Additionally, the National Coalition for the Homeless directory is a great place to start. A simple Google search will bring up opportunities in your community. Many cities have a homeless shelter system, run in partnership with churches or secular organizations.

Volunteer at a homeless or hypothermia shelter.

If you’d like help in starting a drive and distributing your donations, organizations like One Warm Coat have resources. A good place to start is the outreach office at your church, but you can also check other churches, as well as homeless shelters and other nonprofit organizations that work with the homeless. Find a local organization that accepts clothing donations and arrange a time to drop them off. Something as simple as a warm coat can make a huge difference to someone without a home. Announce that you are collecting warm items like coats, gloves, hats, socks and blankets for the homeless. You can reach out to your friends, family, co-workers, fellow church members and others to get involved. This is a relatively easy one to implement. That means reaching out to people in concrete ways, even with actions as simple as welcoming them in from the cold.īut how do we do this? Here are some ways that you can help the homeless in your community. But beyond the physical consequences, I can’t think of anything more lonely or hopeless than being lost in the cold and dark I can’t imagine the abandonment that people must feel as they are left to brave the elements on their own.Ĭhrist calls us to welcome those who are homeless and to accept and love everyone, whether or not they fit the standards of acceptability set by society. Physically, the bitter cold can cause hypothermia and necrotic limbs, possibly leading to infection, paralysis and, in some cases, death. I’m such a wimp when it comes to cold I can’t imagine what it must be like to brave subzero temperatures at night. While for many the cold is merely an inconvenience, for the homeless it is something worse.

With the way things are going, this winter will continue the bitter cold. The cold became so much a part of daily life, I don’t think it was a coincidence that Frozen mania took hold and we still haven’t let it go. Phrases like “Arctic blast” and “polar vortex” were common in everyday conversation, and it seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere to escape the frigid temperatures. (CNS photo/courtesy of Lee Jeffries)Last winter was one of the coldest on record. Image of a homeless girl in London that was part of an exhibition by Lee Jeffries at the Museum of Rome.

Brave church homeless outreach