WORCESTER, Mass. - As Worcester braces for an extremely cold weekend, the city's Quality of Life Task Force said their mission is to spread the message of taking shelter to the city’s homeless community.

The Worcester Senior Center will be open as an emergency overnight warming center open to the public from 8 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 until 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4.

“We're going to break up into different groups and canvass a whole area in the city," task force member Dan Cahill said. "For every known site that we have, we're going to go to that. We have we made up fliers. Hopefully we'll be able to connect to most of the individuals, but if not, we're going to leave a flier there.”

Cahill said informing people about the dangerous temperatures is even more crucial this year with the mild winter we’ve had.

“Some people think, 'Oh, it's all right. It's 50 degrees some days and nighttime lows in the 30's. So, it's not too bad. People can handle it,'" Cahil said. "But maybe they might not be expecting the cold blast. These temperatures are going to be too severe for anyone to be able to stay outside for any amount of time.”

Gary and Ashleigh said this is their third winter being homeless.

“We were normal, we had a normal life," Ashleigh said. "We had an apartment, we had jobs, we had car, we had everything."

"We didn't start out like this," Gary said. "And it's not what we want to do.”

They are among the many in Worcester’s homeless community the city works to assist. Homeless projects manager Evis Terpollari said documenting known homeless sites is essential.

“It's never easy because with a homeless population comes a transient lifestyle," Terpollari said. "So, they're moving from one place to the other. Oftentimes, neighborhoods don't want them, so they have to be forced to move from one place to the other. It makes our job a little harder to track down, to be able to document some of those encounters.”

The Quality of Life Task Force works year-round to build relationships and help people locate whatever services they need. Gary said their team has a kindness you rarely find.

“These guys are awesome, and they'll literally bend over backwards to give you the shirt off their back," Gary said. "They don't stop until you know - if you need something, they will do it anything they can to make it happen. And good people man, there’s not many people have like that.”

The task force said the community can help them out by reporting where they see individuals congregating - whether it be if they're panhandling or if they see an encampment so the team can provide services - especially in extreme weather. They say to call the city’s 311 non-emergency line.