C’ville Shelter

The PACEM staff is in need of the following:

1. Funds for: Staff and supplies and printing services
2. Plastic ponchos
3. Vouchers for transportation, which are available at the city office building downtown. (A booklet of 40 – 50 bus passes costs about $21.)
4. Hotel vouchers for homeless families
5. Backpacks (the type used in schools - adult size)
6. Sleeping bags and tents
7. Clean underwear and socks
8. Suitcases with rollers (Hard-sided suitcases with only a handle are not recommended)
9. Drug store gift cards or funds for filling prescriptions

10. Over the counter medicines: Tylenol®, Advil®, Goody’s Powders®, cough drops, Mucinex®, Robitussin® Cough and Cold (not Robitussin®-DM), antacid tablets, Pepto-Bismal® tablets, antibiotic ointment, Band-Aids® and ear plugs

With your permission, PACEM can work with you to publicly acknowledge your generosity.

Monetary contributions in any amount can be sent to: PACEM, P.O. Box 14, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902, or you can make a secure on-line donation.

Each host congregation is asked to consider providing two weeks of service to the homeless each winter.

During those weeks the congregation will be asked for the following:
1. A location where the beds can be set up all week long.

2. Congregation volunteers for those two weeks to:

a. Cook and serve meals at night or provide for this service through other means.

b. Prepare morning breakfast.

c. Provide two (2) persons to sleep in the shelter overnight with the professionally trained paid person(s)

d. Provide volunteers to talk with the folks in the evening, play cards, pray, watch TV with and befriend those participating in the shelter.

e. Pack lunches for those that sign up/request a bagged lunch. (This is to help those homeless who are employed and need to carry a lunch to work.)

3. Make a financial contribution for start-up money to purchase cots and sheets and to hire the professional night staff.

4. If your congregation’s facility is not available, consider renting a facility. (Private school, community center, etc.)

Contact Adriana Nicholson, our Guest Advocate/Volunteer Coordinator, at (434) 465-5093 or pacemga@aol.com if your congregation is interested in becoming a host organization.

If your congregation is unable to serve as a host site, you may consider making a financial donation or volunteering to partner with another participating congregation to provide jointly the services listed below for two weeks per winter.

Donate to PACEM (Giving Time):
Because PACEM is a locally supported interfaith collaboration that depends primarily on volunteers and the support of a kind and generous community, the following are ways in which community members and congregations can support PACEM, through donations of time:

1. Provide transportation for guests and/or supplies
2. Volunteer to staff the intake center
3. Be a sponsor of guest setups: cot, pillow and blanket
4. Provide food for meals to host churches
5. Provide general office assistance
6. Be a prayer partner
7. Provide a meal prep team member
8. Provide an overnight volunteer staff person

To get involved in these activities, or for more information on getting involved with PACEM, please contact Adriana Nicholson, our Guest Advocate/Volunteer Coordinator, at (434) 465-5093 or pacemga@aol.com.

On Saturday, November 10, 2007, the doors of PACEM opened for another season of shelter and support for our homeless neighbors. This year’s shelter season is scheduled to run through Friday, March 14, 2008.

While we hope for the day when no one needs our services, we plan for the reality that hundreds of Charlottesville residents will find themselves homeless at some point this winter.

Through the combined efforts of 46 local congregations and dozens of community organizations and businesses, PACEM was able to provide 6,622 nights of shelter or lodging and more than 15,000 meals to 237 different homeless individuals during the winter of 2006-07.

Your support allows us offer “A Pillow for Every Head” to everyone who makes their way to our doors. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to help us sustain this vital ministry!