The Quad City Interfaith Council provides supplemental services to local people struggling with homelessness on winter’s coldest nights

By Bruce Kneeland

One little-known but remarkable service organization in the greater Prescott area is The Quad City Interfaith Council (QCIC).  The organization brings together leaders of faith and humanitarian organizations, and they combine their resources to help the homeless during the cold winter months.

Formed in 2014, the QCIC is the driving force behind Operation Deep Freeze (ODF). The organization raises money to help provide a place of refuge for the area’s homeless whenever the temperature drops below 32 degrees.  Last winter, ODF provided a warm meal, shelter and fellowship for 20 to 30 people on each of 81 different nights last winter.

Although the Prescott-based Coalition for Compassion and Justice (CCJ) has a robust, year-round program for helping the homeless, and a number of organizations, such as U.S. Vets, Prescott Area Shelter Services and others work tirelessly on the issue, when it gets cold, many of the less fortunate who might otherwise avoid charitable support seek shelter, causing the need for the QCIC’s supplemental shelter services in the winter.

Molly Freibott, Director of Operations for the Greater Yavapai County Coalition, and Jessi Hans, Executive Director of the CCJ currently serve as Co-Facilitators.  Molly is in her second year of service in this capacity and Jessi accepted the shared leadership role in June of 2020.

“We have lots of wonderful organizations doing great work,” Molly says, “but often there is no central hub where interagency cooperation can happen.”

With the QCIC taking the lead, and with the support of others, Molly says they have raised more than $30,000 to support ODF over the past few years.

CCJ serves as the fiscal agent for the organization for the QCIC, since the QCIC isn’t organized as a nonprofit.  One of QCIC’s most notable fundraising efforts is its annual Celebration of Thanks. Held on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, the event attracts several hundred people and features musical numbers and inspirational readings hosted in one of the QCIC’s member’s facilities.

Jessi says the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the cancellation of the Celebration of Thanks this year so she says they are eager for private donations.  A GoFundMe account has been set up for this purpose.  Anyone wishing to help the homeless during the cold winter months can donate at:  https://yavapaiccj.org/donate/ then select DONATE and then look for ODF donation box.

Jessi says she wishes that both city and county governments were more engaged in addressing the problems of homelessness.  To that end she invites community residents to share their concern for the issue with elected officials.

For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/quadcityinterfaith/.