A Message from Jim Gress

Executive Director of Covenant House Florida
 

This website contains information for teens and parents, donors, staff and volunteer applicants, students, and anyone interested in the plight of troubled adolescents and Covenant House Florida's services in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando—please look through it and witness God's work.

By far, youth are our most important and precious asset, yet too many of them have been discarded from families that couldn’t or didn’t foster their growth and development.

I became involved with Covenant House Florida 22 years ago because I believe in our Mission—that we are the hands of God, empowered and entrusted by Him to feed, clothe, shelter, and covenant with runaway and homeless teens.  Their needs are more complicated than ever before.  Domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, emotional abuse and family breakdown have levied huge tolls on our teenagers.  With little in the way of education, life skills, and self-esteem, they flounder through adolescence without the love and support they so much need.

It's busy at our shelters, and that's both distressing and hopeful.  As heartrending as it is that there are constantly kids who need us so much, it is uplifting that our door is open to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They come to us because they have absolutely nowhere else to go for safe shelter.  Through God's grace, and the loving generosity of our donors, they receive opportunities to turn their lives around.

Among the services we provide are individual and family counseling, pregnancy prevention and teen parent education, substance abuse treatment, education, employment assistance, transitional housing, and pastoral activities.  These are lifelines to kids adrift from home, school, church, and society.

Over the past two decades, I have been honored and humbled to meet many of our donors, and I will continue to invite you to receptions in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando and other locations around the state. 

We’d love to show you first hand how we help kids.  If you would like more information about these gatherings or a tour of one of our shelters, please call me at 954-568-7925 or e-mail mission@covenanthousefl.org.

James M. Gress

Executive Director