MutualOne Foundation Awards $5,000 to Help Homeless Metrowest Families

The MutualOne Charitable Foundation of Framingham recently awarded $5,000 to Family Promise Metrowest, a Natick-based interfaith partnership offering transitional shelter, meals and supportive case management to homeless families with children as they seek permanent housing.

Founded in 2008, Family Promise Metrowest currently involves 40 congregations and over 1,800 volunteers throughout the Metrowest area.

The program’s 15 host congregations furnish overnight lodging and meals for three to five families for one week every two to three months. The program’s Day Center and home base for the families in the program is at the former First Baptist Church in Natick.

“The Family Promise staff and the human service organizations they work with have helped more than 70 percent of the families in the program find permanent housing,” said Steven M. Sousa, executive vice president and chief operating officer of MutualOne Bank, and a MutualOne Charitable Foundation trustee. “We can’t think of a better way to build community and help local families get back on their feet.”

The Family Promise Metrowest grant was among 19 awards made in the Foundation’s most recent round of funding, which totaled nearly $93,000.

The MutualOne Charitable Foundation is a continuation of the Framingham Co-operative Bank Charitable Foundation following the 2012 merger of Framingham Co-operative Bank and Natick Federal Savings Bank.

Since it was originally established in 1998, the Foundation has donated over $2.3 million to charitable, educational, and civic initiatives that improve and enhance the quality of life in Framingham, Natick, and surrounding communities.