Winter Shelter of Forest Grove and Cornelius

Description

The Winter Shelter of Forest Grove and Cornelius is a part of the Severe Weather Shelter of Washington County. We are open on Monday and Tuesday night at United Church of Christ in Forest Grove and Wednesday and Thursday night at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Cornelius. We are directly sponsored by the United Church of Christ and Old Town Church both of Forest Grove. We began as a traditional severe weather shelter, only open on nights below 32 in 2008 at UCC and were fully reliant on volunteers, mostly from the congregation. In 2014 UCC hired a very part-time coordinator to help with volunteer recruitment and shifted to guaranteeing Monday and Tuesday night openings. In 2015 Old Town, formally Sonrise Church joined and guaranteed Wednesday night, eventually expanding to Thursday night. At the beginning of the 2018/2019 shelter season we are operating under multiple small local grants as well as some EHA funding allowing our staff to expand to 9, including some Work-Study students from Pacific and 1 practicum student from their school of social work. We are now able to provide some guest services and referrals as well as actively work on expanding our community partnerships to provide services and to shift opinions on the roots of homelessness to try and keep more people stably housed and to get more of our neighbors without homes the stability they need to be housed. Volunteers are still the backbone of our organization and the reason our shelter functions for the 19 weeks we are open each year.