Code Blue Training

Training- Sunday, November 2, 12:15 PM

Through the Code Blue program, Trinity provides sanctuary with bedding and
meals to our homeless neighbors during cold winter nights.  We served 301
persons over 27 nights in January 2014, and the need for 2015 will
foreseeably be as great or greater, as word of available shelter spreads
further across central Bucks County. Each Code Blue night requires 12
trained volunteers, laboring in shifts over the fourteen hours from 6:00PM
to 8:00AM.  The jobs include drivers and driver attendants, intake staff,
cooks, overnight watchers, and cleanup crew, all interacting with the
guests, to make them feel comfortable and at home in the Lord’s house.

During the winter of 2013-2014, Coalition to Shelter and Support the
Homeless (“CSSH”), our partner interfaith organization which oversees the
program, had a cadre of approximately 160 trained volunteers (about 30 from
Trinity) and opened for 78 nights from December 1 through March 15. The
network was stretched thin by winter’s end, and predictably some volunteers
will not be back in 2014-2015.

The success and growth of Code Blue in 2014-2015, and specifically in
January 2015 at Trinity, requires that more Trinity parishioners step up as
volunteers.  To make this simple, CSSH will offer a formal training session
in Faith Hall, after the second service on Sunday November 2, for an hour
or so beginning at 12:15.  Graduates of that training session will then be
able to sign up for volunteer slots, during the hours that suit them,
across the month of January at Trinity and in nearby churches during the
other winter months.

The outcome of making this effort to serve even a single 2-4 hour shift is
indescribable. It can be a significant step on the Christian journey for
both an individual and for our parish collectively as we move towards
Trinity Vision 2020 and beyond.