Serve in our community

Transcription

1 BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) Beginning in 2012, FPC engaged a new partner, BELL, as our new way of providing a summer of academic intervention for our service-partner scholars who attend Westerly Hills School. Sixty rising 1st through 3rd grade students participate in this six-week program at FPC. There are many ways to get involved in this summer program from reading in the morning to spending an afternoon with our BELL campers, Monday-Thursday, or chaperoning a Friday field trip. Consider making a financial donation toward our $65,000 goal. Camp Grier Summer camps have been a tradition at First Presbyterian Church for more than 40 years. Thousands of children who live in poverty have had the opportunity to spend a week in the North Carolina Mountains at Camp Grier. Members can assist with Camp Grier by serving as camp parents or van drivers. Camp parents get the children to and from the church on the Sunday they leave for camp and the Friday they return from camp. They also communicate with the camper s family to answer any questions and to make sure they have the necessary supplies. Van drivers transport the children to Camp Grier on Sunday afternoon and from camp Grier on Friday afternoon. Financial assistance is also needed as the cost for a week of Camp is $390. Charlotte Rescue Mission Founded in 1938 by members of First Presbyterian Church, the Charlotte Rescue Mission has a long history of reaching out to the homeless and to those battling addictions. Today the Charlotte Rescue Mission (CRM) provides an intensive drug and alcohol recovery program to homeless and near-homeless men and women. The mission s goal is to address the spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, social, and vocational issues of addiction with its clients and enable them to become contributing members of society. The CRM carries out its 90-day residential Christian treatment program to men through a program called Rebound. In 1992, Dove s Nest was started for women battling addiction. In 1995, the opening of a men s halfway house provides additional opportunities to men to get their feet on the ground and to continue the support they 9/4/14

2 Habitat for Humanity First Presbyterian Church builds a Habitat for Humanity house each fall in collaboration with 13 other Charlotte churches. Volunteers are needed with all aspects of building as well as providing food to workers. Serve in our community needed to stay drug and alcohol free. First Presbyterian Church supports the CRM financially as well as provides lunch and volunteers to serve lunch at Rebound on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sundays of the month. Individuals and families are assigned to one of the three teams providing an opportunity for fellowship among church members as well as those staying at Rebound. Located just three minutes from the church, serving Sunday lunch is easy to do! Crisis Assistance Ministry Crisis Assistance Ministry (CAM) was established in 1975 by members of the Charlotte faith community. It is their mission to provide assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency. The agency s clients are facing financial emergencies and are struggling to meet life s basic needs. They live paycheck to paycheck, making difficult choices on a daily basis among rent, utilities, food, health care and day care. CAM provides financial assistance to prevent eviction and utility loss, while offering basic household necessities. Located five minutes from the church at 500-A Spratt Street, Crisis Assistance offers many opportunities for involvement including serving as an emergency financial assistance interviewer, providing and serving muffins and bag lunches to those waiting to be seen, performing clerical duties and working in the clothing ministry sorting, inspecting and hanging clothing. On the second Saturday of the month, we move furniture from the Crisis Furniture Warehouse to the apartments for people who are making the transition out of homelessness. CROP Walk The CROP Walk is another way the members of First Presbyterian Church can make a difference in the Charlotte community and abroad. Twenty-five percent of the money raised stays in Charlotte and is directed to Loaves & Fishes, Crisis Assistance Ministry and Second Harvest Food Bank. The balance of the money goes overseas to support the efforts of Church World Service to provide disaster relief and sustainable development in developing countries. In October members of First Presbyterian join others in the community to walk a 6K route that takes approximately two hours. If you cannot walk, participate by sponsoring a walker.

