Each night that Home Free Haven hosts guests, we provide a warm dinner shortly after arrival at the host church (typically 6pm). This provides our guests the opportunity to enjoy a much needed meal, socialize with other guests, volunteers, and church members, and begin to relax. Our goal is to create a safe, supportive, and comfortable environment that allows each guest to feel at home in whatever way meets their needs on that particular day.

We encourage our volunteers, as well as host church members, to dine and visit with our guests. Not only does this interaction help relieve what can often be traumatic isolation, it also lays the foundation for the sense of community that Home Free Haven strives to build across the Shoals. We often learn the most about each other while conversing over a shared meal, and true healing begins when someone listens to your story.

The time between dinner and lights out is what we call the “evening shift”, 8pm to 10pm. During this time, our guests will continue to settle into their surroundings. Some will choose to socialize, play games, read, listen to music, or even just sleep. We want all guests to feel as comfortable as possible while sheltering with Home Free Haven as this provides the basis for creating trusting and lasting relationships that can lead to meaningful change.

Our Home Free Haven Hospitality Coordinators are present to ensure that each guest has any needed supplies, snacks, access to computers, etc., throughout the evening. We encourage our volunteers to interact and engage with our guests as much as possible to continue to cultivate the feelings of community, belonging, and respect. This socialization is a much needed change from the typical sense of isolation that most of our guests experience regularly. 

The overnight portion of our hosted nights (10pm – 6am) is the chance for all our guests to get some much needed rest without the interference of the elements. After what is often a long day of walking, many of our guests are ready to head straight for their cot upon arrival at the church. Our Hospitality Coordinators help monitor the facility during the overnight hours to ensure that each guest is comfortable and has what they need to take advantage of having a warm place to stay for the night. 

Our guests truly value and appreciate the hospitality shown to them by our partner churches, their members, and our Home Free Haven volunteers and generally wake up feeling far more positive about the day ahead. The ability to rest is something that many of us take for granted. For our guests, this is a welcome respite from their normal surroundings. 

The breakfast period (6am -7am) is where we focus on sending our guests out for the day ahead with a filling, nutritious meal and positive vibes. We ask that our Hospitality Coordinators and partner church members wake our guests with a gentle approach to allow them to ease into their day. Our Hospitality Coordinators, along with our guests, break down all cots used the prior evening, gather the linens, and ensure everything is clean before proceeding to serve breakfast. After enjoying breakfast, our guests climb aboard the bus to begin their day. 

Home Free Haven partners with several area churches to shelter our guests during the Winter Shelter Program. As a community minded mission, we always are looking for additional churches and organizations who are willing to make their facilities available so that more members of the Shoals community can be involved in this outreach. 

If your church, organization, or other group would like to learn more about hosting our guests, please click the button below to get started!

HOST OUR GUESTS

Each night that Home Free Haven shelters guests, we transport the guests from the intake location to the church then to a drop off location the following morning. In some cases, the hosting church will provide transportation for our guests. Other times, Home Free Haven will handle transportation. Given the expected increase in our number of guests this winter, there will often be times where it will be necessary to have more than one bus, van, or other vehicle available to transport our guests. We will likely have nights where we will need to request additional help from others to have enough transportation available. This is a great way for a church, or other organization, to get involved even if they don’t have a facility where they can host our guests.

If your church, organization, or other group would like to assist with guest transportation, please click the button below to get started!

TRANSPORT OUR GUESTS

Each night that Home Free Haven hosts our guests, we serve both dinner and breakfast. With an expected average of 20 guests per night, that’s 40 meals on average that need to be served. We take pride in coordinating menus amongst our various partner churches, volunteers, and other partners to ensure our guests are being fed well with a variety of options. Consistently offering high quality food options, and rarely repeating menus, is a small touch that helps Home Free Haven stand apart in the eyes of those we serve.

If your church organization would like to help prepare and serve meals for our guests, please click the Partner With HFH button. If you, as an individual, would like to be involved with our meals, please click the Volunteer with HFH button to get started!

PARTNER WITH HFHVOLUNTEER WITH HFH

As a year-round mission, Home Free Haven distributes an incredible amount food, drinks, clothing, hygiene supplies, sleeping bags, backpacks, and so much more. This means we will constantly need to replenish our inventory of these items. Many individuals, churches, and organizations already support our efforts by hosting their own supply drives. These drives are critical to our sustained success, and additional drives will be necessary as the need in our community continues to grow.

If your church or organization would like to host a supply drive, please click the Partner with HFH button below. If you, as an individual, would like to conduct a supply drive, please click the Volunteer with HFH button to get started!

PARTNER WITH HFHVOLUNTEER WITH HFH

As a nonprofit organization that currently does not receive any city, county, state, or federal funding, Home Free Haven will always be in need of financial support. Our organization cannot continue to exist without financial support from our community. As you can see above, the cost of just the Winter Shelter Program is steep. Inflation does not play favorites. While most of us are feeling the crunch of rising prices at home, service organizations are being strained by lack of donations and other funding. As such, Home Free Haven needs help from the entire Shoals community to raise adequate funding. 

Please consider supporting the work of Home Free Haven by clicking the Donate Now button above.

If your church or organization would like to get involved by hosting a fundraiser, please click the Partner with HFH button below. If you, as an individual, would like to conduct a fundraiser, please click the Volunteer with HFH button to get started! 

PARTNER WITH HFHVOLUNTEER WITH HFH