I know that it’s summer but the Code Purple Team is already planning for the upcoming winter season! We wanted to give you a peak at the trainings that will be available. Remember,  we are a volunteer and donation based ministry. We can not do it without the support of the community. Our guests have a warm safe place to lay their heads thanks to all of you! We will continue to update you on the various areas where you can serve in the Code Purple ministry. Check us out on FB and/or send us your email to stay up to date.

We are always trying to make things more streamlined and easily accessible to our volunteers and well, us too! 😉 We thought it may be easier for you to have the ability to sign up for lunches online. It will also make it easier for us to track what days are filled or not filled.

This is for the Seaford area at this time. The CROSS building is located at 703 East King Street, Seaford, DE 19973. You can bring lunch anywhere from 11-12pm.

Lunches can consist of any food you would like to bring for our guests to eat. We have had quite the variety of sandwiches, pizza, pulled pork, salads, fast food, desserts, and drinks. We provide all the paper goods and utensils (from our donations provided by the truly giving people in the community).

You have the option of dropping it off and getting on with your day or staying and hanging out with us. We can always use the extra help and we believe it is imperative that people get to know our guests so that we can change the perceived ideas that society has about people experiencing homelessness.

Remember you have to have this specific link to the calendar in order to sign up! Just click the link below.

Share the word about how the community can get involved with Code Purple throughout the year! If you haven’t yet “liked” us on FB, please head on over there and Like our page to keep updated on our events throughout the year. Thank you again for all your support!

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with two agencies in order to help bring resources directly to our guests at the CROSS Building. This is helpful on many levels. We all know that anyone experiencing homelessness may have transportation issues and find it hard to make it to another town. There is also an element of trust that is established when meeting with people in their own comfort zones.  The following supports are available:

* Jessica Merrill (Division of Social Services Community Partner Support Unit (CPSU)) will be available every Wednesday 12-3pm in order to help with the following:

• ASSIST application process
• Applying for food benefits
• Medicaid
• Long-Term Nursing Care
• Childcare
• Home Energy Assistance
• Referrals to pertinent partner organizations
• Employment and Training
• Overcoming general barriers

*Bernita Futch (Housing Alliance DE) will be available once a month. Friday, June 14th is the next day scheduled from 12-3pm.

• VI-SPDATs
• Working with housing issues.
• Helping with shelter searches.
• PSH/RRH referrals.

These resources in addition to food, showers, and laundry access will go a long way in helping so many in the community find a sense of well-being, hope, and ultimately a place to live. Thank you all for the support you have given us over these last several years. We could not do it without the community’s help!

We are pleased to announce that we have been offering showers, laundry and lunch to our guests and new friends that are experiencing homelessness. The current days available are Wednesdays and Fridays from 12-4ish. This is such a necessary piece to the puzzle for our guests to be able to get jobs, fellowship with others, staying nourished, and well, just a little time to feel “normal” for a while.

We have some needs in order for us to be able to continue this piece of the ministry. Our guests do not have a lot of clothing, so we would love to have t-shirts and sweatpants/pajama pants for them to keep at The CROSS (they will be labeled and stored separately). This would allow them to have something clean to change into after they get out of the shower while their clothes are getting washed and dried.  Some of our guests have a need for flip flops/slides so if anyone wants to help with that mercy item, they would be very grateful. There are also times when new guests come in and do not have a backpack so that would be another mercy item. Since our guests are out in the heat and sun, ball caps would be appreciated as well.

We are sending food with our guests since we are not open each day of the week. This has pretty much depleted our to-go food. There is a complete list on our donation page found here. Donation Needs List PDF

Finally, we would LOVE to have help with providing lunch for these two days. (Hoping to add more eventually.) Two of us have been the sole providers since the end of the season and while we don’t mind, we would be very thankful for your help! You can message us on FB or email us at codepurplesussexcounty@gmail.com if you would like to help us provide lunch for our guests.

Items can be dropped off to The CROSS at 703 East King Street, Seaford, DE 19973. Lunch is also served at this location. The lunch is served at the same location. It is only available to people experiencing homelessness at this time.

Please look for further updates on this piece of our ministry. We will have ongoing needs and praise reports. This is an awesome time to come serve with us in a more mellow setting. This is an opportunity to “get your feet wet” and see if this is where the Lord is leading you to serve!

We will open tomorrow, Tuesday March 26, 2109 and Wednesday March 27th in Seaford for men (St. Luke’s Parish Hall) and Bridgeville for women (Gateway Fellowship). We will serve dinner at The CROSS (703 East King Street, Seaford) at 7pm. Must be checked into the shelters by 9pm.

