FORGOTTEN
TEMPLE OF THE
STREET CHAPLAINCY TRAINING & SUPPORT
What is Street Chaplaincy?
Street/Community Chaplaincy is a form of chaplaincy provided to folks living outside, in county jails, in shelters, in sanctioned encampments/tiny home villages, and formerly unhoused. Street Chaplains are trained in spirituality, religion and spiritual/religious experience, and have an acute knowledge of how to those experiences appear and need to be supported in the context of marginalization.
A Street Chaplain is dedicated to bearing witness to the suffering of the unhoused; they do not fix or change anything physical about their situation. They meet people where they are; they listen and love no matter what; and most importantly, they build healthy, lasting relationships that show people that there is someone who believes in them.
Street Chaplaincy Training
Are you interested in becoming a street or community chaplain? Contact us today! We provide quarterly trainings for those interested in working with marginalized community members as a spiritual care provider.
We are available as a site preceptor for those in Clinical Pastoral Education, Master of Divinity internship or related ordination internships. Site preceptorship can occur both online and in person in Portland, OR.
If you are a chaplain or minister in training or done with schooling, and would like to work onsite as a community chaplain, we place street/community chaplains in different locations across Portland.
Currently these placements will likely not be paid-- but our hope is to one day change that.
The Heart of the Work
The greatest harm to the unhoused population is not the lack of resources, convoluted systems of care or systemic oppression; the greatest harm is the abandonment, hatred and judgment we, the larger community, extend towards them. To leave behind those who are most vulnerable, most unique, most diverse, is to leave behind the heart and soul of the community. It is to leave behind opportunities for profound connection, creativity, and holy presence. A Street Chaplain walks into spaces of great human suffering and reminds those lost in its shadows that they are not only beautiful, but honored and important to the whole of the community.
