2023 Fall
- Aley Cares Toiletry Supplies: Aley UMC ($7,500) provides basic personal hygiene items and shares useful information from knowledgeable community partners. By providing toiletry items, neighbors can alleviate anxiety about personal appearance and hygiene. Furthermore, the neighbors and partners have opportunities to exchange information on services provided and services needed.
- Cooke County Christmas Store: Whaley UMC ($7,500), alongside neighboring churches, launches a Christmas Store to stand in the gap and assist families facing economic hardship due to unemployment or underemployment. The Christmas Store restores their dignity by allowing them to choose what their children and families need for the holidays. Working with many community organizations, the Christmas Store initiative is the first partnership endeavor with hopes of growing and thriving together, offering other resources and tools using asset-based community development.
- DEI Programming Dallas College: Synergy Wesley ($10,000) provides DEI-oriented programming, such as guest speakers, cultural events and community meals at Dallas College, to cultivate and nurture student diversity.
- English Conversation Class: First UMC Allen ($10,000) hosts classes for new immigrants to practice English, where people from all walks of life can come together, learn from one another and foster connections, understanding, and unity across diverse cultures and faiths.
- Feeding Friends and Families: First UMC McKinney ($7,000) expands the existing mobile food pantry ministry by establishing a permanent location in the church building and making the pantry more readily accessible to neighbors.
- Good Neighbor Experiment: Ector UMC ($1,000) connects with immediate neighbors around the church's physical location to get to know them, come alongside them in a spirit of friendship and mutuality, identify ways to uplift their gifts and talents and make broader connections throughout the community to meet potential needs in Ector together.
- Highland Hills Dinner Church: Highland Hills (up to $7,500) hosts dinner church with community members who reside in food deserts, including those experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. The dinner church worships alongside them in a spirit of mutuality and seeks to host various creative events, such as Poetry Night, Music and Song Night, Dance Night, etc.
- Life Together: Life Center UMC (Up to $8,000) hosts an after-school program with community partners, such as the local school district and ACE Program (nonprofit organizations leasing office space), to intentionally build relationships with community members.
- Meals for Little Arch Families: First UMC Paris ($1,000) serves a monthly meal for staff and families of the church's preschool and creates a long-term and intentional relationship with neighbors.
- One Plus One Dallas/National African American Family Involvement Day: First UMC Dallas (up to $7,500) catalyzes ongoing parent engagement programs by hosting National African American Family Involvement Day with PK-12 students in the Madison High School feeder pattern, alongside many community partners, including the City Council, School Board members and community liaisons.
- Orchard and Garden: First UMC Sachse (Up to $8,000) creates a gathering space of orchards and gardens for community members to grow food and enjoy nature, service and fellowship, in partnership with Grow North Texas.
- Power Packs: Grace Chapel (Up to $7,500) expands the existing community-driven weekend food ministry for children in Denton and Aubrey ISD schools by serving additional campuses rated as Title I schools and building long-term relationships with community members.
- Summer Lunch Program: Grace Avenue UMC ($7,500) supports the children and families of the Preston on the Lake community by providing food boxes, books and Little Library kits.
- Tom Bean After School Program: Tom Bean UMC ($5,000) serves as a site for the Tom Bean ISD’s after-school program, meeting a communicated need for many working families facing a dire need for childcare.
- Urban Camp: First UMC Dallas (Up to $5,000) provides scholarships for underserved children participating in Urban Camp at First UMC Dallas. Urban Camp provides quality and affordable childcare for children from kindergarten through 6th grade during the summer and schoolyear.
- Wellspring Mental Health Video Shorts: First UMC Plano (Up to $3,375) will produce six two- to five-minute videos that will enhance mental health by providing information and specific content on topics including trauma therapy (EMDR), resiliency, play therapy, grief therapy, anxiety, depression and relationship issues.
- You Are Not Alone: First UMC Winnsboro ($4,640) addresses mental health challenges among teenagers in the community by hosting a parent awareness event and a professional development program with community partners such as the City of Winnsboro Police, Christus Mother Frances Hospital, Northeast Texas Children's Advocacy Center and the Winnsboro ISD School Board.
- CitySquare Paris with First UMC Paris ($5,000) to replace the lights in their clothing and household goods closet following the recent roof repair. This will create a warmer and more welcoming space for neighbors to shop.
- Esperanza Strings and ONE+ONE Dallas at First UMC Dallas ($9,000) to expand their successful, faith-based music program, with a new afterschool violin program at G. Burnet Elementary School, in partnership with La Fundicion de Cristo/Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission. High-quality, justice-rooted music education is a vehicle for systemic and sustainable change — giving voice, agency and opportunities for students to bypass oppressive structures.
- Open Doors at the Denton Wesley Foundation ($8,000) to expand the hospitality of this ministry that offers a free lunch and access to their Resource Room & Food Pantry by partnering with local immigrant-owned businesses to offer students from outside the U.S. the comfort of a familiar home-cooked meal while creating connections with other students as well as off-campus immigrant communities.
- Open Mesa at Arapaho UMC ($4,000) to form relationships with immigrant families in Richardson ISD by gathering to cook meals native to the immigrant ethnicity. We will learn from each other, share a meal together and foster better communication by hosting English-language lessons for immigrant families and Spanish-language lessons for those who primarily speak English.
