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Advantages of an Interfaith Hospitality Network
Benefits of an IHN Program
Advantages
Homelike Accommodations: Host congregations
provide overnight lodging and meals in a comfortable,
safe and private setting.
Short Lead
Time: The use of existing facilities (houses
of worship) eliminates time-consuming and expensive
activities like buying and/or renovating buildings.
You can put a Network together in approximately
one year.
Cost Efficiency: An IHN
maintains low expenses by relying primarily on existing
community resources and volunteer support. A Network
program costs an average of $13.50 per person per
day.
Comprehensive Support Services:
Network programs offer 24-hour-a-day facilities
and three meals a day. The Network Director, volunteers,
and social service agencies offer the support needed
to help guests achieve independence. Seventy percent
of Network guests secure permanent housing.
Alternative to Shelter: By mobilizing
existing community resources, Network programs do
not institutionalize large and impersonal shelters
as a permanent solution to homelessness.
Catalyst For Change: As a result of participating
in IHN, congregations and individuals often expand
their initiatives. For example, they may develop
transitional housing or renovate permanent housing.
Many volunteers, frustrated at the desperate situation
faced by the families in their Network, develop
an awareness of public policy, and often begin to
seek change in systems that perpetuate poverty and
homelessness.
Social Concern Ministry:
Religious groups benefit by adding this tangible
form of outreach ministry. Volunteers are inspired
by the commitment of their own congregation to engage
in a ministry that helps those in need in their
own communities.
Benefits
For the Guests:
- Safe, homelike shelter where families can stay together.
- Guests cite the caring of volunteers as one of the most important benefits: "I
never knew so many people cared"
- Intensive case management by the RAIHN Network
Director to assist the guests in finding housing
and jobs, and in meeting their other needs.
- On average, 70% of guest families secure permanent housing.
For the Volunteers:
- An opportunity to help homeless families directly; to truly make a difference.
- Opportunity to work in an outreach mission within their own faith community.
- To be offered a wide range of volunteer activities which fit the volunteers varying
schedules and levels of commitment.
- An opportunity for families to volunteer together in a common cause
For the Congregations:
- An opportunity for outreach ministry focusing
on the needs of people in the Rochester local
community (as a host, this opportunity takes
place within the physical walls of the congregation's
facility)
- An opportunity to join with other faith organizations in a community interfaith
outreach program
- To provide an increased sense of community among members as they work together
in a shared mission.
For the community of Rochester:
- The RAIHN program provides a high cost-effective mobilization of community resources.
- The program does not duplicate services already
in the community; the RAIHN program works hand-in-hand
with social service agencies to provide FAMILY
counseling, job training, housing search, etc.
- The RAIHN program does not make shelter an institutionalized "solution"
to homelessness.
- The program can also become a catalyst for
other community initiatives, such as job counseling,
parenting workshops, transitional housing, etc.
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