Emergency Shelter Partnership - Commemorate World Homeless Day 10/15/17

St. Francis of Assisi will be host to an evening of awareness for the Emergency Shelter Partnership.   We, as a parish, have been active in ESP for many years - we take part by opening our doors for two weeks during the cold months and usually a few other nights during the winter due to snow storms or severe weather, we feed dinner, breakfast and prepare lunch to go as well as house a group of individuals from the community that simple have no place else to go for the night.  We are very lucky to have such generous parishioners that help us out by preparing meals, donating food, clothing items or make a monetary donation, we are equally grateful for those parishioners that donate their time preparing for our guests, serving them food and sleeping overnight to help the supervisor from the shelter monitor the men and women who attend.

What you may not know, is that ESP is an official 501c3 organization.  There are 15 other congregations (churches, synagogues and temples) that take part housing these men and women during the months of November - April and another 5 congregations that help support this effort.  Each congregation has a board member that represents their congregation at the monthly meetings and a team that coordinates the individual needs of the hosting house of worship.  ESP for the most part is a volunteer organization, while we do have certain expenses - insurance, bus/transportation expenses, two paid overnight supervisors and a paid social worker, we run day to day operations on a volunteer basis.  In hopes to strengthen the organization as a whole, we are hosting this informational evening to broaden our horizons and engage a few more concerned citizens.  Perhaps you have a skill or are in a profession that could be helpful to our board, perhaps you are experienced at writing grants, fundraising or you can simply just help by making a meal.

Whatever the reason, if you feel like you would like more information about what we do, join us on Sunday, October 15th between 4:00pm and 7:00pm as we commemorate World Homeless Day.  We welcome you pass this information on and bring a friend!  

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