Published: November 01, 2009 11:05 pm      

CAM to open family shelter

Ribbon-cutting ceremony set for Wednesday

While separate community programs exist in Kokomo to assist homeless women, women with children, and single men, there has never been a shelter for a homeless couple with children, a father with children, or an adult-extended family.

Until now.

Ruth Lawson and the volunteers at Coordinated Assistance Ministries announced last week the opening of the Family Hope Center, located at the corner of Apperson Way North and Walnut Street.

The new facility will open Nov. 14 during National Homeless Awareness Week, said Lawson, executive director of CAM.

The center will officially open the new facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at the center.

The public is also invited to its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 14 and from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 15.

“This is the first family shelter built for intake of families in the six-county area,” Lawson said. “We have helped families before, but we never have had anything set up for them.”

“It will house three families,” Lawson said. “Right now, we’ll do one family at a time and we will have a supervisor, Sandy Quaife, a counselor at Howard Regional Health System, that will be living there.”

Lawson thanked Joe Tackett, who headed up the project; David Brownfield; Jerry Brady and the many volunteers, and funds from the Community Development Block Grant that helped finish the exterior handicap ramp, storage barn, sidewalks and front window.

The Family Hope Center is possible because of the generosity of Family Worship Center and Transitions of Kokomo LLC for leasing the property to CAM, Inc. for $1 a year, she added.

Also, churches, organizations and businesses have donated more than $25,000 for the remodeling of the facility.

• Mike Fletcher is the Kokomo Tribune crime reporter. He can be reached at 765-454-8565 or mike.fletcher@kokomotribune.com.