Community and Institutional Ministries Program Area

The Community and Institutional Ministries Program Area (CIM) facilitates, resources, and supports outreach to meet human needs, with special emphasis on ministries with women, children, youth, families, and older adults. It offers direct services, specialized ministries, and community organizing and development, including economic development and justice advocacy. This program area comprises two sub-units, Community Ministries and Institutional Ministries.

Community Ministries

Leadership development, resource identification, technical assistance, and globalization are the four primary strategies that shape the work of seven program emphases in Community Ministries. These emphases are Community Developers; Communities of Shalom; Ministries with Women, Children, and Families; Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence; Town and Country Ministries; Urban Ministries; and United Methodist Voluntary Services. Community economic development is a theme in each emphasis. Highlights of 2000-2001 include the following:

>> The Community Developers Network Training Event in late 2001, “Churches Serving Communities,” brought together 145 professionals and volunteers engaged in 37 congregation-based ministries. These ministries remove barriers and give voice to individuals and communities disadvantaged by social, economic, political, and racial disparities. The Community Developers Program is supported by the annual Human Relations Day Offering.

>> Communities of Shalom emerged in 1992 from the ashes of destruction in Los Angeles and now constitute a network of transformational ministries in 450 locations. Shalom in 2000-2001 saw new international partnerships formed. The Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference Shalom program assumed responsibility for training 250 volunteers working at eight sites in Zimbabwe, while the Texas Conference is helping the church in Ghana respond to community health challenges. Shalom brings religious groups of many backgrounds together with civic leaders and government officials to multiply assets and find solutions for common problems.

>> Ministries with Women, Children, and Families responded vigorously to needs created by welfare reform in the United States. In collaboration with the Women’s Division, 76 grants were made to United Methodist and ecumenical programs dealing with the crises caused by the welfare-to-work system. Out of this concern came a landmark document setting forth United Methodist policy on the use of government funds. The unit works closely with the Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty.

>> The Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) moves the church to confront the ravages caused by addiction. Globally, the “Hope of the World” conference in 2001 brought together people from 26 European and African countries to explore solutions. In the United States, the Standing Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs began to identify strategies for use on local levels in collaboration with SPSARV and the General Board of Church and Society.

>> Town and Country Ministries advocates for and makes resources available to small-town and rural churches, which make up more than two-thirds of all United Methodist congregations. A priority in the last 24 months was work on a National Plan for Town and Country Ministries, as mandated by the General Conference. The office helps prepare material for the annual Rural Life Sunday and works with the urban office in training for Cooperative Parish Ministry.

>> Urban Ministries works with jurisdictions and annual conferences in guiding congregations through the maze of social, economic, and demographic changes affecting ministry today. A series of Holy Boldness Academies provided opportunities for urban clergy and laity to study, reflect, and plan together for ministry in their particular situations.

>> United Methodist Voluntary Services (UMVS) fosters and maintains a United Methodist Church relationship with local volunteer community organizations. UMVS is supported by the Human Relations Day Offering.

 

Institutional Ministries

One hundred and three National Mission Institutions form a Caring Connection committed to community transformation and Christian service. These are community centers, schools and colleges, therapeutic treatment centers, and residences for women across the United States. Responding to changing needs, they address education, child care, migrant services, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual exploitation, empowering people to find hope and determine their own destiny.

Success within the Caring Connection is measured by numbers and the quality of changes in lives. It was a red-letter day when Toberman Settlement House in San Pedro, California, reached the million-dollar mark in its campaign to build a new campus and open an alternative school. And it was a red-letter day at MacDonnell United Methodist Children’s Services in Houma, Louisiana, when twin brothers, Ryan and Richie, found a place at a residential treatment center that could meet their special needs.

Celebration marked the granting of top honors to the Epworth Center in Webster Grove, Missouri, by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. And children from the Marcy Newberry Center in Chicago added a festive touch to a Gathering of Teen and College/University Women, sponsored by the Women’s Division.

Institutions in the Caring Connection voluntarily participate in a Sharing Partners Action Network (SPAN)—a quadrennial initiative to strengthen institutions, train boards of directors, foster shared vision, and reduce financial dependence on the Board, while seeking resources for new services, initiatives, and sites.