Each night when the doors open at Nest Community Shelter, community members arrive to reconnect our guests to their community. Some come to help serve dinner; others to help our guests settle in for the event; and a select group comes for a very special reason: to shine a light in the storm of homelessness. These very special volunteers are our Flight School instructors. While we value all of our volunteers and the roles they serve in, this month we want to share the special role that our Flight School instructors provide to Nest’s guests.
The name Nest was specifically chosen when we found our permanent home and evolved from Interfaith Community Pads. A nest represents a safe place to land and to grow, but not a permanent home. Our guests receive support along the way, and our Flight School program prepares them to leave our nest and succeed in their future.
Flight School pairs shelter guests with trained community volunteers for weekly one-on-one support. For the past few years, this program has helped unhoused individuals staying at Nest navigate their path forward, with a key ingredient: consistent human connection.
How Flight School Works
Flight School instructors are community volunteers who commit to meeting with shelter guests once a week in the evening. Working in partnership with our case manager, these instructors provide guidance, encouragement, and dedicated time to help guests work toward their goals.
Each guest receives professional case management support and benefits from the additional accountability provided by their Flight School instructor. It’s a model that recognizes what we’ve always known: getting back on your feet requires both practical resources and the reassurance that your community hasn’t forgotten you.
More Than a Meeting
These meetings create something powerful. Trust. Barriers come down, and guests begin to see themselves not as problems to be solved, but as people with agency, goals, and potential. Their instructors become witnesses to their progress and partners in their setbacks, showing up, week after week, with the simple message that what our guests have to say matters. So many who experience homelessness are shunned by society and often move in our community as unseen or a problem, not as a human being. Flight School demonstrates that their voices, their goals, and the work they are doing to rebuild their lives truly matter.
This consistency is key. For our guests, so much feels unstable. Flight School offers a steady presence, a recurring appointment that says: someone is invested in your success and your community cares about you, we see you.
A Community Investment
Our Flight School instructors receive training and work closely with our case manager to ensure guests receive coordinated, effective support. Our Flight School Instructors are community volunteers who share a genuine commitment to our mission to reconnect guests with the community they’ve become separated from.
This is how transformation happens: not through programs alone, but through relationships that restore dignity, determination, and dedication.
Get Involved
Flight School works because community members choose to show up. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a Flight School instructor or supporting this program, we welcome you to reach out to our volunteer coordinator, Katie, at kswistek@nestcommunityshelter.org.
When we come together as a community to listen, guide, and support, anything is possible.
