Westerly-Chariho, RI: Making a difference for local families facing homelessness, Family Housing Support in conjunction with the WARM Center is working to provide emergency apartments in the Westerly-Chariho area to help families in need.

A pancake breakfast is held each Saturday of the month, rotating among churches within the Westerly-Chariho community, to increase awareness related to the needs of families struggling with homelessness and raise funds to sustain the emergency housing.

These efforts are critical. The only shelters that accept families with children are outside the Westerly-Chariho area.  Emergency housing made possible by Family Housing Support helps families stay together while receiving the care services they need to move toward a safe and successful future.  Since the group’s inception in June of 2012, Family Housing Support has provided emergency housing to 18 families with a total of 31 children.

It’s hard to be healthy family when you’re homeless, but homelessness isn’t the only challenge that families face today.  Pancakes for a Purpose creates a place and a time and an environment to help families with all sorts of challenges they need to address so they can move forward toward a safer, more successful future.

For example, Pancakes for a Purpose turns out to be a great place to discuss how families are doing with having “the Conversation” about advance care plans. It’s a great place to find out who needs help with technology skills needed to send emails, use the internet, learn to text, go on facebook, download personal health data out of a doctor’s portal, or use a service like MyDirectives.com to record their goals, preferences and priorities for end-of-life care. It also turns out to be a great place to talk about all different dimensions of health and wellness besides physical and mental health, like spiritual health, financial health, social health and environmental health.

Members of the Janie Appleseed Network support the Family Housing Support project and we participate in the Pancakes for a Purpose breakfast. We hope to leverage this “pancake culture”. It’s a time when people from throughout the community come together and sit around a breakfast table to share a cup of coffee and some pancakes. We talk about things that are on people’s minds. We chat about what’s going on in life. It’s a downright “ordinary time”, and that’s what makes it such a great time to talk about what it takes for a family and its members to be healthy.

Join us for Pancakes with a Purpose:

First Saturday of the month:  Cross Mills Baptist Church, 4403 Old Post Road, Charlestown, RI

Second Saturday of the month: Dunn’s Corner Community Church Presbyterian, 221 Post Road, Westerly, RI