“ I was hungry and you fed me…”

In May , Unity Church becomes “HOME” for Ramsey County families who are temporarily without housing. This is Unity’s fifth year participating in Project HOME, a ministry of hospitality for families experiencing homelessness.

Project HOME, coordinated by the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches, works with sites such as Unity Church to ensure that safe, clean and comfortable shelter is available when the beds at the Ramsey County Family Service Center in Maplewood are filled to capacity. Through the volunteer efforts of members and friends of Unity, our church needs to be prepared to provide 30 nights of shelter this spring.

We hope you will consider contributing to this year’s Project HOME effort by volunteering as an Evening Shelter Host and/or an Overnight Shelter Host.

Project Home Background

Homelessness in the Twin Cities

Volunteer Position Descriptions and Training/Support

What I Experienced – Stories from Unity Church Project Home Volunteers

Get Involved in Project Home

Project HOME Background

Project HOME is a special ministry to families who are temporarily living without housing. This important program provides overflow shelter for families when the Ramsey County Family Service Center in Maplewood has reached capacity.

Every month Project HOME works with two churches, synagogues or schools which serve as shelter sites. The shelter sites provide volunteer host staffing beginning at 5:30 p.m. each night until 7 a.m. the following morning on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends. The families are screened by Ramsey County before they are assigned to a Project HOME shelter site. Families which may have issues such as drug/alcohol abuse or violence are sent to other facilities which are better equipped to deal with their situation.

Shelter sites such as Unity provide the following services for the families they host:

• A minimum of four volunteer hosts each night, two Evening Shelter Hosts and two Overnight Shelter Hosts.
• Safe, clean spaces for the families to sleep.
• A separate sleeping area for volunteers.
• A space for children to play and do HOMEwork.
• A snack in the evening and a light breakfast in the morning.
• Local phone service for the families.

Project HOME provides the following services:

• Transportation to and from the shelter site.
• Beds, bedding and laundry service.
• Basic hygiene supplies and other items such as clothing, diapers and feminine products.
• Volunteer Training.
• On-call Project HOME staff who are accessible by phone throughout the evening and night in the event of emergencies.

Homelessness in the Twin Cities

A shelter is not a home. Homeless families are the invisible families, often living in cars and moving around from place to place. This is a difficult life for adults; a tragic life for children. They have no place to go after school to feel safe. No place to invite friends. No place to play, no place to be a child. No place to call HOME.

These statistics regarding homelessness and the devastating effects on children were provided by the Wilder Research Center, 2001 (some of the data is included in Let’s Fix This from the Minneapolis Foundation):

• On a given night, 3,050 Minnesota children are homeless.
• 41% of homeless adults are employed.
• 72% of homeless adults have children under the age of 17; 34% of these adults have children with them.
• Homeless children are three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than the general population.
• Homeless children are six times more likely to have stunted growth.
• Homeless children have twice as many respiratory infections.
• 75% of homeless children test below their grade level in reading.
• Homeless children are four times more likely to have learning disabilities.
• 41% of homeless children attend two or more schools per year.

There are a number of reasons people become homeless. However, the lack of affordable housing is central to the crisis of homelessness that families are experiencing in our Twin Cities’ communities.

According to the Wilder Research Center, “The signs of the affordable housing shortage began to show up in shelter trends in 1996, when the percentage of families reporting ‘lack of affordable housing’ as a reason for seeking emergency shelter increased to 59%, up from 33% the year before. By 1999, the proportion had grown to 82%, and in 2000, 96% of adults with children cited ‘lack of affordable housing’ as a reason for seeking shelter.”

Volunteer Needs and Qualifications

During the dates of May 2 to May 31, a minimum of four volunteers is needed each night to support Unity Church’s Project HOME ministry of hospitality for homeless families. Each night we will need two Evening Shelter Hosts and two Overnight Shelter Hosts who have these qualifications:

• A friendly, caring attitude
• Reliability to follow through on their scheduled commitment
• Energy and a love of children
• Respect and understanding for parents

At least two people over the age of 18 are needed for each shift; children and young people are invited to volunteer as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Families are welcome and encouraged to volunteer together.

Summary of Position Descriptions

Evening Shelter Hosts start their shift at 5:30 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. Duties include:

• Welcome families as they arrive and help distribute what they need for the night such as bedding and care packs.
• Provide a healthy evening snack and tidy up the kitchen.
• Help children with their HOMEwork, play games with them, and chat with the adults if they are so inclined.

Overnight Shelter Hosts start their shift at 8:00 p.m. and end about 7:00 a.m. the following morning on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. on weekends. Duties include:

• Help get the guests settled for the night.
• Sleep in the room designated for volunteers. Please be sure to bring your own pillow and bedding.
• Awaken the guests in the morning.
• Provide a simple breakfast; tidy up the kitchen and common gathering room.
• Make sure the guests are ready to depart when the Project HOME van arrives.

Volunteer Training

Training sessions will be offered for Project HOME Evening and Overnight Hosts in April. Once you’ve signed up for a shift, you will be invited to attend the session which best fits your schedule.

