilities, a kitchen, a play area and a common room. The first phase is scheduled to open in January, Patrick said.

“Whenever an organization leans into a vision and has solidarity with that vision, it’s going to be successful,” West, the pastor, said. “Our vision at First United Methodist is to offer grace, live grace and share grace, and our partnership with Family Promise is one way we want others to experience the grace of God.

“We don’t want to be preachy; providing space and financial health is the way we’re modeling that.”

Perseverance and intentionality in reaching out to former and new donors, grant makers and religious groups helped Family Promise rebound from its near-death experience, supporters say. The organization’s previous success also seems to have helped people believe that it’s a sound investment in a good cause that is on its way to flourishing once again.

“Family Promise is needed in the community, and that’s why we didn’t go under,” said volunteer manager Cindy Weaver, who last year was the nonprofit’s only employee.

“I stayed because people still had a vision and passion for what Family Promise does to empower families experiencing homelessness,” she said.

“Because the congregations of the Interfaith Hospitality Network still saw value in the ‘Family Promise Magic’ of hosting families in their facilities during the hardest times of their lives.

“The community is why Family Promise is still here.”