Urban Ministries of Wake County is renewing lives and restoring hope. Since 1981, Urban Ministries of Wake County has responded to their neighbors in crisis by providing basic needs – food, medicine and shelter. Known initially as the Urban Ministry Center, the organization later became Urban Ministries of Wake County.
In 1984, The Ark Shelter, an emergency shelter to 25 homeless men, opened at 410 S. Blount Street. Established in 1985, the Open Door Clinic remains Wake County’s only free and charitable clinic with an on-site, fully licensed pharmacy. Nearly 2,000 patients call the Open Door Clinic their medical home, receiving high quality medical care from volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab techs as well as in-house mental health counseling. Community partnerships allow for patient referrals to specialists at no charge.
In 1986, an emergency shelter for ten homeless single women opened, and in 2001 was renamed the Helen Wright Center for Women in honor of Sister Helen Wright, the agency’s first director. Today, the Helen Wright Center for Women provides safe shelter, warm food, and care to as many as 36 homeless women each night.
In 2020, the center will be relocated and enlarged, doubling the shelter’s current capacity and increasing the number of emergency beds for homeless single women by 70% county-wide. In 2017, Urban Ministries’ food pantry became the largest pantry in Wake County to offer client choice, allowing food-insecure families to choose their own groceries instead of receiving pre-bagged food. The food pantry provides a week’s groceries to as many as 50 families each weekday. Last year, volunteers distributed 270 tons of food and served more than 20,000 adults and 10,000 hungry children. The self-service pantry model reduces food waste and affords greater dignity to those served.
One-third of all FPC Shares collected are delivered faithfully every month to the Urban Ministries’ food pantry by Susan Dubach. Urban Ministries supports the FPC Friendship Fund through quarterly donations. For more information, visit www.urbanmin.org.