CARITAS- REFUGIO NOCTURNO

Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
Lessons Learned
Results

"The scope of the alliance is reaching further than expected. We are finding more common interests than when we started thinking about the project". The Pablo VI Night Shelter in Cordoba seeks to provide housing to people arriving from the interior of Cordoba, other Argentine provinces and/or other countries who, for health, employment and/or social reasons move to Cordoba and are unable to cover housing or food expenses. Moreover, the shelter provides them with emotional and psychological support and the necessary orientation to solve the problems that drove them to this city.

Organizational Vision

The Pablo VI Night Shelter in Cordoba seeks to provide housing to people arriving from the interior of Cordoba, other Argentine provinces and/or other countries who, for health, employment and/or social reasons move to Cordoba and are unable to cover housing or food expenses. Moreover, the shelter provides them with emotional and psychological support and the necessary orientation to solve the problems that drove them to this city. 

Citizen Base Strategy

In the year 2001 the Night Shelter resorted to the Catholic University of Cordoba for advise since they were receiving an increasing demand for shelter and were short of resources to cover such need. The University told them, "We do not have the money, we have the ideas. We will send you a group of 20 persons for a brainstorming with you". Since then, a team including members of the Shelter and the University was formed to evaluate strategies to encourage the institution's self-sustainability. After considering diverse strategies to get business companies involved with The Shelter and evaluating commercial possibilities -restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, etc.-, they decided to focus on hotels, which operate in a similar field. Both the hotels and The Shelter provide housing to people visiting the city. In 2003 they carried out a market research and a survey with 4 key hotels.

As a result, they resolved it would not be convenient to continue requesting funds and to start a relationship built on an exchange with the public, mainly donors. They creatively designed diverse alternatives for hotels to get involved with The Shelter's project: some of them make donations, others make contributions in specie–bed clothing, and tableware that is replaced, clothes left by hotel guests, used soaps which are recycled by the School of Chemistry of the Catholic University-. Besides, they foster corporate volunteering among managers and staff who provide advise to The Shelter on logistics including menu diversification, reception and encourage hotel guests to become donors.  

Extending the Citizen Support Base

The Universidad Católica of Córdoba joined the project since its commencement, offering human resources to think out a plan adequate to The Shelter's project. Thanks to the permanent and careful cultivation of this relationship, the University has become their main ally. Moreover, the University is a strong means to communicate The Shelter's actions in the academic community. In order to achieve a better response, and at the same time they were holding interviews with the hotels, they received the support of the Asociación Empresaria Hotelera Gastronómica which confirmed The Shelter's experience and functioning. Whenever contact is made with a hotel, The Shelter invites it to form an alliance which consolidates in time; they define the terms of this relationship and offer an array of alternatives –donations in specie, contribution of funds, donations by guests and/or corporate volunteering. The hotel participation is re-negotiated every 6 months, with the aim of increasing the ally’s participation.

At present, 5 hotels in the city of Cordoba and 1 from Buenos Aires are participating in the alternatives offered by The Shelter. 1 of them is contributing funds while the other 5 make contributions in specie. The organization has 13 volunteers in the Resources Development Area; they are in charge of visiting hotels, explaining their strategy and inviting them to join the alliance. This is paramount to The Shelter since they are responsible for transmitting the institution's spirit.

Lessons Learned

• Clearly define which the differential value of the organization is; in the case of the Night Shelter, the management is based on values. Think in what makes the organization different, what can be exchanged with other participants involved.
• Improve companies’ timing, considering that they are different to that of social organizations. Be constant in the request for interviews with companies. To keep an updated contact agenda.
• Encourage constructive feedback by business persons who make donations in money or in-kind, in order to nurture the organization with other points of view.

Results

• The Shelter provides refuge to 94 persons per night (200,000 persons to this date).
• The resources raised as a result of their strategy are driven to the Shelter Functioning Integral Program (Programa Integral de Funcionamiento del Refugio).
• Encouraging corporate volunteering at hotels has also had a strong impact on the community of Cordoba since employees receive from The Shelter a humane training on values apart from professional and job training, by performing solidary actions.
• Shelter visitors are part of the project since they are the main promoters of the service provided by The Shelter in their places of origin. They are the Shelter’s mission best promoters and this gives them a major role to play.