Houselessness

Every Monday morning in our very own parking lot, volunteers and staff from Imago Dei host the Union Gospel Mission Shower Truck for people experiencing houselessness. This ministry utilizes our facility and resources to provide showers and friendship to folks living outside.

We're looking for more volunteers to be present on Mondays, spread the word in the community, or bring food and supplies the day before. Express interest in being involved here.

CityTeam, located just down the street in our neighborhood, is committed to providing support for folks experiencing houselessness and addiction.

We are blessed to learn from and serve with our friends at CityTeam through meals, relationships, and Christmas Dinner. One ongoing way to serve is by serving dinner in their space just down the street from Imago, which we do on the last Sunday of every month. Get involved here.

We seek to foster a face-to-face, heart-to-heart community with young people living on the streets. Our friendships often begin as odd, curious encounters: people who suddenly walk up with socks and smiles. Asking questions and waiting for answers. Patience with complex feelings or complaints. Lingering, sitting on sidewalks together, and sometimes, once in a while, it becomes not so much us and them, but only us.

Our Wednesday nights are spent walking, lots of walking, listening, encountering God in the kids, each other, and ourselves, the boundaries “us,” “them” and God sometimes blurring. Our desire is to embody the presence of Jesus and to encounter the presence of Jesus in unexpected places. Desired skills will include humility, respect, gratitude, learning, community, and prayer.

Join one of our weekly walks on Wednesday nights from 6-9pm to listen, love, and pray. For more information about getting involved, contact David Wilmoth at dwlmth@gmail.com.

Night Strike is an outreach program centered around community, connection, and kindness. For 20 years, Night Strike has been an opportunity for Portland’s unhoused neighbors to come enjoy a hot meal, receive a haircut, have their feet washed, and have their old clothing and sleeping bags replaced. Every month, some of the students in Imago Dei Youth join together to volunteer under the Burnside bridge with this unique ministry!

On nights of severely cold weather, Imago Dei hosts an emergency warming shelter in the gym at Central City Campus. This shelter is initiated by the city and operated by Transition Projects when the temperature drops below a certain level.

To learn if/when the shelter will be open, find other warming shelters in the area, or access transportation to a shelter, contact 211info by calling 2-1-1 or visit 211info.org.

To learn more about donating needed items and other ways to get involved, visit the Transition Projects website at tprojects.org.