St. John's

INTERFAITH HOSPITALITY NETWORK

In October St John’s helped host three homeless families, 11 family members in all, at First Unitarian Church. This year our visible volunteer opportunities were fewer, with more behind the scenes responsibilities, including two weeks of daily coordination onsite at First Unitarian, laundry two weeks of the four, and grocery shopping. Thank you to volunteers Frances May Brooks, Wanda Crawford, Bill Luerssen and Cynthia, Victor and Daisy Villacis for their efforts in 2011.

And thank you to all who gave the special offering St John’s collected this spring; those funds were used to cover the considerable shopping and laundry expenses this year. In our six years as a support congregation with First Unitarian, many St Johners have volunteered in various ways including meal preparation and sharing supper with guests, evening activities, overnight stays and morning send-off, grocery and supply shopping, laundering linens.

In 2009 St Johners were especially generous donating bath and hand towels to prepare for the ―opening‖ of the shower facilities First Unitarian built. The Interfaith Hospitality Network is organized around providing extensive ―day services‖ and family case management in a professional setting, utilizing the 27 Host congregations and their support congregations to house, feed and interact with families in a warm and more personal setting. Host congregations provide separate ―quarters for each family, giving them more privacy and more relaxed time away from the case management setting.

I encourage St Johners to visit the IHN website, ihncincinnati.org, to learn more about the mission and the work. When you click on ―Get Involved‖ in the crossbar near the top of the page, you are directed to another page where one of the choices is ―Volunteer Opportunities.

Chris Reed, St John coordinator for Interfaith Hospitality Network

 St. John's has been involved with the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Cincinnati, an organization that brings together volunteers from the religious community and trained professionals, to re-integrate homeless families into the community. You can read more about the Network at its web site, http://www.ihncincinnati.org.

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