The nation celebrates Independence Day next week, and just a few days later on July 8, the emergency men’s shelter is planning an independence day celebration of its own – that’s the day the shelter leaves its current location and clients will call City Road Center of Hope home. Darryl Jones, the shelter’s program manager, said the building is going through the final phases of meeting all the code requirements, and Monday, July 8 should be the day when the shelter will be operating at the new location.

An official ribbon-cutting is planned for August, but until then, the larger shelter can serve more clients. The current shelter is full, Jones said, with 11 men housed there.

This day has been a long time coming, and Jones said this is not the end of a project, but rather, just the beginning.

The 365 Dream Team project seeks to find 365 donors to give $365 a year to help the shelter stay open 365 days a year.

“Without you all, we wouldn’t be doing this – you are our backbone and we still need your support,” Jones said when he was a guest on a recent TownTalk segment.

Area churches, organizations and individuals provide support through financial contributions, providing meals or other supplies the shelter needs.

And area restaurants help provide food for shelter clients, too. “We’re so thankful for them and for the churches,” Jones said. “I’m pleased and overwhelmed with joy and happiness” that all these people are coming together to help the mission of helping men overcome life’s challenges and get back on their feet.

Visit www.cp-hope.org to learn how you can help. Make a financial donation, sign up to provide a meal, or volunteer.

Send tax-deductible contributions to:

Community Partners of Hope, Inc.

P.O. Box 1791

Henderson, NC 27536

Please note in Memo Line 365-2024-05

CLICK PLAY!

The men’s emergency shelter will open for the season in just over a month, but if Delthine Watson has anything to say about it, it will be the last time that the shelter will be open only in the fall and winter months.

“People need a place to go…away from the elements,” Watson told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Thursday’s TownTalk. The weather is something we have no control over, so whether the shelter can provide relief from the harsh winter cold or the relentless summer heat, that’s what she wants to do.

“(Homelessness) is not a seasonal problem,” she said, “we’re just a seasonal shelter – at this point. But we are working on that.”

Watson, community network specialist for Community Partners of Hope, said plans to upfit the former City Road Methodist Church to become the permanent 12-month location for the men’s shelter is taking shape.

Once all the paperwork is signed – and the money raised to make the necessary renovations to transform the church property – Watson said they’d be able to accommodate more men.

“At City Road, we might be able to prepare meals and give the men a place to not just sleep,” she said, but also a place to socialize with others and make connections with other people.

CPOH is working hard to raise the money to fulfill the vision that’s been in the making for the past 15 years – this is the 16^th year of operation for the men’s shelter.

This is the only men’s shelter in the four-county area, but Watson said they get calls from Durham and Wake counties and even from Virginia.

It’s hard to say just how many homeless people are in Vance County and beyond, but Watson said this about the problem: “When we are open, we are almost filled to capacity.”

“We have a lot of displaced people who have nowhere to go,” she said.

She said the shelter is a “beacon of light” to people who have nothing. “If you come to the shelter, we give you clean clothes, and a meal and we give you hope.”

The shelter opens its doors at 5:30 each afternoon, but staff doesn’t always know how many men will enter. They try to have various sizes of clothing on hand and Watson said they have a special need for pajama bottoms and underwear.

They’ve got a lot of socks, but she said she would never turn away a donation from the community.

We are Community Partners of Hope, she said, emphasis on community.

There are opportunities for individuals and groups to support and contribute to the shelter, from signing up to provide a meal to making a monetary donation.

Visit www.cp-hope.org or follow them on Facebook to learn about all the ways to help

“Whatever it is you’re willing to do, we appreciate it,” Watson said. “We welcome whatever it is you want to do.”

Here’s how she looks at homelessness: “it’s not a goal you strive for, it’s something that happens to you. Showing a little kindness can go a long way.”

The shelter staff and the community that offers support lets the men know that they are loved and cared for, she said.

Watson can be reached at 252.767.0344.

Make checks payable to CP-OH Building Fund of CP-OH Operating Fund, P.O. Box 1791, Henderson, NC 27536.

CLICK PLAY!

Delthine Watson’s got the math memorized: 365 times 365 equals 133,225. But when you apply that simple calculation to the plan for the Community Partners of Hope men’s emergency shelter, the result can have life-altering consequences.

Watson, community network specialist for Community Partners of Hope, has complete faith that the community will help bring to fruition the dream to have the shelter open all year long. That plan is inching toward reality now – the shelter is opening a full month early this year, beginning Oct. 1. It previously had been open November through March.

“This year, with the support of the community, and listening to the community, we are opening up Oct. 1,” she told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Tuesday’s Town Talk. “We’re excited about that. But she is equally excited about the 365 Dream Team Campaign that calls for 365 entities -individuals, groups, clubs – to give $365 toward the goal of having the shelter and the services it offers open all year long.

Theirs is the only men’s shelter in the area, and Watson said they have clients who come from nearby counties, including Mecklenburg County, VA, for a warm, dry place to sleep. But the services end early in the morning and, as Watson points out, “during the daytime, they’re still homeless.”

The shelter is a place where men can get a hot meal, charge their phones, have a hot shower and a clean change of clothes, she said.

But once the shelter has its own space and can stay open all year, there could be opportunities for additional services and training to further help clients improve their life situations.

“Just imagine,” Watson said, “we could be able to operate all year, we could get a building…our dreams would come true.”

The $365 – she certainly welcomes more and understands if donors need to give less – would “help us do the things that we need to do – that we want to do.”

Bringing men from homelessness to some type of self-sufficiency is the goal, but Watson acknowledged that each client may have different needs.

Shelter Manager Darryl Jones helps clients a great deal, Watson said, and encourages the ones as they make life choices that take them from homelessness toward self-sufficiency.

Hearing updates from clients who have gotten their lives back on track definitely make for “feel-good moments,” Watson said. “But we don’t have enough of those.” Through additional programming, some life-skills programming and other services, she said the shelter could give the men what they need and what they are looking for.

Visit www.cp-hope.org or call 919.339.1426 to learn more about the 365 Dream Team Campaign.

Click Play