As temperatures drop, UCAN and St. Joseph Church are stepping up to operate the
Roseburg Warming Center this winter, offering warmth and safety to those in need in our community. The shelter will have limited days of operation, only opening when the low temperature is 30 degrees or colder, or the weather is inclement and nighttime lows are 32 degrees or colder. UCAN will not only offer beds to those seeking shelter, but will also provide a hot meal to those staying overnight.
Holly Fifield, UCAN Director of Housing Stabilization notes: “One warm night can be the difference between life and death for some of our most vulnerable community members.” People living on the streets have a much higher risk than the general population of developing fatal cases of hypothermia or frostbite. Each year, 700 people at-risk or experiencing homelessness are killed from hypothermia in the United States.
Last winter, UCAN provided emergency shelter through the Roseburg Warming Center to 83 individuals and offered reprieve from the cold to 12 additional guests who came just for the warm meal. We even took in their pets, including a duck (pets do have to be kept in crates). Our warming center not only provides a safe place to sleep and a hot meal, but also a community to lean on.
You can be part of that community by volunteering to serve at our warming center! Volunteers are the heart of the warming center’s success, providing warmth and kindness to those seeking shelter and a vital lifeline for the community’s most vulnerable. As a volunteer, you can help offer meals, support check-in procedures, provide company to those seeking shelter, or perform other tasks.
UCAN is actively seeking volunteers at this time, and will offer volunteers an orientation in December. Orientations will last for about 1 and half hours. If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering at the warming center, please email us at volunteer@ucancap.org.
