We Offer Shelter and Intensive Life Coaching

A small apartment building gifted to Tricounty Family Ministries for at least five years has paved another way to help families in need: Provide them with temporary shelter and a life overhaul to help them turn their lives around permanently.

The building’s two apartments have been renovated and furnished by Navy, Americorps, local business and church volunteers. There is additional space for a laundry, a community classroom and a computer center.

Families chosen for this Families in Transition program (FIT) receive needed training and counseling in key life skills, including relationship building, conflict management, parenting, budgeting, vocational and more. This training is provided by Ocean Sun Counseling and other agencies, empowering these clients to make positive choices that enable them to get their lives back on track.

A personal story

On Christmas Day, a newly furnished TFM apartment stood ready with heat, food, toys . . . and a sense of emptiness.

Little did my mother know that after-noon—when we set out for our traditional Christmas ride to look at downtown decorations— we were actually on a hunt for a family that needed a warm, safe place to stay.

We ended up at a downtown shelter, and soon after checking in with the supervisor, a family of seven appeared on the scene. There was a glimmer of hope in the father’s teary face—and then in the mother’s—when they heard the words: a home.

The inquisitive children—age two to seven— crowded around my legs: Are you going to help us find a home? Are you an angel?

The family moved into the apartment that night. Christmas dinner was delivered and filled the home with agreeable aromas.

The children went wild when they saw their bunk beds, toys that weren’t broken and a little angel book strategically placed on the bedside table.

That Christmas won’t soon be forgotten: There was room at the inn.

      —Sue Hanshaw, TFM CEO