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By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff 

In one of a series of unique partnerships that are transforming the lives of the homeless in Baltimore County, Salem UMC and its Night of Peace shelter will join with Citgo, which has agreed to pay the shelter’s heating bills this year. 

In a formal ceremony at the church Jan. 24, Citgo Venezualan Heating Oil Program officials will announce that they have chosen Night of Peace Shelter as a recipient of funds that will help “improve the quality of lives of people, especially those who feel the severe backlash of poverty.” 

This is the eighth season Citgo has provided assistance such as this for groups around the nation. 

Night of Peace, based in Salem UMC in Randallstown, is the only private homeless shelter in Baltimore County. Twenty-eight people, many of them children, stay each night at the shelter, which is open year round. 

The intention of Night of Peace, said the Rev. Colin Phillips, is to provide families with an alternative to homelessness. With a staff of eight people, Night of Peace has a very active case management component. About half of the families who stay there are placed in permanent housing, “which is significant in a county where there isn’t a significant amount of affordable housing,” Phillips said. The others are shepherded into transitional housing, where they are able to stay for two or three years. 

“Families are crucified by homelessness,” Phillips said. His church could not sit by and make only marginal gestures of support. Instead, in 2006 they launched Night of Peace with a handful of people from Salem and Epworth UMCs, intent on providing creative ways of reaching out to people in need.

This led them to form partnerships to create a number of innovative outreach efforts. The shelter, for example, recently received a grant from the Ronald McDonald House to provide a recreational therapist to assist children in working out stresses through structured play.

They also have a partnership with the state of Maryland’s nutrition programs for children and receive reimbursements that enable them to put an emphasis on healthy eating. 

Night of Peace is a Community Impact Partner of the United Way and gets funding through the Combined Federal Campaign, along with receiving financial assistance from the Weinberg Foundation and the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle.

In addition, Salem partners with several United Methodist and other churches to create “quite a lively place, where hospitality is at the root of everything,” Phillips said.

“The Citgo gift will be enormously valuable,” he added. “The cost of heating oil is very high. This is a great thing.”

As pastor of Salem and founder of the shelter, Phillips is proud of the many community partnerships the shelter has created. 

“Very often, as a church, we hide behind the walls of a building and talk a good game. But we don’t challenge ourselves or our congregations,” Phillips said. “Night of Peace allows us to really open up our hearts and open up our doors so that the church becomes a living, breathing place, and a sanctuary for people who feel disconnected.”