WHO WE ARE

Charlotte's Urban Ministry Center serves people facing homelessness and poverty. Our mission is to address their needs with love, compassion and tangible help.

We view each person who comes to us as our neighbor, living the Bible's call to:

The Urban Ministry Center is a non-profit inter-faith organization, founded in 1995. We welcome all — whatever their creed, cultural traditions, or personal beliefs — who support our mission and want to help. We gain strength and insight from our diversity.

Our ministry has four fundamental goals:

• Immediate assistance

To assist people who are homeless or impoverished with basic life necessities. We offer a soup kitchen serving a free midday meal seven days a week, sanitary toilet facilities, showers, washers and dryers for clothing, and communication services including a mail drop, telephones, and a message board.

• Empowering ministries

To provide information, referrals and assistance for housing, employment, health, help with obtaining personal identification, and other concerns; and to offer ways for volunteers from the community to engage in meaningful "hands on" work to help those in need. We also seek to offer ways to creatively engage all who come seeking help through our innovative outreach programs.

• Consciousness raising

To raise awareness of the realities of poverty and homelessness, and to provide a forum and voice for people who are homeless or impoverished, who are too often marginalized, ignored, or dehumanized.

• Study and education

To sponsor and promote community events, such as classes and forums, on the causes of homelessness and poverty; and to serve as a field site to explore the realities of urban poverty and to seek options for just, effective, and sustainable programs and solutions.

SERVICES WE PROVIDE

• Soup Kitchen

Over 150 volunteers are involved preparing more than 70,000 meals annually. We serve lunch seven days a week, 365 days a year.

• Daily Immediate Needs

We provide essential daily services such as showers, laundry, mailbox, telephone and bus passes to the more than 300 individuals who come for lunch each day.

• Relationships and Counseling

Once we address immediate needs, we believe relationship building is key to moving individuals through homelessness — what is to most an unexpected, demoralizing and temporary circumstance.

Our fulltime staff includes an employment counselor; a social worker who serves as a housing counselor (in partnership with Mecklenburg County), and a "neighbor services" counselor who provides direct assistance on a flexible basis to address immediate needs and crises. In addition, trained volunteer counselors make an invaluable contribution — without our volunteers, the Center would be far less effective.

The Center is committed to making maximum use of existing resources and agencies, not duplicating such services. With that in mind, we act as a "clearinghouse", helping those who come to us connect with the services and programs they need.

Our trained volunteers and staff provide help with:

Dealing with practical problems

• Attaining identification cards, birth certificates, Social Security cards
• Counseling for housing and employment
• One-on-one mentoring
• Veterans Administration assistance
• Referrals to appropriate agencies offering assistance and resources

Assistance with transportation

Health care

A part-time nurse, visiting podiatrist and dental van assist those with chronic medical conditions as well as outpatient medical problems, easing pain while also helping prevent unnecessary emergency room visits. We also offer:

• Prescription medication assistance
• HIV testing
• Life issues support groups, such as Women’s Health; and Grief and Loss

Supporting neighbors helping neighbors

• "Homeless Helping Homeless" support and action group
• NA and AA meetings
• Encouraging informal support and sharing of information, resources and support

Special programs and outreach

• CommunityWorks 945 street soccer, art, writing, music, yoga and gardening programs
• SABER substance abuse treatment program
• Room In The Inn emergency winter shelter program
• Support for appropriate housing options

Personal and spiritual support

Although the Center is inter-denominational and open to all, we affirm the importance of grace and spiritual values in the quest for meaningful transformation, and in the struggle for social justice. We try to help those who come to us find the spiritual and counseling resources they seek, consistent with and respectful of their personal beliefs.

Unfortunately, the Center cannot offer overnight accommodations on the Center's grounds. We do offer Room In The Inn, through our partner churches, during the cold months to provide temporary overnight shelter.