If young children who are homeless stay with their families and have a place to sleep, the children become more successful. If children stay with a friend one night followed by a night of nowhere to go, the odds are against them.

With Family Promise in Murfreesboro, homeless families are able to move forward with time and stay together. The families may have to spend the night in a different church weekly, but the change is less volatile than not knowing where they will be staying each evening.

Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport highlighted what some children in Rutherford County go through nightly...