A Pledge to Help

Family Promise of Bell County serves those in need

By AMY ROGNLIE | Photos courtesy of Family Promise of Bell County

“Our No. 1 priority is to ensure that children are safe, and that the traumatic experience of homelessness is mitigated,” said Rucker Preston, executive director of Family Promise of Bell County. “We want children to never know that they are homeless while in our care, onsite in the Promise House or the Promise Homes. With caring staff and volunteers as well as clean and warm facilities, children are free to be themselves and not afraid of anything. This allows the children to do better in school and in life.”

Family Promise’s mission is to empower families experiencing homelessness to achieve sustainable independence through an outcome-oriented, community-based response. The need is great, and Family Promise’s staff receives upwards of 70 calls or emails a day for help. Instead of measuring success by the number of meals provided throughout the year, they are focused on seeing a family who has come to them on the worst day of their lives — homeless, in need and in a time of crisis — and then seeing them graduate from Family Promise’s program, becoming self-sufficient and no longer in need of FP’s services and help.

Family Promise requires a contract of work with their families and are very relational in their approach. By providing high-quality case management, Family Promise’s staff tailor each plan of action around the families’ unique set of needs.

“We expect the families to do every bit of work that they can do on their own, and we promise to do everything we can do to help with what the families cannot do on their own,” Preston said. “This is not a place where you come and lay your head for one night and maybe come back tomorrow. This is a place of contract, because we want to treat families with dignity while they learn to be stable and self-sufficient long-term.”

With that in mind, Family Promise provides much more than housing. The organization matches families’ savings 1:2 upon program graduation, meaning that Family Promise gives the family $750 after the family has saved $1,500+. Over the last 5.5 years, every family who has graduated from Family Promise’s shelter program, who came to Family Promise homeless and without their own vehicle, has graduated with their own car, paid outright, without any debt. Family Promise typically pays between 70-90% of the cost of the car, and the family pays the rest. It is the family’s responsibility to locate the vehicles, with the organization’s help and guidance (again, working together), and they make sure the families are getting into a good transportation situation.

In addition, Family Promise seeks to educate their “guests” in every way they can. Cadence Bank staff conducts financial literacy classes, while Baylor College of Medicine students provide cooking classes. Numerous other organizations, individuals, and local churches are also active as volunteers, giving their knowledge, expertise, time, and money, with more than 600 people volunteering annually.

Founded in 2004, Family Promise originally served families through a model where churches rotated a week at a time, providing a place for families to stay every night of the year. However, only 3-4 families (a max of 14 people) could be served at a time in that model. In 2020, Preston was hired as executive director and they put in place a five-year strategic plan. This included the Promise House, which opened in January of 2023, and the Promise Homes, which opened a few months ago in late 2025.

In 2021, Family Promise acquired two acres of land from the City of Temple on which the new Family Promise campus is now built. Phase I is the Promise House, a new 7,000-square-foot building that opened on Jan. 2, 2023. The Promise House increased the number of guest families served as well as the quality of services provided to the families. The Promise House includes seven bedrooms with private bathrooms, staff offices, a classroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, playground and large laundry room. Families are expected to purchase their own groceries, cook their own meals, and clean up after themselves, while Family Promise staff and volunteers provide meals for all the families on Friday and Sunday nights.

The Promise Homes opened in the fall of 2025. The eight transitional homes provide extended stability for families experiencing homelessness, who are working with staff to achieve the goals that lead their families to self-sustainability and housing independence. The expansion more than doubled on-site capacity, allowing a total of 15 families to be served on the Family Promise campus at one time. In addition, Clayton Homes gifted another off-site home in Temple to Family Promise in December for a total of nine Promise Homes.

Family Promise also has a homeless prevention program which helps 75-100 at-risk families a year. This program seeks to prevent homelessness by assisting with electric bills and other household expenses.

Amazingly, all of this — two capital campaigns totaling $3.1 million — was accomplished in three years with zero debt or any tax dollars. Private grants and private contributions were used to secure all funding, leaving Family Promise with no debt and a 90% success rate for the graduates from their program.

“I believe that it is very important to never have any debt so that financial supporters know that their contributions go directly to our work serving families facing homelessness,” Preston added. “I believe you can measure the values of a community based on how much care is provided to the most vulnerable among us. We have great support from churches, school districts and cities in Bell County, not to mention the hundreds of people who volunteer with us each year. It means a lot to know that our community is invested in the lives of our neighbors, especially children who are facing homelessness.”

GET INVOLVED
Phone: 254-773-9980
Email: info@familypromisebellcounty.org
Website: www.familypromisebellcounty.org/
Facebook: Facebook.com/FamilyPromiseofBellCounty
Instagram: Instagram.com/familypromisebellcounty/