Sing Out for Shelter 2020

About the Concert

The 28th Annual Sing Out for Shelter (SOS) concert to benefit organizations that serve homeless men and women is organized by the Augmented Eight, a non-profit, men’s a cappella singing group which has performed for Washington audiences for over 60 years. This year’s concert of a cappella vocal music will once again benefit three local organizations that serve the more than 30,000 individuals who experience homelessness each year in the Greater Washington DC Region: – Friendship Place, Christ House, and National United Methodist’s own Metropolitan House.

These concerts have raised more than $300,000 over the past twenty-seven years. In October, 2010, Friendship Place honored the Augmented Eight with the 13th annual Benjamin E. Cooper Award recognizing outstanding contributions by members of the Washington DC community to the cause of ending homelessness.

The National United Methodist Church is located at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20016, on the corner of New Mexico and Nebraska Ave, across Nebraska Ave from the American University. Free parking is available in the church lot or across Nebraska Ave in the underground garage of the AU School of International Service.

Concert Beneficiaries

 Christ House: A full-care health recovery facility for the sick and homeless in the Washington, DC area, Christ House serves as a place refuge and healing. Since opening in 1985, Christ House has served over 4,800 homeless men and women. Suffering from an array of illnesses and injuries including diabetes, cancer, and AIDS, patients at Christ House receive 24-hour health care as well as a full range of social services. The goal is for patients to leave Christ House with a new sense of hope and dignity and live independently in the community. For further information: 202-328-1100; www.christhouse.org.

 Friendship Place is a leader in Washington, D.C., in developing and implementing solutions to homelessness that have positive, demonstrable results and a lasting impact. Friendship Place offers the most effective model for addressing adult homelessness, with innovative, customized, person-focused programs that empower participants to rebuild their lives, find homes, get jobs and reconnect friends, family and the community, permanently. Programs include street outreach, hospitality, free medical and psychiatric services, job placement, case management, transitional shelter, permanent supportive housing, and specialized services for Veterans and their families. For further information: 202-503-2963; www.FriendshipPlace.org.

 Metropolitan House: National United Methodist operates two residential housing programs – Metropolitan House located in the Natio United Methodist building and St. Luke’s House located at the St. Luke’s Mission Center on Calvert Street. Both provide shelter to home individuals who are working with Friendship Place’s AimHire program. St. Luke’s House and Metropolitan House were two of the first shelters to open in upper Northwest DC, and over the past twenty-five years they have provided safe, stable, and secure living environments that have empowered hundreds and hundreds of men to move beyond homelessness toward self-suffciency, employme and permanent housing. In 2015, Metropolitan House shifted its focus from serving men and now houses women. Both programs emphasize independent living and have expanded from the older night-shelter model of “in- by- 7am-out-by- 7pm” to offer residents 24 hour-a-day access. This accommodates the varied schedules of those who are working or seeking employment. For more information c 202-363-4900 or visit www.nationalchurch.org.

All of the beneficiaries of SOS are 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations, and each will receive one-third (1/3) of the value of each ticket or donation. Your contribution above the amount of any value you receive will be exempt from federal income taxation.