Family Shelter Collaboration Supper, June 12, 2017

On June 12, 2017, Emerald Compassionate Action Network hosted a potluck supper meeting to support the Interfaith Family Shelter System, a program of Saint Vincent de Paul's First Place Family Center. Existing and potential coordinators of various congregations were asked to consider how collaboration could strengthen and expand the shelter network. Doing so might allow families to remain in place at one location for a longer period of time, or allow congregations to work in tandem with their volunteers and space.

From the Saint Vincent de Paul website: "The Interfaith Night Shelter is a consortium of more than 30 faith communities offering night shelter, food, recreational activities, and comfort to as many as 10 families per night, throughout the school year. Congregational hosts sign up for one to two weeks each year. More than 1,500 volunteers make this outreach possible!"

37 people attended the supper. 12 of them were from congregations that had not yet hosted families. Beckey Beck of First Place, coordinator of the entire system, gave us an overview, recorded in the video below. Then a family currently moving from church to church with the other families reported on the value of the program. We held a short table-talk brainstorming session on what we could do today to insure that the program is running smoothly by the year 2019. Many people said that they felt energized by the interactions of this evening. 

Participants received: 

• • Questions and Answers Unity of the Valley had when The Church of The Resurrection asked for help with hosting their Shelter Week

  • First Congregational Church Volunteers' testimony

  • List of ideas proposed during the brainstorming

  • Contact information for everyone else who attended

As mentioned in this video, there is a map of all the local faith communities accessed through this website. The red check-box next to each sector of the Compassionate Action Network can be used to select which ones are visible, and the down-arrow under the checkbox will open a complete list of all organizations within that sector. In addition, clicking on either the name of an organization or its icon on the map will open a dialog box containing contact and program information.