Part of a $1 million grant will go toward helping homeless children and families in Pensacola get back on their feet.

In early February, Belk department stores announced a partnership with the nonprofit homelessness prevention organization, Family Promise. Together, the organizations will launch 10 new Family Promise affiliates across the South, including one serving Escambia County.

The affiliate will offer a variety of services including shelter, rental assistance, workforce development, financial training childcare designed to help families transition from just surviving to thriving.

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Claas Ehlers, Family Promise CEO, said Friday that about one in 30 American children will experience homelessness. He said while they may not literally wind up living on the street, they will often sleep in cars, drift from motel to motel, live doubled and tripled up with other families, and deal with a host of other hardships that can alter their entire life trajectory.

"When a child doesn't have a home, you start to take away their future," Ehlers said. "If a child doesn't have a home, where does he study for the test he has to take the next day? Where does he get a nutritious meal? Where does he go when his parents go to work? A home is more than just a place, it's the beginning of a child's life and the basis for their future."

Family Promise works to help stabilize families experiencing homelessness and empower families who are at risk of homelessness to reclaim and maintain their independence. Since its founding, Family Promise has served 825,000 people nationwide, and on average, 82 percent of the families served secure housing within nine weeks of entering the program, according to the organization.

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Affiliate Family Promise of Santa Rosa County has been serving local families since 2006.

Tyler Hampton, a spokesman for Belk, said the company started a program called "Project Hometown," as part of a mission to strengthen communities across its 16-state footprint. Through the initiative, Belk will commit $1 million to supporting 75 existing Family Promise affiliates, as well as starting new programs in Pensacola, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia, Mississippi and Tennessee.

In addition to the grant, Belk is accepting donations at its physical locations with proceeds in each community going to support Family Promise's services to local families in that community.

"The spirit of giving lives deep in the South and we know community members will rally and respond behind that," Hampton said. "That's why we felt like we could get the giving started with the $1 million, and then ask our customers to get involved, too."

The fundraising campaign, "Share the Love" runs through March 2. More information about Family Promise is available at familypromise.org.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at krobinson4@pnj.com or 850-435-8527.