Both sessions are held at Unity Church and are facilitated by Project HOME staff and Unity Project HOME team members. The training covers background on Project HOME, the homeless situation in the Twin Cities, Evening and Overnight Shelter Host responsibilities, review of Project HOME shelter rules, information on how to handle specific situations that may arise, and a tour of the spaces Unity will be using for Project HOME.

During your shift you will have access to emergency phone numbers. If you are an Evening Host, a Project HOME staff person will be on site initially to introduce you to the families and answer questions. If you are an Overnight Host, you will be introduced to the families by the Evening Hosts.

If you are unable to attend one of the training sessions, a Unity Project HOME team leader will mail you the training materials. They will follow up with you by phone or e-mail to see if you have questions or concerns regarding your upcoming volunteer shift.

Experiences Shared by Unity Church

Project HOME Volunteers

It will take more than 120 volunteers to fully meet the needs of our shelter site during May 2005. This spring, please consider joining the efforts of these and many other Unity Church volunteers in providing safe, comfortable and welcoming shelter to homeless families.

I was looking for a way to volunteer at Unity and was not sure what I wanted to do. Honestly, volunteering for one or two shifts with Project HOME seemed like a good way to volunteer without making a long-term commitment. Certainly I could give up an evening! I was a little nervous at first, but when I got to my shift, I found that the project was organized and rules outlined. I was surprised and touched that many of the families wanted to talk about their lives and why they were at a shelter. One family had lost their home in a fire, another young mother was living at her mom’s and didn’t get along with her mom’s new boyfriend. Their sincerity was a gift to me and a reminder that anyone, given certain circumstances, can end up in crisis. They often talked about their hope for the future and how they were planning on getting a permanent place to stay. It was a good experience for me and I am looking forward to volunteering again! (Terri McNeil)

Going into my Project HOME volunteer shift I was somewhat anxious and had little idea whom I would meet or how our overnight shift would go. When my wife and I arrived at Unity, the Evening Shelter volunteers introduced us to the two families who were staying at our church that night. That night I helped a little girl put together a jigsaw puzzle while her mom worked the telephone to seek help from friends. Every guest I met was polite and many were very friendly. The parents and kids seemed to just be looking for a quiet place to rest up after having had a tougher day than most of us can imagine. I had a rewarding experience working with Project HOME at Unity. It felt meaningful to connect with people and to help them so directly with common things such as providing a roof over their heads and a little breakfast in the morning. I’ll be helping again this year. (Steve Nelson)

For the past three years, Unity Church has served as overflow shelter for families experiencing homelessness during the month of May. This involves providing space for families to sleep, as well as welcoming and hosting the guests in our church. I have volunteered several times to serve in the capacity of host and each time found that I probably benefited as much as, if not more than, our guests.

Most Minnesotans know the magic of May - warm, spring evenings, the smell of lilacs, the freedom of going coatless. All my nights volunteering have happened to be beautiful evenings, and I admit I found it hard to tear myself away from my family and their plans to walk to the ice cream shop or meet friends at the playground. But I always came back to my HOME feeling energized and connected to the people I met.

If you volunteer to host families in shelter, don’t expect that you are going to help anyone make a significant change in their living situation and don’t expect that you will receive more than a weary thank you from some of the guests. But you can expect to be enriched from the experience of joking around with elementary school students, discovering that third grade math homework has changed from when you were a kid, helping a single mother study for her GED by teaching her to diagram sentences, or even reflecting on your own beliefs about child-rearing, and how they differ from those of the parents there that night.

I wish I could say that hosting homeless families gives them a direct benefit. Sometimes it happens that you can make a significant and visible difference. But most of the time, hosting is about reaching out and making a human connection. It’s impossible to change someone else’s life, for better or worse. But in making the connection, I change myself and my own attitudes, and, in the end, my beliefs on how to effect larger social change. (Angela Newhouse)

I have been a volunteer for Project HOME at Unity for three years. I like to volunteer for two or three evenings in a row so I can get to know the families better and provide a touch of stability for the kids. I especially like to talk to the children and play games with them, and help make a "homey" environment. By volunteering I've learned a lot first hand about how people become homeless. Each family has a different story, but there are patterns of high rent, bad luck, low wages, poor planning, crazy social service rules, and lack of health care. This knowledge helps me better know who to vote for and where I stand on housing issues. But mostly I like directly helping people who truly need a hand. (Kathy Sidles)

Becoming a volunteer for Project HOME has been important for me in two ways. I am glad to know that Unity Church has opened its doors to numerous homeless people who have no other place to spend the night. It is a very needed service when we have so many homeless families. On a more personal side, I would never otherwise have had the opportunity to speak with, to play with, or provide snacks to these families. Having met these families, I know that they are persons like myself with the same basic needs as I have. Knowing that many of these family members hold full time, minimum wage jobs and can't afford a home of their own, is truly sad. Volunteering with Project HOME has given me names and faces of homeless Minnesotans. (Olly Staneslow)

Getting Involved

To get involved in Project Home, contact Pat Haff at 651/228-1456, ext. 126.