As HOPE continues to push our elected officials to close gaps in homeless services, members are also working to recruit churches to join as Room In The Inn-Memphis accumulates a network to provide overnight stay to people experiencing homelessness. Room In The Inn is run by an organization by the name of Carpenter’s House, and offers overnight stay to women and children -as well as meals during the coldest months of the year—November through March. Although Room In The Inn will still be offering these services, unfortunately the demand for shelter is to high for them to accommodate alone. In an effort to not have to repetitively turn people away, they are looking to build a network in which people experiencing homelessness who gather there seeking shelter can be taken to a church that participates in the program when their capacity is reached. Here is where you in the community can help! Room In the Inn is in need of volunteers and meal preparations as well as a churches to host people experiencing homelessness. So if you belong to a church, please try to encourage them to be apart of the network being created and maintained by Room In the Inn.
Other ways individuals can help meet the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness is to volunteer at Manna House, 1268 Jefferson Ave, which is a hospitality house to people experiencing homelessness and those financially insecure on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings from 8AM-11AM. Hospitality includes: the welcoming of guests, and offering of basic services such as clothing, hygiene items, showers, and serving coffee or other beverages. Manna House could always benefit from clothing donations, men’s and women’s clothing, and gently used shoes as well. Manna House also opens on Monday evenings at 4:30 p.m. for a light meal for people in need.
For more information about how you can help support HOPE’s vision of shelter & housing for all, contact Tamara Hendrix, (901)725.4990 or tamara@midsouthpeace.org
Feed the Movement!
H.O.P.E. would like to thank Marcos Pizza for providing pizzas for the H.O.P.E meetings on the 1st Wednesday of the month. H.O.P.E is a supportive advocacy group for people with the experiences of homelessness. One of the ways in which we learn about the aforementioned needs and strategize how we can best support one another through this work is through our weekly Wednesday meetings in which we invite people experiencing homelessness to fellowship, share, and brainstorm. It is very important that H.O.P.E. continues to hear from the homeless community about the differing levels of oppression that many of us may face when attempting to navigate through the impending hardships of scarce services available in Memphis. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a plus for their attendees, but for H.O.P.E. it is a necessity, due to the fact that most often the meal offered at H.O.P.E. meetings may be the only meal they will have that day.
As H.O.P.E. grows in numbers our expenses grow as well. How can you help? You can help by donating prepared foods on Wednesdays to our meeting that afternoon. Don’t have time to cook or buy prepared foods and bring them to our meeting space? We also accept monetary donations towards this cause. Neither of those options seem feasible for you presently? We are also looking for restaurants willing to donate food to our meetings. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible.
If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org