3 Friendship Trays Deliver hot lunches to the elderly, handicapped, or convalescents who are unable or greatly restricted in their ability to prepare or secure meals. Over 350 meals are served each week by a corps of 700 volunteers. First Presbyterian s volunteer team delivers meals during the day, Monday through Friday. In addition, a group is needed to help package meals for distribution on the last Monday of the month from 8:30-10:30. The waiting list of clients is growing. The time commitment for food delivery is 60 minutes at lunch time. Jacob s Ladder /Urban League In 2013, Jacob s Ladder Job Center (JLJC) merged with the Urban League. Founded in 1998, JLJC is a faith-based four-step job readiness program that builds skills to help the underemployed and unemployed obtain and sustain living wage jobs. Participants learn career planning, improve their interviewing techniques, and are coached on appropriate business dress. Participants receive one-on-one assessment interviews, strategy sessions to set short, intermediate and long-term goals, mock interviewing, and job leads through a job bank of more than 100 companies. The target audience is low-wealth, lowskilled adults, ages 18 and older that live at or below the poverty level and whose average unemployment is 12 months or longer. JLJC is trying to address the needs of the whole family in order to break the cycle of unemployment by establishing a partnership with Double Oaks Child Care for day care and Brisbane Academy for Pre-K through 12th grade. Opportunities for involvement include helping in office, participating in mock interviews, resume writing, researching employees, and mentoring to promote job retention. The organization also appreciates donations of gently used professional clothes.

4 Lakewood Preschool Lakewood Preschool offers tuition-free preschool and parent enrichment programs. Volunteers are needed to provide nutritional snacks, accompany classes on field trips, assist in the classroom, and to stay with children during evening parenting workshops. Volunteers are also needed to mentor four-year old students and to help the students and their families transition to public school. Additional weekend opportunities are available for yard work, painting and minor repairs. Loaves and Fishes We house the largest Loaves and Fishes pantry in the region. Work in our pantry located on the first floor of the Poplar Street building of our church. Volunteers are needed once a month for stocking shelves or distributing bags of food to clients. Shelf stocking occurs on two Tuesdays and one Thursday morning from 9:30-11:30 am and food distribution occurs on Thursday and Friday afternoons from 1-4 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9-noon. Love Inc. Love INC is a ministry that supports low income elderly people. Volunteers are needed to work in the office, build ramps, and run errands. Men s Shelter of Charlotte In 2010, the Emergency Winter Shelter (EWS) changed its name to the Men s Shelter of Charlotte. The name change occurred when the 30-year-old EWS, a seasonal facility, and the year-round Uptown Men s Shelter merged administrative responsibilities in order to provide more comprehensive services to the homeless men in our community and to save on costs for both organizations. The year-round Men s Shelter of Charlotte operates on campuses on North Tryon Street (formerly the Uptown Shelter) and Statesville Avenue (formerly the EWS). Both locations provide nourishment and shelter for homeless men living on our streets, men who are not eligible for the Urban Ministry center s Room in the Inn program.

5 It attempts to prevent those with the very least in our community from being without shelter. The combined locations sleep 500 men each evening. FPC serves dinner at the Statesville Avenue Shelter four times a year and provides 350 sandwiches every Saturday to the North Tryon Street location. Room in the Inn Since 1996, First Presbyterian has joined with other congregations and colleges across Charlotte-Mecklenburg as part of the communitywide program sponsored by the Urban Ministry Center. Room in the Inn provides hospitality, shelter and food for the homeless in our community during the winter months. The RITI program is a unique way for people of faith to come alongside our homeless neighbors and share Christ s love. Sit and listen to their stories around the dinner table and share your own. Bring a friend and serve together. The simple goal of the ministry is to provide dignity and safe space on cold winter evenings. But the greater goal is to provide a compassionate presence and supportive relationship to the homeless for a night. RITI brings the Biblical admonition to Love Thy Neighbor to life, revealing that everyone in our community is our neighbor. Every Monday and Tuesday night from December - March, twelve homeless guests spend the night at First Presbyterian Church. Individuals are needed to provide breakfast food and bag lunches, to prepare and serve dinner; and to spend the night. Hosts are needed from 5:30 pm to 6 am. Dinner cooks arrive at 6 pm with the meal and stay about 90 minutes. Breakfast foods and bagged lunched can be delivered any time on your assigned day. Sandwich Kitchen The Sandwich Kitchen of First Presbyterian Church was started decades ago in an effort to provide homeless people in our community with weekend food. Each Friday morning, one member of a team of four purchases 30 loaves of bread to be used on Saturday to make the sandwiches. Every Saturday morning a group of men, women and children gather in the FPC kitchen to make approximately 350 sandwiches that will then be taken to the Men s Shelter of Charlotte.

