What is Odessa Family Pathways?  

Odessa Family Pathways:  A New Name and Future Plans   

What is OFP?  Odessa Family Pathways is a 501 (3)c organization designed to help unsheltered families with children through a long term overnight stay program; and, to help families in need of shelter services stay in  their own homes and thrive.  Formerly known as Odessa Family Promise, an affiliate of the National Family Promise organization,   Odessa Family Pathways has kept its original mission, but has added additional pathways to meet the needs of the Odessa, Texas community.  In October, 2025  our board of directors voted to change our name to Odessa Family Pathways and we have disaffiliated with the National Family Promise Organization. Our new mission and vision are similar to our original commitment to provide services for unsheltered families with children in the Odessa area.  Odessa Family Pathways will continue to provide a holistic program, structured for the individual needs of each family to accelerate their success and transition into homes of their own. We plan to implement activities to prevent families from losing their homes, as well. 

Why did we disaffiliate with Family Promise? Several reasons led to the decision to disaffiliate from the National Family Promise organization and to change our name to Odessa Family Pathways.  About two years ago, we became aware of some changes in the national organization that were not aligned with their original program components or with our philosophy of service to unsheltered families.  One of these changes was the move to low barrier program admissions, which meant we were encouraged to accept people with very little screening.  Our practice is to interview potential clients to understand if their goals are aligned with the services and requirements of our program. Additionally, we screen our overnight guests for drugs, alcohol and criminal history,  Since they will  be living in a multifamily home with several children, we feel this helps us ensure  all children and adults in the program are protected.  While each family has their own bedroom, they do share bathrooms, a living area, the kitchen and laundry facilities. 

Our finances are another reason for the change in name and the disaffiliation with the National Family Promise. This is due to requirements of the new agreement.  We would be required to have multiple staff and board members traveling to conferences and meetings out of town at a high cost to our organization. Also, the affiliate fees would be very high and we would have to pay those fees as well. The board felt the money could be better spent on direct services to our families. Under the agreement issued in September, we would need to be on a very rapid growth plan, requiring us to triple the number of staff members and increase the number of families we serve by 80%.  Previously, we served 10 to 11 families per year, but under the new agreement we would have to serve 50 families a year.  As one can imagine, that would be difficult to accomplish and it would require a lot more infrastructure to accommodate that many families. Our current annual budget is $248,000 per year, but under the new agreement, we would have to increase that budget to around $1,000,000.  This process would have to begin immediately.  Our board felt that expanding that rapidly  was not feasible.  If we were to fail  to meet the requirements of the new agreement, we would be dropped from the National Family Promise organization anyway.  

What is different about Odessa Family Pathways?  We will continue to offer unsheltered families a long term overnight stay program, called "Pathways to Independence" designed to  help  them rebuild lives and transition into  homes of their own.   Our new "Promising Pathways"  program will be similar to our current program and will offer new opportunities to help families who may not want to be admitted to the overnight stay program.  Additionally we plan to help stabilize families with follow up services after they transition from living at the center.  Our decision was made based on the needs of unsheltered families in the Odessa area and our commitment to serving them with best practices.

What's in the Future for Odessa Family Pathways?  We plan to expand our services to help more people in our area, diversify our funding sources and to continue to offer a quality program with a success rate of 90%+.  We are investigating other pathways, such as those that might serve youth and help us partner with other non-profit organizations with similar missions.