About Us
Operation Nightwatch is an ecumenical ministry that has been offering hospitality, hope, and healing to the street population of downtown Portland since 1981. Whereas other agencies exist to provide services such as housing, food and clothing, ONW recognizes that the homeless also suffer from social isolation, and has as its simple ideal to offer respect, dignity, and friendship.
Gary Vaughn (l), with friend
Debbie Coppenger
Gary Davis
Our service population has steadily increased, putting pressure on the resources and activities Nightwatch offers. Furthermore, our current Executive Director, Gary Davis, brings a vision of expanding Nightwatch’s outreach, to take our ministry of hospitality, friendship, and acceptance to those who are not currently being served. One hope is to revive the street ministry component, meeting those who for-one-reason-or-other do not enter the Hospitality Center. Another is develop an outreach to Spanish-speakers. Still another is make Operation Nightwatch mobile, using a van to take our hospitality ministry to the areas of the city far from the Hospitality Center where clusters of the homeless can be found.
Under the leadership of its first director, Gary Vaughn, ONW began as a street ministry, its volunteers approaching the homeless in
the doorways, loading docks, and campsites where they had bedded down for the evening. In time, a
Hospitality Center was established,
to which the homeless and other low-income people could gather with others for the evening, socializing, sharing stories, and playing
games over sandwiches and coffee. The
Hospitality Center has since become the hub of Nightwatch’s activities, from its footcare 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. For many years now, the Hospitality Center has been
hosted by the
First Presbyterian Church at the Julia West House,
522 SW 13th.
Operation Nightwatch is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, governed by a Board of Directors. The work of its second Executive
Director, Debbie Coppenger, did much to set Nightwatch on a stable institutional and fiscal footing. Operation Nightwatch continues
to be funded primarily by individual donations, along with some small foundation grants. ONW also receives critical volunteer and
monetary support from a roster of churches, ranging across the theological spectrum. ONW is a member of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