6 St. Peter s Homes (McCreesh Place) St. Peter s Homes was founded in 1989, initially a collaboration between St. Peter s Catholic and Episcopal churches in Charlotte to assist in the identification, acquisition, rehabilitation and occupation of suitable housing for low-income persons in Charlotte-Mecklenburg with the ultimate goal of alleviating homelessness and reducing human suffering in our community. Today, St Peter s Homes, Inc. owns and operates McCreesh Place, Charlotte s first single-room occupancy (SRO) apartment community, designated to serve sixty-four formerly homeless disabled men with permanent housing and supportive services. In 2002, with support from community churches, businesses and government, St. Peter s Homes built a new facility on North Davidson St., McCreesh Place, to house 63 disabled homeless men in individual occupancy apartments. First Presbyterian has been involved since its inception. Funding through our First Things First capital campaign helped buy land and fund the start-up to make McCreesh Place a reality. Annual financial support has continued to be given by First Presbyterian ever since. Urban Ministry Center First Presbyterian Church was instrumental in 1994 in the founding of the Urban Ministry Center (UMC), which is an interfaith partnership of uptown congregations and businesses to address the needs of the poor and homeless with love, compassion and tangible help that comes in many forms. The UMC s values include offering hope, respecting and empowering those they serve, giving personal attention and expressing the love of Christ for every person. Last year, UMC organized and offered more than 16,000 nights lodging through the Room in the Inn winter shelter program and the Soup Kitchen served more than 106,000 lunches to men, women and children. The Urban Ministry Center offers the privacy of a bathroom, the relief of a hot shower, and the dignity of clean laundry, dental services and postal services to thousands of people. Last year 12 chronically homeless people got the keys to their very own apartment. The UMC also offers many outlets for creativity including the organic garden where vegetables for the Soup Kitchen are grown, ArtWorks, the choir

7 and yoga instruction. There are regular volunteer opportunities available such as working at the desk or serving on a Soup Kitchen team, but there are also one time volunteer opportunities such as serving drinks. In February 2012, UMC completed Moore Place, an 85-unit apartment building for chronically homess individuals. Westerly Hills Academy WHA has had a relationship with FPC since the fall of 2000 through tutoring, after school enrichment, staff appreciation, summer camps, Wednesday Connect & Project Back Pack. Volunteers are needed to serve as weekly tutors, supporting Project Backpack which provides a weekly bag of food for 50 Westerly Hills children to take home over the weekend so that they will not go hungry, chaperones for special weekend field trips and volunteers to come to Wednesday Connect and have dinner with some of the partner families. Holiday Opportunities to give: Alternative Gift Market The First Presbyterian Church Alternative Gift Market is offered during the Advent Season. It is the perfect place to find a gift that both honors your loved ones and friends while giving back to our local community or supporting our global missions. With each purchase you will receive a note that can be given to your recipient acknowledging the item purchased in their honor. Use this list to shop, then stuff those stockings with smiles knowing you made a difference for a child at Westerly Hills Academy, one of our local homeless neighbors, or even our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Christmas Village Toy Store The Christmas Village Toy Store provides a hand up for Charlotte families who want to purchase affordable new toys for their children at Christmas. Participate by purchasing gifts for children who live in an under-resourced neighborhood. Then, Christmas Village Toy Store Volunteers will re-price the gifts at a discount for re-purchase by our partner families. The store we supply runs in December at Warehouse 242. All the proceeds from the store go toward a scholarship fund for out-of-school time experiences. The fund has provided support to the BELL program at First Presbyterian!