The Rockford Overnight Cafe will open January 18, 2021 to a limited number of guests due to COVID-19 protocols. We need your help!
In 2019 we launched the pilot program of the Rockford Overnight Cafe in the gym at SecondFirst Church with the premise of keeping unhoused people safe during sub-zero nights. At the Overnight Cafe, unhoused guests (and others needing warmth) are met with food, clean and warm clothing, and shower and laundry facilities. They spend the night playing cards, watching movies, and talking to others. Guests are treated with respect throughout their stay in an effort to restore their dignity and build rapport. Winter of 2020, the Rockford Overnight cafe was open nightly for ten weeks and certainly helped keep people from being injured or even dying in frigid temperatures.
Due to COVID and the terrific efforts of both the City of Rockford and the Rescue Mission, we thought (hoped!) that they would meet the needs and we would not have to operate the Rockford Overnight Cafe. But on Monday, December 21 Carpenter’s Place took a survey of their guests and the results said otherwise. Twenty! people had slept out in the cold in conditions not suitable for human habitation.
Every reason we opened the cafe in the first place was still holding true. There is a small group of people who are shelter resistant and even hotel resistant due to mental illness and many other factors. The Rockford Overnight Cafe will open on Monday, January 18, 2021 to a limited number of guests to maintain safe COVID-19 protocols. We are able to initially open the cafe because we have received a grant awarded by the Margaret K. Aldeen Christian Ministry Fund of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois’ Community Grants Program. However, we are seeking more funding from outside the church to keep it open. This is where you can help! Please consider making a donation to help us further our mission of keeping people warm this winter.
Please keep the Café in your prayers.