Black Methodists Organization Receives An $80,000 Grant For Church Renewal!

This grant program is not just limited to African Americans!

To qualify for this grant program your non-profit organization or church / ministry must have a racial/ethnic minority leadership and goals of fostering justice, self-determination, inclusion and reconciliation among racial/ethnic groups and communities.

So far over 30 grant awards have been approved through the year 2009 totaling to $1 Million Dollars! Only 89 applications have been submitted so far!

All of the previous grant recipients are operated by racial/ethnic United Methodist churches or caucuses or by community organizations. Grants awarded include:

• a $30,000 2 Year grant to a 6-year-old ministry of a pan-Asian and historically Japanese-American congregation.
  
  
• $40,000 to a theater company, at a newly created Hispanic / Latino congregation of a United Methodist Church a new Hispanic/Latino congregation in N.J. The theatre group engages local youth and young adults in Christian music, dance and theater as avenues to positive self-expression, self-discipline and community evangelism.
  
  
• $40,000 to an outreach effort of a "Young Adults Ministry Group at another United Methodist Church located in Arkansa. The outreach program will help fifty at-risk girls, ages 12 to 18, who will be matched with mentors recruited from various professions to address four critical areas of the girls' lives: educational enrichment, cultural awareness and the arts, community services and character-building.
  
  
• $40,000 to a United Methodist Church which is in a predominantly black community in New Orleans that is still struggling to recover from 2005's Hurricane Katrina. (Click here for more information about Katrina-related grant programs). The church works with local partners to help young people create a more positive future through tutoring, mentoring, service-learning projects, community organizing and leadership development skills. (African-American-$40,000)

There are also a number of projects being refunded as well! Including:

• $30,000 which has been awarded to a project in Chicago that help organizes journaleros, or day laborers, who seek work daily on street corners in the Chicago area. These workers often must face theft of their pay by unscrupulous employers, unsafe working conditions, wrongful arrests by police, disruptive raids by immigration agents and other troubles. The project is trying to improve hiring and labor conditions, prevent anti-immigrant actions by police, and develop a workers' center where day laborers can gather to seek jobs and receive other assistance.

A number of smaller grants have also been awarded to:

• to explore ideas and models for overcoming racism and encouraging multicultural ministries.

The organization that sponsors these grants also awarded funds to help racial/ethnic conferences and organizations send members to General Conference in 2008 as observers to learn about the legislative assembly and to advocate on issues of concern to their constituents.

To find out more about this organization's grant program and whether or not YOUR organization is eligible to apply for this grant program you can visit their website to find out more about their grant program!