Florida Children’s Summer Nutrition Project
Florida Impact
Tallahassee, FL
Florida Impact has effectively leveraged more federal dollar into the state of Florida to secure greater nutrition for its low-income citizens. One example was the Summer Food Service Program which is federally funded and used in communities to feed hungry children during the summer months. With the assistance of this private grant, Florida Impact seeks to expand the federal pilot’s successful strategies and partner with their religious network and other nonprofits and apply what they have learned to other populations around the state where children are underserved, including migrant farm workers and their families.
Summer Bridge Academy
Incarnate Word Lutheran Church
Tucker, GA
Incarnate Word Lutheran Church is reaching out to the community by offering a summer program to selected underprivileged elementary school students with a program of academic enhancement, cultural enrichment, education and character building. The program is designed for children from grades 2-7. The program will be staffed with qualified teachers and volunteers. Rigorous academic work will be integrated with a variety of fun experiences, nutrition and fields trips.
Senior Respite Care and Support Team
Lutheran Services of Georgia
Atlanta, GA
The program is designed to provide respite care for caregivers of home-bound seniors and additional support services as needed according to the availability of volunteer skills. Volunteer Support Teams will be organized on a geographical congregational cluster system with 8-10 Lutheran congregations in a cluster. A Regional Program Coordinator will be hired to establish, train and supervise work with congregations to implement the support teams. The Coordinator will be responsible for developing and maintaining a database of caregiver respite needs and volunteer skills and availability and coordinating scheduling of volunteer availability within and between the clustered congregations.
New Day Adult Care Center
Faith Lutheran Church
North Palm Beach, FL
New Day, under the leadership of Faith Lutheran Church provides quality spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social and physical activities for seniors in a safe home-like environment. Their adult day care exists to improve the quality of life of the participants and their caregivers by reaching out in mercy to those in needs. Grant funds will provide scholarship assistance for individuals of limited resources. Care for the elderly is expensive and some individuals cannot afford the full cost of the program but do not qualify for diversion programs as Medicaid. A small portion of grant funds will be used to purchase food items outside the regular food budget, such as fresh fruit, birthday treats, sugar free or other items for those with diet restrictions.
Hispanic Mission
Lutheran Services Florida
Tampa, FL
Lutheran Services Florida has determined that outreach programs begun last year as a result of disaster preparedness workshops need to be continued. Many people were reached through these workshops, others had questions on FEMA, SBA and other benefits answered but many others are still unaware of assistance available to them. ESOL programs designed to reach out to the Hispanic community are being redesigned to be more effective. A lack of English makes it difficult for adults to reach economic self-sufficiency and makes it difficult for children to succeed in school. Goals are to develop multiple levels of ESOL classes, offer them more often and place them in congregations with volunteer teachers. In addition volunteer mentors and tutors from the Lutheran churches will be recruited to assist the Hispanic population with the acculturation process.
Broward Interfaith Sponsoring Committee
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Weston, FL
BISC is a new congregation based community organizing group working in the greater Fort Lauderdale area. Its mission is to empower people to speak with common voice regarding common concerns toward the goal of more just, healthy, safe and productive communities. In planning meetings, BISC participants have identified housing, jobs, health care and education as some of the issues needing attention. The goals of BISC are to build an organization that is multi-racial, economically and religiously diverse and will provide an organized voice on community problems that particularly affect low to moderate income people.
Not Easy But Vital: Wrapping Shepherding Arms Around Workers
Lutheran Counseling Center
Winter Park, FL
The issue addressed in this project is the overall health and care of church workers and their families. Church workers will be educated through workshops, seminars, print materials, website information and individual or group meetings about health maladies that negatively affect personal and family well being and healthy performance of work/ministry. Professional therapy services will be available to any church workers who request it regardless of income or insurance limitations. This program will also target church workers in the rapidly growing Hispanic communities who face many extra challenges in their ministry. Proactive prevention training and guidance will be offered to foster healthy mind-body-spirit behaviors in church workers and their families.