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is a faith-based community that eliminates family homelessness.

 
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Volunteer Notes

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GIHN Hospitality Code

Host Committee Make-Up

Host Team Tips

Top Ten Ways to Help

Host Team Volunteer Schedule Template (.XLS download)

GIHN Hospitality Code

  1. It’s nice to hear your name, so learn the names of our guests, too.
  2. Labeling people creates invisible barriers. Remember that guests are guests, not “the homeless.” Labeling—whether spoken, or printed on a posted sign—creates divisions and can foster an “us” and “them” syndrome.
  3. Personal questions can be tough to answer, so don’t put guests in awkward positions by asking personal questions. If guests need to talk, give them the chance, but don’t pry.
  4. We all like to keep some things to ourselves. All information about guests is confidential. Don’t discuss guests’ situations with other people.
  5. Everyone can use a little privacy. Our churches and synagogues become temporary homes for our guests. Knock before entering a guest’s room.
  6. Sometimes we need to spend time alone. Respect guests’ needs for quiet times alone or with family.
  7. We all have bad days. Depression, sadness, and hopelessness may come. Allow guests the space to deal with their emotions. Be prepared to forgive outbursts without judging guests ungrateful.
  8. We understand and care for our children. Allow guests to do the same. Avoid contradicting guests’ instructions to their children. Always ask parents’ permission before giving things to children.
  9. Parents need a break. Offer to tutor, play with, and plan activities for interested children while their parents take a break.
  10. Adult guests should be treated like adults. Although our guests are in situations that may make them temporarily dependent on others, remember that they are adults who are capable of making their own decisions.

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Host Committee Make-Up

How does your church organize its Host Committee? Here’s the standard GIHN model.

  • Primary Coordinator: manages the program at your church, heads planning and implementation of volunteer training, communicates with last week’s and next week’s Hosts, greets guests on Sunday, the person to call if there’s a problem, serves on the Rotation Advisory Committee.
  • Assistant Coordinator: makes the master schedule and ensures that all shifts are covered, recruits and encourages volunteers, serves as backup to the Primary Coordinator.
  • Setup Coordinator: recruits and schedules volunteers to set up and take down beds and furnishings at the beginning and end of your week of hosting.
  • Meal Coordinator: recruits and schedules volunteers to prepare meals, ensures that meals are nutritious and that meals are not duplicated (lasagna, fried chicken, spaghetti, etc. only once).
  • Transportation Coordinator: recruits and schedules van drivers for mornings and evenings, checks van for needed maintenance, ensures van is gassed up and ready for the next week, and helps drivers remember that they are welcoming guests, not transporting cargo.
  • Supplies & Donations Coordinator: makes sure Host and GIHN pantry supplies and staples are stocked, solicits and coordinates gifts to guest families (clothing, furniture, household good, jobs, etc.)
  • Activity Coordinator: plans special activities for the guest children and adults, maintains the supply of games and toys. (Note: With kids out of school, summer offers many more ministry opportunities with GIHN for your church. It’s hard for us to imagine what an afternoon at the park or a trip to the ice cream shop means to our guest families. Outings don’t have to be expensive to be blessings.)

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Host Team Tips

This short list is from actual volunteers. If you've got a tip, please email it to Clarke@GIHN.org.

  1. Always trust God.  When it looks like things are falling apart, people aren't showing up.  God ALWAYS provides!
  2. Do something social with your team at least once a year, something fun. It helps things flow smoothly during ministry times.
  3. Practice rotation within the ministry team. A coordinator's first job is to find the next coordinator. After two years lay down the primary coordinator position and take up the overnight coordinator for a year or so, then do meals. Stay fresh.
  4. Practice delegation of responsibility within the host team. Have separate coordinators for meals, transportation, overnight shepherds, etc. Moses had the 70. Jesus had the 12.
  5. Break bread with or at least meet with your host team before the week to build unity.
  6. The more organized you are ahead of time, the more smoothly your host week will run. Here's a link to a web page with a couple of templates for organizing volunteers. Feel free to customize it your needs.
  7. Keep some record (sign up sheets) of who's had their training, and make sure that everyone has had training before they help with their first rotation. Take advantage of trainings at other host sites. Most of the information is transferable, and you never know when someone will uncover a great tip!
  8. Use the group list feature emails and keep them current. It is the 21st century. Email is the way most folks keep up. Even text-addicted teens still check their email!
  9. Support, recognize and thank your volunteers, both in your group emails and in congregation-wide publications; this will keep volunteers coming back and bring in new ones. It will also increase support for the Guilford Interfaith in your congregation.
  10. Making a walking tour of the host facility has become a helpful part of guest orientation.
  11. Have guests help with Sunday morning load out. On Saturday evening give each family a large plastic bag labeled "Dirty Linen." The label helps prevent tossing the linen out with the garbage! Some congregations use clear bags for linen.
  12. Watch those sweets, especially doughnuts! Regardless of what some research indicates, the anecdotal evidence is extensive - sugar and small children equals that boom-bust cycle many of us know all too well.
  13. Make up your mind to enjoy the experience. It makes a difference!

