The Vashon Interfaith Council on Homelessness, launched four years ago, has begun an Island-wide outreach campaign in an effort to expand its services and provide a sturdier safety net for those in need.

The group is seeking volunteers to take on a variety of tasks, from transporting people to medical appointments to offering light household repair, providing much-needed support to Islanders who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The group is also looking for people who can staff the council’s shelter, which opened earlier this month at Vashon Presbyterian Church and offers beds to Islanders two nights a week.

The effort is driven in part by the fact that one person, Nancy Vanderpool, a retired college administrator, has become the lynchpin of the council’s network of support, scrambling — often single-handedly — to find beds, food and other services for those who reach out to the council, said Sissel Johannessen, a member of the council.

“She was carrying it pretty much by herself,” Johannessen said.

“People were just worried I was going to get tired of doing this,” Vanderpool added. “I’m not tired of doing it. But just this week, we’ve had so many people who need a place to stay, … and it takes a lot of energy and creativity to try to help them.”

The group began its outreach effort only a couple of weeks ago, putting fliers up around town and reaching out to the Island’s churches. Already, the response has been strong, providing Vanderpool with a list of Islanders who can jump in at a moment’s notice. In fact, one woman, Wesley Rodgers, has stepped up to become the group’s new volunteer coordinator.

“It’s already working really well,” Vanderpool said. “I can call Wesley and say, ‘I need help on this,’ and she looks down her list and finds the right person.”

“It’s been wildly successful,” added Johannessen. “I’m really happy with the response.”

The council is made up of representatives from nearly all of the Island’s churches and faith communities — more than a dozen, all told. A few people who don’t identify with a church or faith group also attend the council’s monthly meetings, Vanderpool said.

The group got started four years ago in part because there were people sleeping on the concrete in front of the Vashon United Methodist Church, and some members of the congregation expressed concern about both the safety and humanity of the situation, said Vanderpool, a member of the Methodist church.

Don Olson, another member, had recently traveled to Cape Cod, where he came into contact with a strong interfaith group and suggested the churches on Vashon come together in a similar fashion, Vanderpool said. She and Olson organized a meeting; Olson became its president, and the group quickly took off, becoming a tax-exempt nonprofit in less than a year.

Now, four years later, Vanderpool said the council regularly serves as many as 100 or so families or individuals a year. The group also puts together care kits — toiletries and other basic supplies — that it gives to people or provides to the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank. Vanderpool guesses the council has handed out 1,000 of the kits.

Vanderpool puts the number of homeless people on Vashon — those who are living in tents, in campers or simply out in the woods — at around 10. Since the shelter in the Presbyterian church opened, as many as four people have stayed each night, and five have come to the meal the council offers two nights a week.

Many more people, however, are hanging on by a thread — a paycheck or mishap away from becoming homeless, Vanderpool and Johannessen said. And some of the services the council offers can make a significant difference in ensuring they keep a roof over their head.

Emergency childcare, for instance, can enable parents to make needed appointments, or light household repair can ensure that their homes remain habitable, they said.

Sarah Day, a public health nurse on Vashon, said she knows from her line of work how many people desperately need that kind of occasional support.

“I’ve always dreamed of having something like this, volunteers coming together to create a network of support,” she added. “We haven’t had anything like this before — an umbrella of services that help out folks in need.”

Meanwhile, the council is struggling to find beds for the Island’s homeless population on those nights when the shelter isn’t open. For a while, two private accommodations put up people; the council would reimburse the owners for a night’s stay. But both have stopped, for various reasons, Vanderpool said, leaving the council with few options.

“There’s a need to secure temporary housing,” she said.

Added Carol Spangler, another member of the council, “On cold and chilly nights like tonight, I can’t imagine being out in a tent in the woods or in a dark, moldy room with no heat.”