About IHN

Nine churches formed the Rochester area chapter of the national Interfaith Hospitality Network in January 2001. This year volunteers from fifteen host churches and twenty-one buddy churches participate. For the first two years, Good Shepherd Church was a buddy with a host church, Redeemer Lutheran. Following completion of our expansion, we became a host church in January, 2003.

Good Shepherd serves as a host church to provide temporary shelter and meals to homeless families (at least one child and one parent). We use our building for overnight shelter and provide meals for up to 14 people for one week at a time, four times a year. Two buddy churches, Evangel Methodist and Church of the Savior, partner with us to provide staff for a host week. At the day center, social workers assisted by volunteers help the families in finding housing, getting the children enrolled in school, applying for jobs, and other services.

Families receive supper, lodging, and breakfast at the church; then go during the day to the Day Center for housing search, job searchskill development, etc.

Orientation sessions are provided for volunteers about once a month.

Volunteer roles include:

• Cooks. Each evening, at least two cooks (or two families) provide the meal for the guests, host volunteers, and themselves, to be served at about 6:00 pm at a table or two in the fellowship hall. You may prepare the food at home or in the church kitchen. Your shift is over after kitchen cleanup. Guests and hosts often help with cleanup. A coordinator will call you a day or two in advance to let you know how many guests are expected. We will ask what you would like to serve, to avoid duplicate main courses. Simple, common menus are more popular with guests than gourmet meals. Every cooking team plans a full meal, so leftovers should usually go home with you - sometimes they work for guests to pack lunches for the next day.
• Hosts. Each evening, and possibly other times on Saturday and Sunday, two hosts are recruited to be available to socialize with guests, help serve dinner, help with children's activities, and encourage guests to pack a lunch for the next day. Your shift is from about 5:30 to 8:30 pm evenings. Some children are lively. Some families prefer to retreat to their room after dinner. They meet as many as 50 new volunteers each week, possibly after difficult days of apartment searching, and sometimes job seeking.
• Overnight Hosts. Each evening two people volunteer to be a building security guard, be available to help guests if needed, lock and unlock the exterior doors, make sure they awake in time to leave by 7:00 am, and set out breakfast items and lunch supplies in the morning. Air mattresses are provided. Your shift is from 8:30 pm to 7:00 am. Some guests, especially those with young children, may retire to their rooms before you arrive. A driver will pick them up in the morning. Times varies depending on school year. Guests sleep in the Sunday School rooms on the west side. Hosts sleep in rooms F and H.
• Help is also needed to reset the Sunday School rooms on Sunday morning, and transport guests to the day center. The position of van driver is most often filled by a regular from one of our buddy churches, Evangel Methodist. The Day Center has a list of volunteer drivers for occasional errands during the day.
• We provide financial support to the local IHN chapter. Fundraising ideas are appreciated.

Interfaith Hospitality Network is one of four programs of Family Promise whose goal is to mobilize communities to help low-income families achieve sustainable independence. IHN chapters are active in over eighty cities in the US and it is working. 70% of the families who participate in IHN programs have found permanent homes and become active members of the community.

The local Day Center is at 811 7 Street NW, across from Cooke Park. Joanne Markee is director of Greater Rochester Interfaith Hospitality Network (GRIHN). Because of the success of GRIHN, Family Promise has appointed Joanne an IHN Associate for Opening Training. She will continue as Director of GRIHN, while conducting about 6 trainings a year in communities about to launch an IHN program.

Contact Joann Holt-Angerman, Phyllis Hammes (Evangel Methodist), or Kris Wittenberg (Church of the Savior) to volunteer.

In the first two years after becoming a host church, 70 IHN guests (20 families) stayed in our church for up to a week at a time.