Carbon County officials recognize the importance of Family Promise.

The program, which began in November 2011, is dedicated to helping temporarily homeless families and children.On Thursday, the county commissioners honored this program by naming this week Family Promise Week in the county.Natalie Bojko, director of Family Promise, said that the proclamation is a nice way to recognize the work that the program does throughout the year.Since January, Family Promise has served 52 people, which include 32 children and 20 parents."We provide $250,000 in services on about a $100,000 annual budget," she said, adding that this program is successful through the volunteers who give their time and energy to provide services, fundraiser and educate the public on a very real problem in the county.Families who are in the program must be clean of drugs and alcohol, must be free of violent offenders, have children under the age of 18 and are actively seeking permanent living arrangements.The program utilizes 12 host congregations, who provide a roof over the families heads, as well as 13 supporting congregations.To date, Family Promise has graduated over 30 families into secure, affordable housing.Bojko said that there is an open house scheduled for Sunday for anyone who volunteers with Family Promise. The open house will show volunteers how the work they do provides a safe place for families in need.For more information on Family Promise, to volunteer or for other ways to help, visit

http://familypromisecarboncounty.com.In other matters, the county received no bids for a Community Development Block Grant project at Weatherly Area Community Library. The project included roofing and siding the building.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said this is the third time the county has put the project out for bid and received no bids."It's frustrating," he said, noting that the county will now wait until spring to try and rebid the project.