IHN Background:
Who We Are:
The Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Worcester (IHN) works in partnership with the faith community to provide shelter and assistance to homeless families with children. The program’s primary goals are to assist families in increasing their income and to help them secure permanent housing, while providing the critical support services necessary for them to succeed. In addition to IHN staff, these support services involve approximately 1000 volunteers that come from the host and support congregations, as well as the community at large. Our program gives people the opportunity to become involved, to put their beliefs into action by providing hands-on mission work in their own community and to make a difference in the lives of families who are desperately in need.
The shelter is located at 91 June St. It is a three story home and has the capacity to accommodate six families at any given time. The first floor of the building is handicap accessible. Check out our
new website at
http://www.ihnworcester.org/!
IHN partners with the religious community in a unique joint mission to serve and nurture the resident families. Volunteers from 25 congregations rally together to give of their time and interest each week and to share in this unique community mission. Volunteers provide meals or grocery gift cards, diapers, wipes and other household supplies, companionship, support and moral encouragement. They provide 100 hours of program coverage each week for evening and overnight supervision for the program (5:30pm to 6:30am M-F; 5:30pm to 8:30am Sa-Su).
Volunteers dine with the families and stay during the evening to socialize, plan activities for the children, tutor children in need and provide caring, compassionate support to parents and children. One or two volunteers are recruited to stay overnight with the guests, sleeping privately on cots located in the Director’s office.
Volunteers are critical to the success of stabilizing families who are guests of the IHN program. Your involvement, commitment and advocacy enables IHN to help families at a fraction of the cost of traditional shelters and allows them to stay in a safe, secure and loving family-oriented environment.
How we help at St. Mary and St. Philip . . .
Annual Shoe Drive:
Each Spring, IHN runs a Shoe Drive collecting gently used shoes, boots, sandals, sports shoes, etc. The shoes are exchanged for donations from Funds2Orgs to IHN.
What’s unique about this fundraiser?
In the US alone, over 630 million pairs of shoes are thrown out each year. Materials used to manufacture shoes are created from chemical compounds that will create hazards if left to disintegrate openly in landfills. By donating your gently used pairs of shoes to IHN, your shoes are given a second chance to make a difference. All donated shoes will be redistributed to microenterprise partners through Funds2Orgs and used in developing nations for impoverished people to start, maintain, and grow a unique business opportunity to feed, clothe and house their families.
Who can participate: your congregation, your workplace, local thrift stores, youth groups, sports teams, local businesses, neighbors, civic groups – pretty much anyone you can co-ordinate with! Collection bins are placed at St. Mary and St. Philip during the drive.
House Coverage During Our Hosting Week(s):
For many years, St. Mary/St. Philip hosted the homeless families in the St. Mary Parish Hall. These families used to travel from church to church, town to town, each with all of their worldly belongings in plastic totes.
Since 2011, IHN has been supporting a residence on June Street in Worcester so that these families have a place to call home. The house is not far from Grafton and easy to get to (just off Chandler Street).
We do a special collection at the Masses the weekend before to provide food and supplies for the week we are at IHN. Your generous donations provide crictial funds for school supplies and clothing, as well as their day-to-day necessities.
We ask volunteers to be either an Evening Host or an Overnight Chaperone. Evening Host is there from 5:30pm-8:30pm; Overnight Chaperone is there from 8:30pm-6:30am Monday-Friday and 8:30pm-8:30am Saturday and Sunday.
Evening Hosts: Arrive at the house at 5:30pm. The residents provide the food to be prepared. They have a schedule of which families are the main cooks. They pool their food resources and decide on the menu. The Host can help prepare the food or help with setting up the tables/buffet, and then share in the meal. The Host can also help with clean up.
Everyone is supposed to chip in and join the meal, but some may be working or caring for an infant or such. It is a great chance to play with the kids and get to know the people who live there. It’s a fun and social evening!!
Overnight Chaperones: Arrive at the house at 8:30pm to relieve the Evening Host. A Chaperone is there to let a resident in who has to work after curfew, provide access to the office to the drug lock box if a resident needs to get evening or early morning medications. The chaperone does not administer any prescriptions, just unlocks the lock box and makes sure the resident takes his/her own medication.
Chaperones will sleep on a twin cot in the office. There are 2 cots if you would like to come as a couple or with a friend. Please plan to bring your own linens and your favorite pillow.
If there are any issues, the chaperone contacts the IHN staff to inform them. All contact information is provided. In any kind of emergency, you would call 911 just like you would do at home. An IHN staff member will relieve you at 6:30am (8:30am on weekends).
A Current CORI form and signed Code of Conduct Acknowldegement Form are required. You must have taken the Safe Environment Training Course. More information on Safe Environment can be found
here.
Sign-up:
Sign-up sheets will be put by the entrances at both churches the month before we are scheduled to cover. We will also post a sign up online.
Why do we serve the people at IHN?
We serve out of Love. This is what we do as church. It is what God wants. It is not for us, or even about us. It’s about them. It’s about walking with them, even if it’s just for an evening, on their journey to a better life. It is about Love. God is extending this invitation for you to go out and serve. Please look into your heart and pray about this opportunity to show God’s Love and Mercy.
If you have any questions, please contact our IHN coordinator Ed Romeo by phone at 508.839.3993 x32 (Soup Kitchen Extension) or e-mail:
SoupKitchenMinistry@stmarysgrafton.org.
Thank you for your fellowship and support!