The Greater Shepparton Winter Night Shelter uses church and faith community buildings to provide food and shelter to people experiencing homelessness for the 91 nights of winter.
Seven churches/faith communities each take one night of the week to be a venue for the Shelter. All churches/faith communities operate with the same policies and procedures (this consistency is very important).
Additional churches/faith communities, who do not have a venue, support other churches by providing volunteers.
Volunteers from local churches and community come together to staff the Shelter, working at any venue, according to their availability (this allows numerically small churches and faith communities to collaborate in the project).
Each partner church/faith community identifies a Venue Coordinator. They are responsible for the Shelter when it is operating at their church or faith community. Shift Leaders should also ideally be from the host church.
Shepparton Council (Municipal Surveyor) will assess all church/faith community venues for approval to ‘occupy as temporary sleeping accommodation’.
In order to provide a safe and comfortable environment for everyone, all guests will be interviewed before being invited to stay at the shelter.
Each church provides the food and cooks for the evening meal and items for a self-serve breakfast. They may also provide items for ‘supper’.