The Caring Connection is the tie that binds 100 National Mission Institutions related to The United Methodist Church through the General Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Women. These community centers, residential treatment centers, women's residences, and schools and colleges are places where God is saving and rebuilding precious lives each day. They are places of vital mission where people of faith and compassion demonstrate their commitment to renew hope and restore community among all God's children.

Community Centers: Over 70 of these institutions, located in 35 states, benefit primarily low-income families of all races and cultural backgrounds. They offer a vast array of services, including child and parental development programs, literacy classes and training in self-sufficient living, adjustment services for recent immigrants, housing and home repairs, personal growth and fellowship activities for teens and older adults, conflict resolution and community advocacy initiatives, and much, much more.

Women's Residences: Six residences provide temporary safe shelter to women seeking refuge from abusive relationships, recovery from addiction, or gradual reentry into society after release from prisons, hospitals, or mental health institutions. The women also receive helpful guidance, spiritual nurture, and sisterly support as they develop personal goals and self-discipline, find jobs and permanent housing, and improve their social interaction and parenting skills.

Residential Treatment Centers: Nine of these institutions primarily serve emotionally troubled children and youth those with and without families. They offer education, therapy, and innovative developmental programs that emphasize self-confidence, personal responsibility and spiritual growth. Each center also engages in family and community intervention efforts to ease their young residents' transition back into society.

Schools and Colleges: Six colleges and two universities, all founded as Methodist mission schools, provide a broad range of excellent academic and professional study programs to deserving students at an affordable cost. Five are historically African-American institutions established after the Civil War. In addition, two mission schools-offering kindergarten through high school grades-provide quality education and Christian values to increasingly-diverse students, with a special commitment to those who are economically disadvantaged.

Most of these historic institutions were founded by early women's missionary societies of the church, several of them more than a century ago. Today, they receive program, property, administrative and financial assistance from the General Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Women nationally, in addition to crucial local church and annual conference support.

For more information, contact the Institutional Ministries Program Unit, General Board of Global Ministries, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1543, New York, NY 10115. Telephone: 212-870-3843. Fax: 212-870-3948.

E-mail address: AFunk@gbgm-umc.org

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