On April 29, 2009 the Christian Reformed Church Foundation met and considered 51 new grant proposals for the Sea to Sea poverty alleviation fund. By the end of the meeting the Foundation awarded 45 grants and in so doing, awarded all of the designated funds. This is in addition to the previous grants already awarded. It is bittersweet to end this project. We praise God that these funds are available and can be used to assist people in so many communities struggling with poverty, but the board wished there were more funds to distribute. There were so many wonderful projects!
Because of the number of applications and the distribution from Canadian and U.S. organizations, the Foundation board set the maximum grant to U.S. organizations at $7500 and kept the Canadian maximum grant at $10,000. The Foundation board gave priority to applications from CRC or RCA congregations and from those specifically endorsed by a Sea to Sea cyclist.
In total, the Sea to Sea poverty alleviation fund supported 55 projects with about $360,000. Praise God! Thank you cyclists and donors for this stunning outcome.
Summary of 45 Grants Awarded from the Sea to Sea Fund in April 2009
Artesia City Church – Artesia, CA
$7,500
Artesia City Church would like to open an Indian Friendship Center in the “Little India” community of Artesia to reach out to the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities. This center will operate as a senior citizen community center, after school program location, wellness center and occupation, career and employment desk.
Awake Church – Seattle, WA
$7,500
The Awake Church is located in a heavily transient area of Seattle with many individuals using motels as housing due to lack of resources. This program will educate participants in financial matters while helping them save money so that they can move into more stable housing.
Coit Community CRC – Grand Rapids, MI
$7,500
Coit Community CRC will use these funds for their community transformation project which provides programs for members of the neighborhood. These programs include community service facilitation, men’s and women’s groups, outreach to ex-offenders, and evangelism/community service/anti-racism ministries.
Community Christian Reformed Church – Wyoming, MI
$7,500
Community CRC would like to host a Financial Peace University financial and budgeting class to teach community members a new way to look at their finances.
Crosswinds Community Church – Holland, MI
$7,500
Crosswinds Community Church has a compassion ministry that distributes food to those in need on a weekly basis and builds mentoring relationships with the recipients. This grant will sustain 5 families with food for one year.
East Valley Reformed Church – Yakima, WA
$5,000
East Valley Reformed Church has a food distribution center called The Pantry. One aspect of this program gives vegetable starts and seeds to individuals currently receiving aid. These participants grow food for their own families and donate a portion back to the pantry. The Sea to Sea funds will go to purchasing a large cooler to store refrigerated items.
Family of Faith Church – Kennewick, WA
$7,500
Kennewick, WA has a growing population of Karen refugees from Thailand. Family of Faith Church has started mentoring many of these families and has set up a church learning center where refugees can learn English. This grant will go to fund the center and provide materials for the classes.
First Christian Reformed Church – London, ON
$5,000
First CRC started a street level arts-based initiative for youth in the London area called the Mess. The program provides a meal, a time for the youth to express themselves creatively and a community for its participants. This grant will help expand the Mess to include a summer session.
Immanuel Christian Reformed Church – Hamilton, ON
$2,200
Immanuel CRC would like to start a Home with a Heart program in their community. This program is a homemaking school for single moms that teaches them how to effectively manage their homes and gives them a network of support. This grant will help offset childcare and curriculum expenses.
Madison Ave. Crossroads Community Ministries Inc. – Paterson, NJ
$3,375
A Summer Day Camp is one ministry that Madison Ave. Crossroads Community Ministries Inc. has provided for their community for many years. This year funding for scholarships, an important part of this ministry, is down. This grant will provide 5 full scholarships and 5 partial scholarships.
Monroe Community Church – Grand Rapids, MI
$2,500
Monroe Community Church works with a local food bank to provide food for people in their community. They would like to expand this work by providing fresh produce and planting a community garden. This grant will fund this expansion.
New City Church – Jersey City, New Jersey
$7,500
New City Church works with local youth by creating internship and mentoring opportunities. The Sea to Sea money will help sustain this program.
On the House Church – Grand Haven, MI
$1,000
On the House Church would like to set up a new cell group in inner city Muskegon. This grant will go to the funding o f this group for one year with the hope that after a year this will be a flourishing group.
The Journey Christian Reformed Church – Kitchener, ON
$10,000
The Journey Christian Reformed Church strives to reach out to the communities of Kitchener and Waterloo. Two programs they have started are Love K-W, which encourages members of the church to get out into the community and perform acts of service, and Intercultural (Refugee) Connections, which offers programs and mentors for new immigrants in this area. These programs will be able to continue with the help of the Sea to Sea Grant.
