Nature and Purpose
Pine Street Inn welcomes more than 1,300 homeless individuals daily to provide short- and long-term solutions so that they can begin the journey out of homelessness and on to permanent housing. Our vision is to help individuals gain stability and their highest level of independence by offering a wide range of services for every person who turns to Pine Street Inn for help.

Services include:

• Permanent supportive housing – More than 600 tenants live in affordable housing across Boston and in Brookline, developed by Pine Street Inn since 1984. Twenty-four hour on-site staff provides support services to prevent a return to homelessness.
• Emergency and transitional shelter – 700 beds (450 emergency, 250 transitional)
• Food – over 3,000 meals are prepared each day in Pine Street's kitchen for our own use and for iCater, a social venture enterprise that provides catering services to businesses and area nonprofits.
• Street outreach – 150 unsheltered homeless men and women are served daily by workers on foot and by van. Pine Street is the only organization that provides nighttime outreach in Boston.
• Job training – 150 men and women annually complete programs in culinary training and building maintenance.
• Mental health support & substance abuse treatment – clinical psychiatric staff and specialized programs provide support to nearly 50 percent of Pine Street’s guests and 30 percent of tenants. Post-detox and other recovery programs are also offered to those in need.

Tasks

Men's Inn:  PULSE students have the opportunity to connect directly with guests while they engage in a number of volunteer activities. Students will "shadow" a counselor in the Men's or Women’s shelter during their shift. Students will have the opportunity to get to know their counselor and learn a great deal about working in the shelter environment. Some of the activities students may participate in involve assisting with dinner service, playing cards and checkers, helping check guests into the nurse's clinic, staffing the front desk at the main entrance, sorting mail and coordinating the nightly list of guest bed assignments. Students are expected to reflect on their experience in the shelter with weekly journal entries.

Time Requirements
Students will be required to complete two 4 hour shifts per week, beginning at 2:30pm and ending at 6:30pm.  Schedules are somewhat flexible and weekend shifts are available.  Students will be required to complete a mandatory training session in October. This date will be posted at the Town Meeting. 

Supervisor
Coffie Fields, Volunteer Coordinator
coffie.fields@pinestreetinn.org

Address
444 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
617-892-9187 or -9186

Council Member
Liv Witkowski