Our Mission…
The mission of My Father’s House is to equip homeless families with the life skills necessary to become contributing members of their community.
Our Vision…
The vision of My Father’s House vision is to be a leading model for successfully transforming the lives of homeless families from dependency and need to self-sufficiency and contribution.
Our Core Values…
My Father’s House is built upon three core values. Those values are:
Relationship: Building strong relationships is necessary to fulfill our mission. This includes staff members, volunteers, donors and those we help. Positive modeling throughout the organization is critical to building the relationships with our residents to support family, trust and respect.
Responsibility: Throughout the organization, every individual is responsible for their actions consistent with their abilities. That extends to our family residents as each family is responsible for their own household. We don’t do anything for our residents that their abilities make it possible to do for themselves.
Accountability: Everyone in the organization is held accountable for their responsibilities and their actions. This includes each family as they are held accountable for their own growth, actions and commitments.
Our Families…
We strive to assist families by helping them learn life skills in order to cope physically, emotionally, and relationally. My Father’s House affords a safe environment where families can stay together and work toward independent living. Building strong family foundations is encouraged through individual, couple and family counseling and life issues classes which include: renter education training, parenting skills, substance abuse, anger management, sexual addiction, developing a balanced sense of self, and domestic violence. Since many of our residents are single mothers we address their unique needs as necessary.
Our Children…
More than half of our residents are dependent children, from newborns through high school age, with a variety of specialized needs. We have volunteers who provide child care. We require school age children to attend the local school and we work with schools and qualified volunteers to offer individualized tutorial assistance. We hope to expand our children’s program to include individual counseling and play therapy as appropriate in our new larger facility.
Programs that teach responsibility…
All of our programs stress responsible living and decision making. We never do anything for residents they are able to do for themselves, but we are available with assistance, support, and training. We use a case management approach, which includes weekly goal setting and progress assessment for each family. We offer assistance in job training, job search, and networking as well as individual assistance and classes in personal finance, grooming, and homemaking. Our goal is to help families become self-supporting and independent.
Community and Church Involvement…
We are a community shelter located in East Multnomah County, near the Gresham-Portland border. The involvement of churches, businesses, civic groups, and individual and family volunteers is essential to our success. We foster active participation through such activities as the adopt-a-room program, weekly family nights, an active volunteer program, and a variety of community outreach events such as auctions, picnics and dinners.
