Who We Are

GW Outreach Mission prides itself on providing the fertile ground necessary to grow new ideas into thriving, high-impact community initiatives.

Our Mission

The Greater Williamsburg Outreach Mission is an incorporated coalition of faith groups committed to creating strategies, plans, and programs that will address the critical needs of people experiencing homelessness or those at risk of becoming homeless. GW Outreach Mission provides a faith-based, non-profit umbrella under which existing program expansions and new initiatives can be launched and developed in coordination with other community-based essential services available to the marginalized. Services address time sensitive needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, as well as long term needs including employment, addiction recovery, and financial counseling. GW Outreach Mission is inclusive of all faith groups and is led by a board of directors appointed by the faith groups of the local community.

GW Outreach Mission currently has 22 member faith groups who give generously of time, talent, and treasure to support both GW Outreach Mission-initiated projects as well as projects brought to us by like-minded community partners.

Our History

Williamsburg is not immune to poverty and homelessness, and in 2010 numerous churches in the community, acting on their faith, formed a collective to help people in need. They recognized that faith groups acting together could be more effective than any of them could individually. Their mission was to raise awareness and to mobilize the faith community to help those experiencing homelessness. Initially this new group provided volunteers and material support to the Information and Referral Service, which was providing emergency assistance to the homeless in our community. As more churches joined the cause, people saw an opportunity for this small collective to become a voice of advocacy and hope for the homeless in the Historic Triangle.

The Greater Williamsburg Outreach Mission was incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit in February 2012, with seven charter faith group members. Ten others joined that year and task forces were formed to research the needs of people experiencing homelessness in our community. Analysis quickly revealed that resources in our community were inadequate for shelter, housing, and access to services for some of our neighbors. Every initiative, project, and undertaking that GW Outreach Mission has been involved with in the years that have followed has worked toward the goal of filling an unmet need first identified by those early task forces.