Best Practices for Starting a Community-supported Warming Shelter
BETHANY HERRON
Vice President of Education
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They say everyone has a story. Chad and Grace (names changed for privacy) certainly do.
They’re a young couple whose home life together suffered the ill effects of foster care, early exposure to addiction, and troubled adolescent years. Yet over the course of two winters, their dream of something better came to life at the warming shelter operated by Compassionate Hands (CH) in Lebanon, TN.
During their first winter stay, CH helped them pursue addiction treatment at nearby facilities. By the second winter, they worked with care coordinators to develop a personalized action plan moving them towards their dream: regaining custody of their children. By the end of the season, the combination of warmth, relationships, and action steps achieved resulted in both holding down good jobs and living in a stable home with one of their four children.
While their picture of restoration is still unfolding, what they’ve accomplished so far demonstrates that while warming shelters have historically had a straightforward mission — to keep people alive when temperatures drop to a dangerous low – it’s time to realize they have the potential to be relational hubs and launchpads for life transformation.
Before exploring practical steps your ministry can take to build an outcomes-driven warming shelter, let’s examine what makes the Compassionate Hands program effective.
Three Things That Make Compassionate Hands’ Program Effective
First, they are community-supported and operated.
CH began in 2012 when a group of Christians set out to ensure that no one in Wilson County froze to death. By December 2013, a network of eight churches had formed, each opening its doors to provide winter shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness. These churches rotated using their buildings to provide shelter, ensuring the homeless always had a place to shelter in the winter.
Today, over 40 churches from 16 denominations work together to serve the community during the coldest months of the year. However, instead of using church buildings, CH now provides shelter in a central location with the local community (primarily local churches) providing most of the manpower.
The logistics are straightforward. Each church provides all the staff needed for a specific night of the week, including a meal team, a transportation/bus driver (who transports guests from a central location), assistance with registration, laundry, shower rotations, first aid, hospitality, snacks, and an overnight host (who is trained to lead during their assigned evening).
It’s not on the shoulders of Compassionate Hands to find volunteers. Instead, every church appoints a volunteer champion who recruits staff and manages them using a shared Google document (ensuring accountability and ease of communication).
Second, they train volunteers and provide them with the autonomy to lead.
Training for the winter season begins in October. Compassionate Hands staff educates the overnight host (who is required to attend) and other volunteers (who may choose to attend) on logistics (such as shelter times), potential barriers to entry (such as uncontrollable behavior), security, and registration. The host is then responsible for preparing individuals from his or her church for their shift. Compassionate Hands also offers optional training on identifying substance abuse, mental illness, de-escalation techniques, and Trust-based Relational Intervention.
More importantly, volunteers are trained to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading — even if it means suspending a process or policy. In other words, they are trained and given the autonomy to lead their shift in partnership with the Spirit.
Third, they are outcomes-oriented.
While sheltering people from the cold is their immediate goal, Compassionate Hands has a deeper vision for shelter residents. They want to see “hope-filled hearts, renewed minds, and transformed lives.”
Relational care coordination is one of the ways they work toward that mission.
When guests first arrive, the staff, typically a church volunteer, does an initial intake to triage and address immediate, urgent needs. When registration is complete, they are introduced to a care coordinator who reviews the Guest Code of Conduct with them to ensure they understand what is expected during their stay.
Each morning, guests take turns meeting with a Compassionate Hands trained care coordinator who helps them create a personalized action plan called a MAP — or “My Action Plan.” The goal is to have this plan in place within the first 10 days of their stay. Guests are encouraged to dream and determine goals that align with those dreams. Their plans might include entering a recovery program, life skills classes, finding employment, creating a budget, reconnecting with family, or securing housing.
By using their MAP to picture and accomplish their own story, engaging in work, and building social capital in the community, guests can earn upgraded resources, such as shopping at The Hope Shop thrift store, laundry services, and other personalized needs.
CH’s goal is to incentivize everything that leads to self-sufficiency. Examples of incentivized actions include completing a MAP, going to counseling, filling out job applications, attending AA or going to treatment, and finding and keeping a job. Guests can use earned points, which are tracked in a system called LiveSchool, to purchase anything from solar-powered battery packs to bug spray, shoes, gift cards, and even bikes! Executive Director Meriah Anderson says, “We take suggestions from our guests on which items are needed.”
Steps to Creating a Warming Shelter That Help Guests Dream Again
We can learn a lot from Compassionate Hands. Here are a few best practices to follow if you’re considering building a warming shelter.
Build community buy-in.
If you’ve completed a listening tour of your community (including speaking to any existing year-round shelters) and determined it needs a warming shelter, seek to build community support. It will not only supply manpower but also be a critical link to the social capital guests need to escape cycles of poverty and homelessness.
For this reason, it’s important to meet one-on-one with church and nonprofit leaders to find organizations with a shared commitment to provide more than just safety from the cold this winter season. Ask them to prayerfully consider how they can be part of the effort. Be sure to connect with ministries that can provide things such as case management, transportation, and job training.
Determine a shelter location (or multiple ones if you choose a rotating-site model).
Options for a shelter location include residential buildings such as assisted living facilities, hotels, motels, apartments with shared common space, dormitories, retreat centers, or camps. You might also look at buildings such as churches, schools, community and recreation centers, commercial buildings, and old grocery stores. Proximity to schools, grocery stores, and transportation is also an important factor.
A rotating model involves churches taking turns to provide shelter.
Secure essentials.
Providing an emergency shelter requires:
- Cots/mats, blankets, and hygiene supplies
- Safe personal belongings storage and access to meals, snacks, and water
- A security plan (when doors are locked, when supervisors should be present, use of security cameras, etc.)
- Emergency exit plans and safety signage
- Insurance (which is possibly covered under “Emergency Use” in your current plan)
- Clear policies and procedures
Choose champions and train overnight volunteers.
As stated earlier, this model relies on community ownership. Each church should have a champion who’s been trained to recruit volunteers and manage their assignments and responsibilities via a shared Google sheet. Volunteers should be well-acquainted with the registration process and all policies, procedures, and schedules. In other words, equip them, then trust them to lead well.
Support guests with effective case management so their dreams can become reality.
If you already have case managers, they should support shelter guests throughout the winter. If you don’t, consider partnering with local organizations that do. Or, consider case management training for one or two rotating volunteers.
A warming shelter can do much more than help guests survive the cold. When it becomes a place of relationship and loving accountability, it can enable guests to dream about and achieve a life of flourishing.
Thinking about building a warming shelter in your community? The Emergency Shelter Model Action Plan can prepare your team to provide more than shelter from the elements.
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