The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
FOR THOSE IN NEED
Population Many programs offered for Norristown’s homeless Center is only homeless shelter that is funded entirely without government money
NORRISTOWN >> Many might be surprised to know that Norristown Hospitality Center provides a lot more than just a good breakfast.
The nonprofit agency at 530 Church St. in Norristown has never stopped expanding its offerings to meet the needs of it clients, well beyond serving a nutritional start to the day.
“Our breakfast used to be Continental but now we are very intentional in the kind of breakfast we want to give, so there’s always protein, fruit, cereal and hot coffee,” noted executive director Sunanda Charles. “So we want to make sure that breakfast matters in the kind of nutrition we provide because for some people it might be the only meal they have ... although in Norristown they say nobody goes hungry because there’s always one church doing lunch or another church doing dinner. It used to be breakfast and daytime shelter, but today The Hospitality Center is a multi-service agency. Breakfast is still one of the most popular things we offer, but over the years we’ve grown into much more,” Charles added.
Lunch is provided next door at the Cecil and Grace Bean Soup Kitchen at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Since it opened in 1991, Norristown Hospitality
Center, founded by an interfaith group of congregations, does not require a display of faith in exchange for services and has remained the only public place in downtown Norristown where a person can take a free shower five days a week, with toiletries provided.
Norristown Hospitality Center is also the only day shelter in downtown Norristown that accepts anyone with full services, which also include phone, fax, mail, and access to two social workers each day, Charles noted.
“We provide mail services because people who are living on the streets or in the woods are trying to apply for benefits or housing need an address,” she said. “Right now I think we have about 500 people on our mailing list.”
“We also have lockers on site, so if they are sleeping on the street they can’t carry all their things with them. We provide bathrooms, because if they need to go the bathroom, where would they go?
So the bathroom, the shower, breakfast, all of these are basic needs that we serve.”
Case management is available for those who want that service, Charles said.
“We have two social workers on site to provide case management to everybody that needs those services. This is a low barrier shelter, where they’re not obligated to do anything. They just have to turn up. We do require that they sign in because that helps us keep a count of who is here every day. That can range from 60 to 80 to 100, especially in this weather. If someone is new to Norristown or has just become homeless and somebody tells them to go to The Hospitality Center, a social worker will refer them to housing, to mental health services, to drug and alcohol services if they need it, and any family services.”
As noted on the shelter’s website, hospitalitycenter. org, the Norristown Ministries Inc. Hospitality Center is the only homeless shelter that is funded entirely without government money.
“That is vital,” the site noted. “This local ministry to our poor and homeless neighbors is the direct result of our values, our intentions, our backing. We have collaborated with one another with no need for outside intervention to fund or format what we are doing, serving 1,200 individual poor and homeless neighbors with centralized, competent and compassionate care for clients sometimes experiencing a complex set of crises — homelessness, chronic unemployment, abuse, critical health challenges including mental and emotional problems or recovery issues. Many of these challenges can come at once. Or one challenge can lead to others. We see troubled, jobless clients who were once stalwart members of the middle class.”
Charles takes pride in the two latest programs geared to empowering clients.
In its efforts to address what Norristown Hospitality Center calls “intergenerational povertyy,” the center recently launched a workforce development program to provide participants an opportunity to get back to the workforce by providing them with training, coaching and supporting them through the steps to economic self-sufficiency.
“Participants are recruited from the Hospitality Center and are also referred by other agencies in Norristown,” Charles explained. “They then undergo a week long soft skills training program at the Center. Every participant is drug tested and background checked. Once they graduate, each participant meets with the program coordinator to work on their resume, search for and apply to jobs that match their skills, and also prep for the interview.”
Out of 23 people who have completed the class, 14 are employed, 11 had some type of criminal background in the past and six needed addictions or mental health treatment to return to the program.
“Norristown Hospitality Center has so far partnered with 18 businesses in Norristown who work with us to hire our graduates when there is a mutual fit, and nine of these students were homeless when entering the program,” Charles added.
“The Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin’-By World” Workshop, developed by Aha! Process and Bridges Out of Poverty, is a workshop for up to 12 participants to work through 10 modules, written at a seventh-grade level, presented in 16 sessions, each meeting once a week. The closed group consists of selected members that have been interviewed and qualified for the program.
The target population is under-resourced, 17 years and older, men and women of diverse race, age and stability, Charles said.
“The group meets to consider the impact that poverty has had on their lives,” she explained. “The group considers individual choices, community conditions,
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With wellness a strong component of the facility, flu shots are offered seasonally.
“So we’re not just a place to have breakfast ... we’re so much more,” Charles said.
Norristown Hospitality Center is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For information about volunteering, call 610-2771321, ext. 109, or email volunteer@hospitalitycenter. org.
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