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Greetings from the CU Men’s Shelter!

 

Just over four years ago, a group of individuals and organizations came together in response to the fact that our community had no emergency homeless shelter for men.  After shelters closed in 2016, the CU Men’s Shelter was formed to stand in the gap and provide a warm and welcoming space.

 

 

A Snapshot of C-U at Home

 

  • A 100% community-funded

  • Four transitional homes

  • 24 hour/day street outreach

  • Transportation ministry

  • Daytime drop-in center

  • Committed to serving our most vulnerable neighbors with grace, compassion, and empowerment through building relationships

  • Connect with them at cuathome.us

As we look back over these three years, we are so grateful.  Thank you for helping to make this happen.  Thank you for providing hope.

 

Over the last winter, we were able to provide 5,748 nights of shelter, and we averaged 37 people each night.  Each year, these numbers have increased.  Each year, the demand for an emergency homeless shelter has been apparent.  Each winter, as frigid temperatures enclose on our neighbors, we hear more and more knocks at the door. 

 

The demand on the shelter makes apparent our community’s need for a long-term solution.  Our neighbors with frost-red cheeks and numbed fingers ask for a place to stay.  And how can they get to the next steps in life—working on the issues that bring them to the shelter—without a safe place to rest?

 

From the beginning, the organizations that came together have seen the CU Men’s Shelter as a stop-gap measure.  From the beginning, the plan has always been to find a longer-term solution. 

 

As such, we are happy to announce that at the end of April, 2019, the CU Men’s Shelter was handed off to C-U at Home.  C-U at Home has been a primary partner in the shelter from the very beginning.  Since 2017, we have been working toward this very solution—handing the shelter off to a vibrant, passionate, and integrity-filled organization. 

 

This fall, C-U at Home moved into the former TIMES Center in Champaign, and the shelter has been operating out of their space this winter.  We’ve been working hand-in-hand with them so that this transition would be seamless.  We are so grateful for their work and care for our neighbors.

 

It is C-U at Home’s goal to eventually have a year-round shelter.  This is what we have been hoping for. 

 

 

 

However, taking on such a significant commitment will require additional funding for C-U at Home.

 

As such, I strongly encourage you—on behalf of our neighbors who are struggling right now—to consider supporting the shelter through supporting C-U at Home.  Consider investing in the future of our community and our neighbors by giving to this faithful organization. 

 

While we value your privacy and the trust of our relationship, we do plan to hand off your contact information to C-U at Home.  If you would not like that information shared, please let us know.

 

As we look to the future of our friends without an address, we hope for a community that can respond to the need in their lives.  We hope for a people that will reach out in love to those most desperate for it.  We hope for a shelter that can continue to provide a space of warmth and welcome.  We hope to invest in the long-term health of our neighbors and our city.   

 

We are grateful for you how you have made this possible over the last three years.  Thank you.  We are also grateful for the work of C-U at Home—and for their commitment to creating a more vibrant community. 

 

 

Gratefully,

 

 

 

 

Rev. Sheryl Palmer                                                                 Rev. Cory Blackwell

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