Homeless families throughout the Carbon County area may soon be in luck.

Family Promise of Carbon County, an outreach program geared to help homeless families get back on their feet, could be in place early next year.Tina Dodd, vice president of the organization, visited with members of the Sacred Heart Parish in Palmerton during the Sunday morning mass to inform them of the group's plan.Dodd said the organization wants to establish a network of 13 congregations within the county. The group would be made up exclusively of volunteers, with the exception of one paid social worker.To date, she said five churches - the Zion UCC Church in Lehighton, St. John's Lutheran Church in Mahoning Township, All Saints Episcopal Church in Lehighton, Christ Lutheran Church in Jim Thorpe, and Trinity Lutheran Church in Bowmanstown - are on board.Dodd said the way the program would work is that each of the congregations would take turns hosting families seven consecutive nights four times a year.They would provide food, shelter, and hospitality, along with God's love, as well as a caring listening ear, she said.A congregation in Lehighton has agreed to donate its building, complete with two showers, a washer and a dryer, as a day center whereby the social worker would assist the families, Dodd said.Transportation would also be provided to the families courtesy of a 15-passenger van, which she said would pick up the families at their respective congregation and transport them to the day center. Children would also be picked up at the center by bus and driven to school, Dodd said.Dodd said a typical day would see a truck arrive at the congregation on a Sunday afternoon with supportable beds that two volunteers would set up. Then, at 5 p.m., another two volunteers would arrive to cook meals, followed by two volunteers at 7 p.m., who would provide hospitality until 9 p.m. Finally, two more volunteers would arrive and sleep with the families from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. at their respective congregation, whereby bedding would be provided."This is for your neighbors who are down on their luck and maybe lost their job during the recession," Dodd said. "These families are homeless, but they're not helpless."Dodd said the program would have each of the families best interests at heart."Our long-range goal is to place the families into apartments and houses," she said. "We have a 76-percent success rate."But, before the program can get off on its feet, Dodd said volunteers are needed. Sign-up sheets are available, and Dodd urged congregation members to sign and return them if they'd like to volunteer."If you can cook, talk, or sleep, then you have the skills to do this," she said.The Rev. William T. Campion, pastor, Sacred Heart Parish, said his parish council has reviewed the request."Be assured Sacred Heart will do something," Campion said. "If you think you'd like to be involved in any way, sign your name, and our parish council will review it."At present, Dodd said a recruiting team, which also consists of Martha Cox, Nancy Koch, and Joanne and Austin Blew, is in the midst of recruiting eight other congregations throughout the county to partake in the program."The process really takes a long time for churches to make their decision," she said. "Most of the churches in the community are still in the process of having us speak and evaluating it."If all goes well, Dodd said the group could be functional by February.