How We Are Organized…
Our nightly Intake Center is located in the lower level of the Taylor Church of the Nazarene, 24356 Eureka Rd., Taylor, located one block west of Telegraph Rd., on the north side of Eureka Rd. The entrance to the Intake Center is along the east side of the church. Although supported by a part-time paid Intake Coordinator, volunteers staff the intake center.
Our rotating host churches–Roman Catholic and Protestant–are located in Allen Park, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Grosse Ile, Lincoln Park, New Boston, Riverview, Southgate, Taylor, Trenton, Woodhaven, and Wyandotte. Many participating churches send representatives to a Rotating Shelter planning and coordination meeting held on the second Tuesday morning of each month at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Taylor.
A Board of Directors provides leadership for ChristNet Center. The Board meets on the fourth Thursday of each month in the evening at Gateway Church of Christ in Southgate. The Board is responsible for administrative oversight and long-range planning for the ChristNet Rotating Shelter program.
In July 1995, ChristNet merged with the Downriver Poverty Action Agency, an Allen Park based volunteer organization with similar concerns about emergency food and housing. The merged organization acquired a 503 (c) (3) non-profit, tax exempt status that it continues to maintain.
Our History
The ChristNet Warming Center began with a series of community forums on emergency food and housing needs convened in the City of Taylor in June and September of 1992. The driving force behind these forums came from workers at St. Paul United Church of Christ, St. Cyril of Jerusalem Catholic Church, and West Mound united Methodist Church, all of them in Taylor, Michigan.
With the support of a handful of other Taylor churches an eight-week pilot project was organized for January – February 1993. Each participating church agreed to host the new Warming Center for one week. the next year, several additional churches in Taylor and Allen Park offered to host our homeless guests as well, enabling us to expand our season of service and outreach.
In the years since, more churches have become affiliated with ChristNet, allowing us to increase the length of our season. Each season we are now able to provide approximately 33 weeks of overnight shelter to those in need from mid October into May.
