Volunteers Needed for ACSTL Winter Warming Shelter!

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We need volunteers to help us run our emergency winter warming shelter! Without volunteers, we are unable to operate and that would mean many people would have nowhere to go in the cold. We have positions such as registering guests, serving dinner and interacting with our guests, overnight shifts, and breakfast shifts.

You can sign up in advance here: http://signup.com/go/nUbDHV

Our shelter not only provides a safe, warm place to sleep but we also provide a friendly, mutually respectful environment.

The Emergency Winter Warming Shelter at AmeriCorps St. Louis started in 2009 at the urgent request of the City Department of Human Services during a particularly bitter winter. Moved by the critical lack of emergency shelters in the City of St. Louis, especially needed during the brutal cold months, AmeriCorps St. Louis Members urged us to open our doors to meet that need. The following year, AmeriCorps St. Louis recruited two other churches to join us in partnership with The Winter Outreach Group, a wonderful crew of volunteers who travel the City at night serving the homeless. Up until then, Winter Outreach could only offer blankets and hot drinks or snacks but had nowhere to take people due to a large shortage of shelter beds. Now, as a network of shelters, we are insuring that everyone who wants a bed has one.

For us at AmeriCorps St. Louis, it just made sense! When disasters arise, Members of our Emergency Response Team may be called to respond anywhere in the United States. The team is nationally acclaimed for its ability to set up Emergency Operations Centers, organize and engage unaffiliated volunteers, and manage donations coordination. So, why not use those same skills to address our hometown 'critical unmet needs’?

During the winter months, St. Louis faces a shortage of shelter housing. Since 2009, AmeriCorps St. Louis has partnered with The Winter Outreach Group to open our doors as an emergency winter warming shelter when the temperature falls below 20 degrees. The shelter is facilitated by AmeriCorps St. Louis Members; however, we can’t run it without help from our volunteers!

Every winter, our shelter is able to provide two hot meals (dinner and breakfast) and a safe place to sleep to approximately 60 homeless men, women and children. Absolutely none of this would be possible without generous donations from the community and the help of our Members and volunteers.