Thurman Brisben Center

What is the Brisben Center?
In FY 2017, the Brisben Center served 502 unduplicated men, women and children; 77 were children, 45 were veterans. The Center provided 27,108 total bed nights to clients from the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford as well as the City of Fredericksburg.
Serving 80 men, women and children at any given time, the Brisben Center is a 12-year old residential facility and the community’s largest emergency shelter in the four county area. The Center contains separate sleeping areas (dormitories) for single men and single women and eight family units that have a hotel room layout so that families with children can stay together. It also has a computer lab, TV/Play room, a meditation room, large common area for meals and activities, clothes closet, medical infirmary staffed with a part-time licensed medical doctor, a laundry room and staff offices.
We offer homeless individuals and families, at no cost to them, an on-site safe and structured program to help them achieve and maintain self-sufficiency and independence. Our clients voluntarily assist in helping with the daily tasks of operating the Center. To bring lasting change into the lives of our clients, we assist all who enter our doors with finding housing and employment, securing their GED, financial literacy/budgeting, and addressing medical issues. Families with children receive this same assistance with additional services such as arranging for schooling and transportation for school-age children, day care assistance and parenting classes.
The Brisben Center is dependent on numerous highly committed volunteers,and generous donors. These include our serving churches and other faith-based organizations, civic organizations, our committed community partners, giving individuals, and the Rappahannock United Way .