Community Partner: Operation Nightwatch
Operation Nightwatch provides nighttime hospitality for Portland’s unhoused population to promote dignity, community, and social connection. Under the leadership of its first director, Gary Vaughan, Operation Nightwatch began as a street ministry, its volunteers approaching houseless people in the doorways, loading docks, and campsites where they were bedded down for the evening. In time, a Hospitality Center was established, to which houseless and other low-income people could gather with others for the evening, socializing, sharing stories, and playing games over coffee and sandwiches. The downtown Hospitality Center has since become the hub of Nightwatch's activities, from its foot care clinics to its monthly Birthday Nights and Comedy Movie Nights. It also is a place where people can be supplied with blankets, clothing, and personal hygiene items at a time of day when no other helping agency is open.
Danielle Klock (they/she) serves as the Executive Director at Operation Nightwatch. They share their experience bringing dignity, community, and connection to people experiencing houslessness in Portland. Most recently, Danielle served as the Executive Director at Sisters of the Road. They are on the board of Hygiene 4 All, where they volunteer a couple times a month. Prior to moving to Portland in 2016, Danielle lived in Ithaca, New York, where they worked with community groups and mutual aid projects to help people get their needs met outside the cash economy.
Libby Allen (she/they) serves as the downtown Program Manager for Operation Nightwatch. They are a recent graduate of the School of Social Work at PSU. As a social worker and human rights advocate, Libby is spirited by anti-oppressive practice, mutual aid, community organizing and direct action. She currently operates a Housing Connections program addressing the specific needs of ONW’s women and gender non-conforming guests. The program aims to create an environment that encourages guests of marginalized genders to build trusting relationships with staff so that staff may support the guests in seeking housing.
Featured on: HOME (October 2, 2021)