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Top Ten Ways to Help

When we first explain Guilford Interfaith Hospitality Network to individuals,, they almost always ask how they can get involved in or help with our ministry to homeless children and their families. Unless the folks asking are a grant-making foundation or the like, we try to steer them to one of our Network faith congregations. Besides being too thinly staffed to supervise and coordinate single volunteers, we believe and practice the first phrase in our mission statement, “By uniting the faith community and those who support our mission . . .” Our prayer is that Guilford Interfaith will bring folks together in the faith community.

That being said, here are the Top Ten Ways folks can help Guilford Interfaith achieve it’s vision and mission:

Vision: Guilford Interfaith Hospitality Network is a faith-based community that eliminates family homelessness.

Mission: By uniting the faith community and those who support our mission, Guilford Interfaith Hospitality Network assists homeless children and their families by providing shelter, compassionate care, and counseling with the goal of sustained independence.

  1. Pray! Being a faith ministry, Guilford Interfaith relies on prayer for its fiscal, material, and spiritual provision. Pray for the ministry. Pray also for our guests, that they would know peace and find strength to achieve healthy sustained independence and freedom from want, lack, and fear.
  2. Support some of Guilford Interfaith’s fund raisers. Watch the newsletter and your email for opportunities to join the Network family for fun and food while supporting your Guilford Interfaith.
  3. Become a regular GIHN supporter. We encourage you to make a tax deductible contribution today by check or click here to make contributions online. We have dozens of churches and scores of individuals who regularly support GIHN as part of their stewardship. A little more that 50% of GIHN’s income comes directly from local churches or their members as part of their own outreach, tithes, and offerings. Another 30% comes through fund raisers from those same individuals, many of whom are faithful Guilford Interfaith volunteers. Bless you, bless you, bless you!
  4. Arrange a Guilford Interfaith fund raiser at your church. A high school senior from one Network church organized a concert at at her church. They sold cookies, snacks, drinks and took up a collection for Guilford Interfaith. The High Point Rotation did a Chilli Cook-off. The Knights of Columbus from St. Pius X did a Hamburger & Hot Dog Cook-out. You can do something like that at your church, maybe a pancake breakfast, a spaghetti dinner, or a hymn sing. Proceeds and love offerings can go to Guilford Interfaith to make sure your Network continues to operate its two shelters.
  5. Volunteer on your church’s GIHN team. There are over 50 teams out there, and all of their Primary Coordinators will be happy to help you find your place in the ministry. Every seasoned Primary Coordinator is always on the lookout for their successor as well as for coordinators of meals, drivers, laundry, and evening activities. You can become one of those coordinators or just take one of the slots in the volunteer schedule, i.e., drive the van one morning, help fix dinner one evening, or be an overnight shepherd, the easiest job in the Network (you sleep!). You could also schedule an hour so or to just “be present” at one of the day centers. You might be surprised what your presence could mean to mom struggling to keep her head up for her family, or what it might mean to a little one who needs a hug!
  6. Become a part of the Network. What? Your church isn’t a part of the Network already?!! Well, give us a call and find out how the Network can help your church fulfill its mission..
  7. Join a Guilford Interfaith event task force. You can help plan, organize, and execute a fund raiser. Bring your talents, ideas, and energy to one (or more) or these events. Ideally, up to 20% of our funds would come from events.
  8. Join a GIHN committee. We need a few folks to plan the year-long activities of several committees: Events, Communication, Outreach, and Finance. You’ve been blessed with talents and interests, so share them. We value and need them. We need you!
  9. Join the GIHN Board of Trustees. The commitment is a bit longer than other committees, and the challenges are more strategic. The rewards of ministry leadership for Guilford Interfaith are knowing you’re sheltering homeless families not just for today, this week, or next month but for years to come. That’s the Board’s goal. Click here to see who's on the Board today.
  10. Pray some more. “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17

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