~ Have A Heart for the Homeless ~

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Who We Are

OPERATION CHILLOUT is a grassroots interfaith coalition founded in the year 2000 by concerned volunteers to help a group of homeless Viet Nam veterans living in the open under a railroad trestle in northern NJ.

What We Do

Each year, the winter project makes deliveries to locations where homeless people gather, including: food pantries; soup kitchens; temporary shelters and places where some sleep in the open in abandoned buildings, parks and alleyways. Each year on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, Operation Chillout prepares a backpack or duffle bag for a man or woman filled with warm clothing, toiletries, survival gear and information about local resources. They are delivered to homeless people free of charge. During the summer, we collect and deliver cases of bottled water, T-shirts and baseball caps to homeless men, women and youth in the hot months of the summer and again after Labor Day. Throughout the year Operation Chillout conducts ‘street sweeps’ in impoverished areas to identify homeless populations. It provides training, spiritual formation and ‘street retreats’ for volunteers interested in serving its many projects and certification for groups wanting to become member partners.

Our Vision and Mission

• We believe in the inherent worth of every homeless man, woman and child and provide emergency supplies and survival gear to the most vulnerable members of our communities wherever we encounter them.

• We bring our care to all homeless people without regard to their religious affiliation, ethnic heritage or state of life.

• We particularly seek out veterans of our military services, many of whom, because of the traumas they endured in service to our nation, face acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic illnesses of body, mind and spirit, and are represented among the highest percentage of the homeless in the USA.

• We practice nonviolence, radical acceptance and hospitality toward all to whom we minister.

• We welcome all strangers as we would a guest to our family and observe “no borders – no barriers” in our work.

• We practice humility, charity and the “spiritual and corporal works of mercy” to alleviate the suffering of the poor and homeless in our communities and throughout the world.