Winter Shelter for Women
The Grace and Peace Winter Shelter has been offering temporary, overnight shelter during the colder months, in the name of Jesus Christ, to homeless women of St. Louis since 1986. We were privileged in the winter that just ended, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, to be able to offer shelter to a dozen ladies each night, in our 37th year of service to St. Louis' homeless women!
During the warmer months of each year, we continue to pray and interact with our guests as we are able. We are also actively evaluating the past winter's ups and downs; fundraising; gathering those who might be part of the ministry team for the next winter. If you're interested in praying or working with us or giving, please reach out and we'd be glad to talk with you!
We will be starting very soon to sign up volunteers for our 38th winter of sheltering. We especially need mostly women and a few men who are followers of Christ who can volunteer overnights, any night of the week. We would love to get several people who can serve weekly or every other week so that more relationship-building can happen!
Volunteers are needed who can work in the winter months, evenings from 6 to 10 p.m. or make and bring food, or, if followers of Jesus Christ, can work Overnights from 6 pm to 6:15 a.m. To receive the link to sign up to volunteer or help with food, please email us at Thank you!
The Winter Shelter operates in the basement of Grace and Peace's building in an urban area on the west side of St. Louis City. Many city and suburban churches send helping hands and meals each winter. Neighboring churches and agencies also partner with us! As a result, the shelter ministry extends well beyond the boundaries of the congregation of Grace and Peace. Many women who stay at Grace and Peace during the winter love the shelter's warm community feeling.
Many have also "graduated" to apartments of their own.
We work with our guests to provide them with opportunities to learn skills and practices toward their goals, including obtaining housing so they are no longer homeless.
As always, in order to shelter ladies, feed them, keep them warm, give them basic necessities and show them Christ’s love in the day-to-day, we will need to raise funds.
People have been amazingly generous in their giving to this mercy work and we praise the Lord!
The Winter Shelter receives no government funding, relying instead on volunteer helpers and meal providers as well as on donations to cover staff stipends and other expenses. Here at Grace & Peace, we welcome gifts of any amount, from anyone who would like to give. To give to the Shelter, which is a ministry of the church, you can use this button, which uses PayPal. Please put Winter Shelter in the note. Thank you!
You can now make a donation via PayPal if you wish without using this button. To do so, go to www.paypal.com, and select the Send Money and Personal tabs. Under the Personal tab, choose Gift. Designate the receiver as
, and the MEMO "Shelter". Or, you can send a check via U. S. Mail or using your bank's Bill Pay function. The address is 5574 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112.
The Shelter is a ministry of Grace & Peace Fellowship, which is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation. This means that donations are tax-deductible for donors, according to current IRS policies. If you would like a donation receipt, please send us an email with your information and we will send you a receipt at year's end. Thank you for your support! God is always the provider—and we ask that if you can give, please do. You could provide $30 for a guests’ safe transportation for a week, $175 for one overnight Staff stipend, $775 for a month’s once-weekly Staff pay, $1000 to cover the electric costs for 3+ months. Please do give and volunteer as you can!
And, above all, PLEASE pray for us, to be like the hands and feet and voices of Christ to the ladies and to one another.
As we've completed our 37th winter and I look back on my own years of Shelter involvement, I am so aware of so much of the grace of God that has been keeping us, bringing new people in new generations to care, as the first ones who started the shelter in 1986 passed on the vision and habits
“Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:2
Warmly in Christ,
Melody Burke Perkins, Winter Shelter Ministry Team Leader