This looks like the last time that the temps will be under 32 degrees this season. We appreciate all that you, the community, has done to keep us open and operating smoothly! Our guests have been fed well and more importantly loved well!

We will open tomorrow, Saturday March 23, 2109 in Seaford for men (St. Luke’s Parish Hall) and Bridgeville for women (Gateway Fellowship). We will serve dinner at The CROSS (703 East King Street, Seaford) at 7pm. Must be checked into the shelters by 9pm.

As March warms up, we wind down at Code Purple. We are always sad to say goodbye to our guests that we have grown to love as our very own family.

We will be open tonight (18th) and tomorrow night (19th) in Seaford (men) and Bridgeville (women). The temps beyond that are all above 32 degrees.

We are so grateful to everyone that has poured into our ministry this year. Please continue to pray for our guests as they make their way out into the world. It won’t be easy for some of them. We trust that the many prayers they have received this season have already paved the way for them to find the redemption that God offers.

Even though we are approaching the end of the season, we still have new volunteers stepping up to help us serve those in the community that are experiencing homelessness. We wanted to share one’s testimony after spending last night with the guests in Milford.

“Man, I wish I would have started a long time ago! Beautiful ministry. Hard to watch them go this morning. Would’ve sat around all day with them if allowed. Lord willing, I will take a night each week next year.” -New Volunteer

We love it when people join us and see just how great it is to serve alongside us at Code Purple.  Don’t miss your blessing!

Code Purple was invited to be on Delmarva Life in January. They gave a list of questions that would be given during the interview. I was trying to make sure I was prepared to answer the questions appropriately. It seems that I was overprepared for the time that we actually had in the segment. 🙂 I thought they were good questions and I felt like the answers that I had prepared may be helpful to the people that want to know more about the Code Purple Ministry.

1. What is Code Purple and how does it work? : CP is a collaboration of churches and volunteers coming together to shelter anyone experiencing homelessness in the winter. It started as a grassroots effort and has an established Board of Directors. We are separate from Kent and New Castle County Code Purple agencies. This is our fifth winter in operation. We open in December starting off based on temperatures (32 and below). Then we transition into being open every night from December 15th- March 15th. We invite everyone in need of a safe warm place to sleep, to come in, eat and sleep for the night. Each site has a few slightly different details but basically, we open at 7pm, eat dinner and then proceed to the shelters where the guests sleep. A few of the shelters have dinner on site.
2. Where are these shelters set up? : The shelters are all set up in churches that have generously allowed us space for our guests. We have sites in Seaford, Bridgeville, Laurel, Delmar, Milford, and Georgetown. Some are in fellowship halls and some are in the church basements.
3. Talk about the need for these shelters? : The need for shelter beds in Sussex County is huge. There are currently two year-round shelters and together they hold approximately 30 people. We served over 150 guests last year in just four months. There is an obvious lack of resource in this area.
4. Who can use these services? : Anyone that finds themselves without a place to sleep at night is welcome at our shelters. Whether they have been experiencing homelessness for a day or chronically over years, they are welcome. No matter what they are going through in their lives, they are welcome.  We are a low barrier shelter provider which means that anyone not able to get into a shelter due to lack of ID,  addictions, mental illness, or other circumstances will have a safe warm place to sleep in the winter months.
5. How do you staff the shelters? : Our shelters are fully run by volunteers. People in the community that give their time and resources to help us run one season at a time. We have training available before the beginning of each new season and then we train on the job once the season has begun. Everything is donation based. Even our dinners each night are brought into each location by members of the community.
6. What do you look for in a volunteer? : We look for volunteers that are caring and committed. We want people to be able to be kind, compassionate and not easily offended. We see a lot of hard situations come through and our guests need to know that we care. We may not be able to fix many problems with the limited amount of time with our guests but many just want a listening ear. We need our volunteers to be patient and have some understanding of the amount of crisis that comes with experiencing homelessness.
7. What kind of time commitment is it? : That really depends on the job that you are signing up to fill. The longest hours are overnight. That would be from about 8:30pm til 7/7:45am but you are allowed to sleep if you are comfortable with it. The intake position is about 2hrs of a commitment. Dinner is the time that you put in to cook and take it to the shelter. Some people drop off dinner but most stay and serve and fellowship with our guests. Fellowship is an important part of what we do in CP. Sitting, eating, sharing stories, and listening are some of the best moments of the season. It truly becomes family time.
8. For those who cannot volunteer, how can they help the shelter? : For those who cannot commit time to be at the shelter, there is always a need for donations. We have a complete list of items as well as drop off sites in several towns. We depend on the generosity of the community to keep our shelves stocked with the needed items to run CP.