Description
Useful to congregations across the country, this resource from the Office of Housing Stability in Knoxville, Tennessee offers information about establishing a warming center ministry. The website contains a video featuring interviews with congregations currently partnering in a warming center ministry, a downloadable conversation guide with answers to common questions, and a checklist that provides a comprehensive plan, including topics such as leadership, food, volunteers, communication, space, and safety. It shares a timeline organized by task, a training guide for volunteers, and ideas for a safety self-audit. The Office of Housing Stability understands that, working together, congregations and community partners can ensure safe, and warm, solutions for those in need during cold temperatures.Features
- Downloadable congregation guide
- Downloadable warming center checklist
- Video
Practical Applications
- Download the congregation guide and share it with your community outreach team to facilitate a conversation about potentially becoming a warming center in your area. Consider the FAQs in the article as you discuss the possibility.
- Watch the video embedded in the website to be inspired by how congregations in your community can band together to offer places of not only warmth, but peace, hope, and safety to those in your community who are in need. Consider leading the way in your community.
- Refer to the "Quick Guide Checklist for Churches Hosting a Warming Center" to understand more thoroughly what is involved in setting up a warming center. Organize a team of volunteers from your congregation to take on different sections of the checklist.
