How You Can Help

Salem IHN uses over 800 volunteers each year, who provide more than 10,000 hours of service (the equivalent of five full-time people!). We don't just welcome your help, we rely on it. This page lists a few ways that you can help out.

Donations

Here's what we need right now at the Day Center (1055 Edgewater NW in West Salem). We're a 501(c)(3) organization, so your donation is tax-deductible and we can provide a receipt. We're at the office from 7:30 am until about 4:30 pm on Weekdays, and 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Holidays? What are holidays? We close for Christmas & New Year's, but we're open for all the other holidays, including Thanksgiving and July 4th.)

Diapers--sizes 4 and 5
Baby Wipes
Vegetable oil (like Canola oil)

Use GoodSearch.com search engine

GoodSearch.com is an organization that hosts a search engine and sells advertising and contributes a share of that advertising to a charity you designate. You, being the caring considerate soul that you are, will designate "Salem Interfaith Hospitality Network" as your charity, which means we'll get about a penny for every web search that you do. If we get enough people using GoodSearch.com as their regular search engine, those pennies can add up to some significant money!

Hosting Faith Community Volunteering

If you belong to one of our Hosting Faith Communities, you can help out by volunteering. You'll need to contact your Coordinator to sign up. Usually, sign-ups begin three to four weeks before our guests are hosted at your facility. (And, by the way, your Coordinator would probably love to have some extra help, so you don't have to wait until it's hosting time!)

Your congregation may have slightly different positions, but the following are the most common volunteer positions:

Breakfast Host
Prepare breakfast for the families. This can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like--although we notice that more families show up for hot breakfasts than for cold cereal. On weekdays, breakfast needs to finish by 7:00 am; on weekends, by 8:00 am.

Dinner Host
Prepare dinner for up to fifteen people, plus volunteers (usually two evening hosts, plus the dinner hosts). Some dinner hosts make sure to include something that's "kid-friendly" (like hot dogs) in case the kids don't like the duck l'orange you prepare.

Evening Host

These are a couple of people who eat dinner and spend some time with our guests. Sometimes you play games with the kids, or help with homework. Sometimes you chat with the grown-ups. Mostly you be a friend and a sympathetic ear.

Overnight Host
The Overnight Host spends the night at the church. Mostly, you sleep. You're there just in case something goes wrong, or somebody needs medical care (kids sometimes get sick in the middle of the night). You can stay and eat breakfast, or leave once the breakfast hosts show up.

Supporting Community Volunteering

If you belong to one of our Supporting Communities, contact the person who's coordinating support for Salem IHN and ask about ways to help. Many Supporting Communities supply volunteers for Hosting Communities, so you may be able to volunteer in one of the hosting positions (see the list above). p

Supplies for the Day Center

During the day, guests stay at the Day Center, which also houses our offices. We supply all the day-to-day things that families need to get by (diapers, school supplies, shampoo, etc.) and we rely on donations to help provide what we need.

Donations for families moving out

When our families move out, they frequently have nothing. No beds, no dressers, no microwave, no dishes, no pots, no pans--you name it, they don't have it. So we're always on the look out for household goods that they can use.

Unfortunately, we don't have much room to store furniture, so it would be great if you can let us know what you have and then store it until we can use it. It's hard for us to predict how soon we'll need it (in one memorable week, we had four families move out--all of a sudden we needed a lot of beds, dressers, and pots!), but we'll make sure it gets put to good use.

Bringing your congregation into our program

So, you're interested in really doing something big? Well, you can begin the process of bringing your congregation into our program as a Support Community or as a Host Community.

In most cases, one person decides that this is something their congregation should be doing and they spearhead the process. Once it takes root, though, you'll find that it's very self-supporting.

We are currently looking to add to our Hosting Communities, so now would be a great time to begin this process. To be a Hosting Community, you need:

Enough space to house four families, up to 15 individuals. This can be four separate rooms (such as Sunday School rooms), or one large area that is broken up with dividers. Some Hosting Communiies use a gymnasium for this, others use their fellowship hall. Families move out on Sunday morning, and move to a new church on Sunday evening, so hosting doesn't usually interfere with worship services.
A place where meals can be served. It's nice if you have a kitchen area, so the meals can be prepared there, but it's not absolutely necessary. Meal preparers usually make their meals offsite, anyway, so you can get by with a serving area.
Someone willing to serve as the Coordinator. This person is our main contact with the congregation. The Coordinator arranges for volunteers and works with the congregation to provide space and facilities