PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry)

PACEM believes that a welcoming, safe place to shelter is the first step to addressing the crisis of homelessness. We believe that together, we can create a community where our homeless neighbors are not at risk of freezing to death. We bring the members of 90 congregations and community groups together each winter to address the need for shelter in our community. We share a compassion for our neighbors in crisis.
Our mission is to bring together the faith community of the greater Charlottesville area in providing temporary shelter, compassionate support and access to services to individuals who are homeless so they can move to a stable housing solution. This work can only be achieved by forging partnerships in the larger community.

For the last Fourteen winters, PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry) has opened its doors to people from Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson, our neighbors who are less fortunate, who without PACEM would be sleeping on the street or in an unsafe place.
PACEM opened the doors of its shelters during the winter of 2004. We continue as a grassroots organization, committed to our passion of helping homeless adults find shelter during the cold winter nights and finding home. PACEM has provided nearly 80,000 total nights of shelter for thousands of homeless individuals in our community.