Jacksonville’s Temporary Emergency Overnight Shelter Accommodation will not be able to open to the city’s homeless today due to a lack of volunteers. Jacksonville Police Chaplain Alan Bradish said he had a total of 22 volunteers show up to 3 training sessions throughout the day yesterday, but was unable to find coverage for early morning shifts at the shelter from 1-8AM.
Bradish says he’s going to move the shift to an 8 hour shift from midnight to 8AM and create a team approach with a team leader in hopes of finding enough people to cover the shift. He says the 8 hour shift could be split up among 3-4 people if need be with a designated team leader responsible for making sure each mini-shift in the 8-hour time slot is covered.
Bradish says he’s setting up another training session for this Saturday from 9-11AM in hopes of gathering more volunteers. He says if all goes well, that the shelter is likely to open next Monday, December 7th.