The Welcome Ministry

Report to the Old First Church Congregation

February, 2004

Introduction

The Welcome Ministry is pleased to present this report on the work of its ministry to the Old First congregation. The report includes:

• Mission and purpose statements
• Accomplishments
• Discussion of issues concerning the ministry operation

Welcome Ministry Mission
“The Welcome Ministry seeks to provide a faithful response to homelessness and to improve the quality of life for homeless people by providing hospitality, food, and referrals for housing, health care and drug and alcohol treatment.”

The following statement of principles informs the work of the Welcome Ministry:

• All people, regardless of their economic condition or residential status, are children of God and equally deserving of respect, friendship, compassion and care.
• God commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Our neighbors include residents, merchants, other religious communities and homeless people in our neighborhood.
• We are called to seek harmony among all neighbors as well as dignity for all.
• It is our Christian responsibility to help the poor and those most in need, which include our homeless neighbors.
• It is our Christian responsibility to open our doors to all God’s people and enthusiastically embrace all seekers, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Welcome Ministry Purpose

Many people we serve have difficulty accessing the social service system because of their inability to keep scheduled appointments, to follow through with services, or obey program rules. They are experiencing loneliness and alienation and are searching for companionship, community and help in improving their lives. 

To help them, we build mutual relationships of caring and trust with individual guests. When individuals are ready, we assist them in improving their own quality of life. We help them gain access to health care, drug and alcohol detoxification treatment, rehabilitation, shelter and employment. The result is self-sustaining individuals who are able to feed themselves both physically and spiritually.

Current Issues Concerning the Welcome Ministry Operation

A. Sources of Support for the Welcome Ministry
            1. Funding
Before formation of the Welcome Ministry in April 2002, Old First Church provided most of the financial support for the Welcome Ministry predecessor, the Homelessness Task Force It became evident that total support of the church’s homeless ministry was beyond the means of Old First members. As a result, at the Session’s request, the Welcome Ministry was incorporated separately with the goal of raising more outside funds from foundations, other churches and individuals.

This plan has been relatively successful. Financial support for 2003 has come from a variety of sources, principally other than Old First:

Actual Income 2003

The Welcome Ministry has made substantial efforts to attract outside financial support and has met with some success with religious based organizations (see table above). Approaches to secular foundations have not been successful, perhaps because of the small size of the Welcome Ministry and its focus on development of one-on-one relationships as a foundation for helping homeless people who are ready to improve their lives. We have explored federal government faith-based grant opportunities, including attending a two-day workshop, and have found it difficult to match their quantitative and expansion based criteria with our homeless ministry, which emphasizes qualitative development of trusting relationships and individual care of our homeless guests.

We continue to search for more sources of outside financial support. However, it is clear that we are dependent primarily on support from religious sources. These sources frequently limit their grants to two consecutive years. This means that the Welcome Ministry is dependent on continuing core support from Old First. Add something here about how Old First has pledge to support more then it has actually done.  If the Welcome Ministry is to continue operation beyond 2004, it is essential that Old First implement the Mission Vision goal of support for 30% of the Welcome Ministry director payroll costs each year.

This not only will help keep the Welcome Ministry afloat but also sustain Director Megan Rohrer’s contributions as a member of the Old First staff to the other community ministries, preaching at worship, providing pastoral support to church members and managing the computer center.

            2. Volunteers:
At present Welcome Center volunteers are comprised of just three Old First members. With the help of other volunteers and homeless guests, we have kept the Welcome Center open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, Thursday operation will have to be terminated soon without more volunteers.

Saturday Community Dinner volunteer support comes almost entirely from organizations outside of Old First, for example St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, a group of Starbuck’s employees, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary students, an Alcoholics Anonymous group, JP Morgan employees, the Faithful Fools, the Church of Christ, Scientist and people who have seen our website.

Does Old First want to provide volunteer support to the Welcome Center? The current three volunteers work hard week after week, month after month and it is clear that if this is to continue to be an Old First ministry, they need some help.

3. Churches and organizations affiliated with the Welcome Ministry:
Old First, St Luke’s Episcopal Church, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Temenos Catholic Worker and the Faithful Fools Street Ministry are affiliated with the Welcome Ministry. Although most of these affiliates can’t afford to contribute financially to the Welcome Ministry, their affiliation is important in terms of volunteers and gaining grant support. Grant sources look for partnerships and multiple denomination support.

4. In-kind Support:
St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Towns School for Boys and Food Runners donate three-fourths of the Welcome Center food. Virtually all of the Saturday evening community dinner food is donated by the volunteers. The recently acquired large freezer was a gift to the Welcome Ministry. Donations to the Welcome Ministry include many of the kitchen supplies that are regularly used by Old First and its community ministries. These items include dish soap, spices, flatware, trash bags, cleaning supplies and gloves.

Megan has been designated as the Old First staff member in charge of upgrading and maintaining the Computer Facility in Room A. She has made a strong contribution to upgrading the Computer Facility by installing more up-to-date donated equipment and reorganizing the room configuration. This work has benefited all three of the Old First community ministries, the Tutorial Program, the Senior Center and the Welcome Ministry.

5. Welcome Ministry Board of Directors members:
A volunteer board of eight directors governs the Welcome Ministry. There is one member each from St Luke’s Episcopal Church, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and the Faithful Fools Street Ministry and five are members of Old First.

B. Wear and tear on church facilities

There is wear and tear on Old First facilities from the Welcome Ministry activities. The Welcome Ministry Board and the Old First Operations Committee work together to maintain the facilities. The Munro Room carpet has been replaced three times and cleaned several times during the past two years. This work was done as a gift by a local carpet firm; the same firm also has professionally cleaned the nearby restroom. The kitchen, Munro Room and restroom are cleaned and disinfected at the close of the Welcome Center each Tuesday and Thursday.   Recently, the stove in the kitchen was cleaned from top to bottom (including the stove pipe) - something that has never been done since the stove was purchased.

The kitchen is cleaner than it has been in years because the Welcome Ministry cleans it on a regular basis. Welcome Ministry volunteers and guests regularly wash dishes that are left from church meetings and regularly clean the oven and refrigeration units. The board considers its commitment to keep the Munro Room, kitchen and restroom clean and well maintained a top priority.

From time to time, the Munro Room and hall area have an odor problem caused by the use of the Old First facilities by our homeless guests. It took a while to solve this problem due to staff allergic reaction to room fresheners. However, deodorizers have been found that do not bother the staff and that keep the rooms fresh.

C. Exterior litter, odors

To meet these concerns the sidewalk was professionally steam cleaned in June. On Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings the sidewalk is swept and hosed. In addition, the Welcome Ministry has been working to get a public bathroom placed in a three-block radius of the church in order to provide the homeless with a place to go to the bathroom. There are no public restrooms near Old First.

The Welcome Ministry has been trying for more than three years to get a public toilet placed within three blocks of the church.  Contact with the Department of Public Works (DPW) confirms that the Van Ness area is the number one priority for the next public toilet. DPW is working on a location that will minimize agitation of local business people.

D. Loitering outside of Old First

We are enforcing our policy that homeless neighbors are welcome outside of the church from 10 PM until 7AM but must move on during the daytime. In August we met with a Police Department representative and made arrangements to get police help as necessary in moving homeless people off the Old First sidewalk each morning. The neighborhood beat officer is monitoring the Old First sidewalk during the daytime as well. Megan has talked to the neighborhood officer about when the Welcome Center is open. He was very friendly and has agreed to patrol the area.