- Senior Center/Holy Habit Café at First UMC Bogata ($5,000) to offer a safe space for neighbors to gather to be fed physically, emotionally, and spiritually, by offering a meal, educational classes, and accountability. In particular, this grant will enable connection with elderly neighbors who may suffer from isolation due to financial or health challenges, including the building of a ramp to provide access to the space.
- Tastes of Anna at The Gathering Anna ($5,000) to create a food truck park as a space where people can gather in an approachable setting, meet their neighbors, explore cultures and diversity through cuisine, and have regular worship experiences.
- The Vining Garden at Rhome UMC ($4,000) to build a garden shed to store items as well as creating a space to host classes and other events for the community as well as continuing to provide sustainable garden produce to those in need.
- KiDs Beach Club of First UMC Winnsboro ($5,000): The vision of KiDs Beach Club is to build strong Christian foundations in students ages 8 through 12 with the use of a weekly character word and scripture lesson in an after-school format.
- Esperanza Strings and ONE+ONE Dallas at First UMC Dallas ($5,000): ONE+ONE Dallas and Esparanza Strings have collaborated to create a faith-based music program at Casa View Elementary and are now prepared to replicate their successful model with three other churches who have partnerships with Dallas ISD schools. Children will receive free strings music classes as well as added faith community and school support.
- Rainbow Connection: LGBTQIA Outreach Ministries of Lakewood UMC ($2,000): The goal of the Rainbow Connection is to provide a safe space for members of the LGBTQIA community to find all-encompassing support within a faith-based community that believes in God’s absolute love and acceptance.
- Removing Barriers of Education Inequality with Partners at Harper Elementary, Creekwood UMC ($2,500 Matching Challenge Grant): Creekwood UMC’s goal is for every student at Harper Elementary to have access to books they can read both independently, and with their families at home, further engaging the partnership between caregivers, teachers and students.
- Summer Tings at Church of the Disciple ($5,000): Church of the Disciple is partnering with the YMCA to launch a summer camp for families to be housed at the church as the need for safe space over the summer is paramount.
- The 4th Grade Common Ground Project from Wesley Prep School & Wesley Rankin Community Center, a Ministry of Lovers Lane UMC ($1,000): The 4th graders at Wesley Prep School are establishing a garden at Wesley-Rankin Community Center to combat food insecurity and provide healthy foods to seniors and other neighbors in West Dallas.
- The Vining Garden at Rhome UMC ($2,500): The vision of Vining Garden is to be a resource for families in the community who are food insecure and to grow relationships with neighbors in hopes of meeting both their physical and spiritual needs.
- Reading with Friends, First UMC Wichita Falls ($10,000): creates a summer literacy-focused program by deploying summer interns and volunteers, with the coordination of local educators and church partners.
- Pilot Point Multicultural Choir, Pilot Point UMC ($3,700): creates infrastructure to create a community-wide multicultural choir.
- Los Vecinos Community Center, First UMC Sherman ($10,000): builds out church-based community center and programming to respond to needs of Latinx immigrants in the Sherman community.
- Students Connecting Students, Wesley Center, Paris Junior College ($8,000): deploys student interns to build a network within a variety of college groups to broaden connections with a diverse student body.
- One + One Dallas ($4,000): supporting North Texas Conference churches in efforts to partner with Dallas ISD schools as well as resourcing for students in care of Child Protective Services.
- Faces, Holy Covenant UMC ($2,500): builds out effort to support diverse foster and adoptive families through finding ways to fill gaps among those impacted.
- BIPOC Solidarity Coalition, Owenwood Farm & Neighbor Space ($5,000): creates cohorts “to focus on anti-racism within BIPOC communities, creating space for BIPOC to address bias within their own communities and the impact that bias has on other BIPOC groups.”
- Network Community Missions, partner of First UMC Royse City ($2,000): funds the next stage in development of coalition of civic leaders, school partners, social services and churches to support young people most likely to suffer the effects of racial inequity.
- Rockwall County Clergy Coalition, First UMC Rockwall ($4800): partners with local faith communities to organize a deep listening campaign in county to understand the on-the-ground racial justice and other concerns of neighbors.
- Healthy Food, Healthy Hearts for Jack County: Raising community health, improving relationships and increasing economic and environmental sustainability (FUMC Jacksboro). Advanced community garden and greenhouse for hub of food security in Jack County – $10,000
- Callback: An innovative ministry of pastoral care to theater practitioners, opportunity for a central, Sabbath-centered hub for the community, and support for productions and producing theater alike (Union) – $10,000
- First UMC Allen: Change the World Allen housing redevelopment – $3,000
- Dallas Bethlehem Center: Community Liaison Work – $10,000
- Christ UMC Plano: STARS Tutoring at Dooley Elementary School – $6000
- Ubuntu Music Project: Summer Camp, One+One Partnership with DISD schools and local churches, and Recruitment Concert for volunteers and partners – $10,000
- Christ’s Foundry UM Mission (Dallas): FestiKIDS Off-site Ministry with Children and Families – $10,000
- St. Paul UMC Dallas: WOW (Walk Over Wednesdays) student ministry with Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts – $10,000