Questions & Answers

How many times a year will SPC host and when?

Four weeks a year but not consecutive.

Hopefully one week each spring, summer, winter and fall, avoiding the first two weeks of each month and the weeks surrounding Fall Fair.

Families (usually three mothers and 11 children, but fathers are welcome if family is together) arrive on Sunday evenings and stay until the following Sunday morning.

Guests return each evening around 5 p.m. and leave each morning at 6:30 a.m.

Where do the guests go during the day? Tell us a little about them.

To the Chester YWCA to shower and get ready for work or school or to work with paid staff member of the IHN to look for housing or a job.

The school district where a child lived when the family lost its home is responsible for transporting students to the appropriate school.

Families are typically in the program for about 90 days until housing can be found.

All participants are screened for criminal activity and drug and alcohol abuse.

Where will they sleep at SPC and what will they do until bedtime?

We will use McCahan Hall and its classrooms, bathroom, kitchen, library and youth lounge to house our guests.

Dinner will be served in McCahan Hall shortly after the guests arrive.

The upstairs kitchen will be used for dinner cleanup, snacks, lunch-making and breakfast. Some parents like to make a lunch for their children or themselves to eat during the day, and we are asked to provide a quick breakfast (remember guests leave around 6:30 a.m.).

The children's library will be available for reading and homework and the youth lounge available for play and video viewing.

The McCahan bathroom will be used--only one bathroom is required.

Guests will sleep in the six classrooms--one classroom per family and others for SPC volunteers. The program provides Aero beds for each guest and each family has 2-3 Rubbermaid tubs of belongings. These things can be stored in each classroom for the week without disrupting the Nursery Day School.

We will establish a set of house rules which will include a "lights out time" and a chore list.

What other local churches are participating in IHN?

How can I get involved and what could I do?

We will need many volunteers each time we host and have short-term, potentially one-time opportunities for SPC folk of all ages. Each night we estimate that it will take at least:

2 volunteers to greet, feed, and socialize with the families from 4:30 - 8:30 p.m. (this could be a family or a community group)

1 to bring and serve dinner (this could be a family or groups)

2 to sleep overnight 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

This makes a total of 35 people (5 volunteers for each of 7 nights).

There are definately great opportunities for parents and children (tots to teens) to volunteer together.

We are also working on establishing some partnerships with other worship communities and community service groups in our area to volunteer side by side with us at SPC.

What do you need me or my family to do?

We will need meals prepared and volunteers to serve our guests each night. Usually a one-dish (13x9) casserole will serve the group; the majority of our guests will be children.

We will need volunteers to visit with the families after dinner and before bedtime. This time might involve playing and reading with the children, talking with the parents, or setting out an evening snack or lunch fixing for the morning.

We will need two people to sleep here each night. We have enough classrooms that our sleeping volunteers can have their own room(s). We will provide a deluxe Aero bed that sets up at a standard bed height for each of our volunteers.

We will need volunteers to wash the bedding (sheets and blankets) at the end of the week and return clean items to the church before the next time we host.

We will need volunteers to help set up and, at the end, to take down and store all materials.

There will be donations of materials as well as time needed to run the program. Several sets of gently used twin bed sheets and blankets are still needed. Several weeks before we host guests we will need vounteers to donate lunch-makings, snack supplies, and a few kitchen staples.