Housing and Homeless Council Celebrates Operational Grant Recipients

By Rev. Stacey Rushing

The North Georgia Housing and Homeless Council is excited to celebrate its 2022 Operational Grant Recipients!

We appreciate the work of the Housing and Homeless Council members who reviewed applications, visited applicants, and prayerfully discussed how to best award funds to help the Church serve neighbors in need. We were so inspired by churches of all sizes in communities across the North Georgia Conference who are finding meaningful ways to address poverty and homelessness.

Summerville First UMC in the Northwest District has developed a partnership with its local school system, DFACS, and the Northwest Georgia Hunger Ministries to provide food for students in need every weekend of the school year. Alcovy UMC in the Central South District has partners with churches across the community to provide a rotation of locations where people experiencing homelessness can come have fellowship and a hot meal. In addition to programs that seek to offer access to food and other resources for people experiencing homelessness, the Housing and Homeless Council awarded grants to churches and ministries providing shelter such as Our House a Domestic Violence Shelter in Cedartown which was born out of the work of members of Cedartown First UMC and the Drake House in the Central North District which offers women and children transitional housing.

All Housing and Homeless Council grants are made possible through the generosity of North Georgia United Methodists.

In 2022, we have been able to award $100,000 in support to churches and ministries working in communities across the conference, yet there are often more requests for funds than funds available each cycle. You can help us reach more people and support more ministries by giving to the 2022 Homeless Offering, if you have not already, and by saving the date for the 2023 Homeless Offering on February 26, 2023. We hope you will take time to learn more about the work happening by visiting the 2022 Grantees page on our website and prayerfully consider how you can support and serve a ministry near you.

Rev. Stacey Rushing is Director of the North Georgia Housing and Homeless Council.