Family Promise Of Orange County Inc

Our Mission: The mission of Family Promise of Orange County is to help families experiencing homelessness achieve housing stability.

Our Vision: We believe that every family deserves a home and that no child should have to sleep in a car, in a park, or under a bridge.

In 1982, Karen Olson was a marketing executive who developed promotional campaigns for consumer products.

One morning, on her way to a meeting, she saw a homeless woman, someone she'd seen over and over again on her way to work. She decided to buy a sandwich for the woman.

The stranger accepted the sandwich but asked for something else - a moment to be heard, to be comforted, and to be considered as more than a mere statistic on a cold street corner.

Karen was intrigued, and began to educate herself on homelessness. What she found horrified her. She learned that there were hundreds of homeless people, including families, in her home community of Union County, New Jersey.

She turned to the religious community for help. Within ten months, eleven area congregations came forward to provide hospitality space within their buildings. The first Family Promise affiliate was born. Today Family Promise is the only national nonprofit dedicated solely to providing a comprehensive approach to help homeless and low-income families achieve financial independence.

Today there are over 200 independent affiliates in 44 states, with over 30 in development. Each year Family Promise assists over 5,000 families, with one goal - return vulnerable members of our community to stable housing.

The core of each affiliate is a network of congregations that come together to offer support, meals, shelter and hospitality. Each congregation agrees to allow up to four families to spend their evenings at the congregation itself, four weeks out of the year. During the days, guests of the program receive the benefits of wraparound case-management, including job skills and resume training, credit counseling, and individual and family therapy. This intensive support allows families to quickly transition to permanent housing.

Family Promise of Orange County welcomed its first family on Super Bowl Sunday of 2012. Since our launch we have consistently been a top ranking affiliate, both in terms of client success rate and organizational growth.

We are committed to providing the best care and individualized assistance to every family that comes through our doors, and to ensuring that all families return to stable housing within two months of entering our program.

We also continue to offer supportive services to every family that graduates to safeguard that families do not return to homelessness in the future.  

The mission of Family Promise of Orange County is to help families experiencing homelessness achieve housing stability. We are the Orange County affiliate of a national organization founded over 30 years ago that now has over 200 affiliates in 43 states.

In 2025, Family Promise of Orange County served 84 families, helping them move toward stability and independence. Twenty-six of those families entered our program with no income and secured stable income before exiting, demonstrating the life-changing impact of our support and services.

There are numerous ways you can support Family Promise:

Make a Financial Contribution: Our program is 100% privately funded.

In-Kind Donations: We are always looking for gifts of toiletries & hygiene items, cleaning supplies, kitchen items and gift cards to provide to our families. 

You can also: Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter or to see our current Amazon WishList.

You can also: Follow us on social media @ocfamilypromise to keep up to date with all of our upcoming news and activities by engaging, sharing and tagging us.

Get Your Congregation Involved: There are several ways your congregation can get involved. It can be as simple as doing a gift card drive or special offering, or as grand as committing to host our families in your own house of worship.
Contact us: In need of services or calling on behalf of a family chat with us at info@familypromiseoc.org.

All cities and towns in Orange County, CA.

Message from the Executive Director

Family homelessness in Orange County often remains invisible but for the families experiencing it, the challenges are immediate and overwhelming. Parents are working, children are in school, and yet stable housing remains out of reach.
At Family Promise of Orange County, we work alongside families to change that reality. Through housing navigation, case management, and community partnerships, we help families move from crisis to stability and toward long-term independence.
This work is only possible because of the collective effort of our community partners, volunteers, donors, and supporters who believe every child deserves a safe place to call home.
Together, we are building pathways to stability for families across Orange County.

Elizabeth Saldaña
Executive Director
Family Promise of Orange County