The Coalition Against Poverty in Suffolk is hosting its Night Stay Program for the sixth year this year, and there’s a pretty good chance you can help.

The group of churches has conducted the program the past few years to help the homeless stay warm at night during the winter. Churches volunteer to be a place to stay and provide meals and volunteers, while other volunteers provide transportation, and CAPS itself provides bedding and other needs.

It works beautifully, except for one thing: CAPS has had trouble getting churches to participate.

The reasons why vary, but some churches may not feel they have the space or volunteers to be able to host the program adequately. Other churches may have some misconceptions about the homeless population that would be easily dispelled by hosting or volunteering for the program for a week.

Whatever the reason, the program has succeeded in spite of this in the past. This year, the program is actually expanding, beginning on Nov. 28 and lasting all the way to April 10.

There is still a need for more churches and volunteers, though. If you’re a member of a church, now would be a good time to bring this up with your deacon or pastor and suggest that the church partake in this program.

If your church doesn’t have enough space, it could provide meals, volunteers or transportation for a week that the program is hosted at another church. If it doesn’t have enough volunteers, it could provide the space, and so on. Whatever your church is willing to do to help, CAPS and the homeless population could use your volunteerism.

For more information, visit capssuffolk.org/night-stay.