North American Affiliate ACLCP – Sioux Center, IA
$2,000
The North American Affiliate ACLCP has several programs in the Ivory Coast to help provide families with a source of income. This grant from Sea to Sea will help with many of the projects including relocating a feed mill, which would create many jobs, and raising several profitable animals including grasscutters, chickens and snails.
Caregiving Network, Inc. – Midland, MI
$5000
Caregiving Network, Inc. provides many resources for people in poverty in the Midland area. One program is a food pantry that they would like to expand by having additional storage options including a walk in freezer. This money will go towards the purchase of a freezer.
Community enCompass – Muskegon, MI
$7,500
Community enCompass has been hosting seminars and workshops for church leaders to help them create development ministries for those in poverty in their own communities. They would like to take this to another level by working one on one with churches to help them develop their own plans and programs. These funds will help Community enCompass move to this next level.
East Central Ministries, Inc. - Albuquerque, NM
$7,500
East Central Ministries, Inc. has a food co-op that serves over 120 families with plans to offer classes that will service at least 500 people. Initially these programs were run by volunteers, but it became apparent that some part time staff was needed. This grant will go to pay for staff to run the food co-op program.
Ionia Celebration Fellowship Prison Congregation – Grand Rapids, MI
$7,500
The Ionia Celebration Fellowship Prison program has a thriving congregation of over 50 inmates working with volunteer partners from churches. As these inmates start the reentry process, the volunteer becomes more of a mentor. This organization would like to hire a Reentry Spiritual Support Coordinator to work with these volunteers and make sure they have the training needed. The Sea to Sea grant will pay for the coordinator.
Lao/Bild Committee of North America – Sioux Center, IA
$7,500
The Lao/Bild Committee of North America is working in the country of Laos planting churches and aiding the disabled. The gift from Sea to Sea will help distribute wheelchairs to those who need them, and allow leaders to attend training sessions and pay for staff expense.
Lincoln Nebraska Re-integration Program – Lincoln, NE
$7,400
The Lincoln Nebraska Re-integration Program currently offers classes to inmates, former inmates and others in recovery to help them as they re-integrate into society. This group would like to add to the classes they currently offer. With this grant from Sea to Sea, they will be able to achieve their goal.
Network of Business Professional – Lombard, IL
$7,500
Alleviating Poverty through economic development in Nicaragua is a goal of the Network of Business Professionals by mentoring, training and providing access to capital for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. The Sea to Sea money will help sustain this program.
New Hope Community – Haledon, NJ
$7,500
New Hope Community has been a resource for the Haledon Community since 2002. They meet the needs of families through a food pantry and enrichment classes. One class, Jobs for Life, provides job training and support for those wishing to find employment. This gift will help fund the class for one year.
Streams of Hope – Grand Rapids, MI
$7,500
Six area churches have joined together to support the work of Streams of Hope in the Kelloggsville community. They currently provide programming for elementary- aged children. Streams of Hope would like to expand to include middle school aged children. This gift will help them to expand their programs.
The Bridge – Orange City, IA
$7,500
The Bridge offers transitional housing for women and children who are homeless or near homeless in the rural counties of northwest Iowa. The current programming for adults is solid, but programs and resources for the children it serves is lacking. The Bridge will use this gift from Sea to Sea to build a playground for these children.
Urban Promise Ministries – Vancouver, BC
$10,000
Urban Promise Ministries provides afterschool programs and summer camps for children, youth and young adults in under-resourced neighborhoods. The Leadership Development for Youth program mentors and trains youth to be leaders for the younger children’s programs. This grant will help fund the leadership program.
Canadian Sudanese Volunteers for Development – London, ON
$10,000
The Canadian Sudanese Volunteers for Development helps run a school in Nairobi Kenya for Sudanese refugees. The gift from Sea to Sea will be used to outfit 100 students with school supplies, purchase 45 desks and chairs and buy textbooks.
Christian Veterinary Missions of Canada – Ancaster, ON
$10,000
Christian Veterinary Missions of Canada has partnered with organizations in Sierra Leone to help provide impoverished communities with sustainable sources of income by setting up poultry farms. This grant will serve as the seed money for this project.
Grimsby Affordable Housing Partnership – Grimsby, ON
$10,000
Grimsby Affordable Housing Partnership provides supportive, transitional housing for low income, at risk residents. The organization will use the funds from Sea to Sea to enhance and strengthen their current programs.
Hannah House Maternity Home – Niagara Falls, ON
$10,000
Hannah House Maternity Home offers young, single moms a 17-week program to help move them away from poverty and towards employability and self sufficiency. The gift from Sea to Sea will help cover costs for program materials, advertising, staff salary and community counseling.
Sonshine Society of Christian Community Services – Calgary, AB
$10,000
The Sonshine Society of Christian Community Services provides residential and counseling programs for women and children fleeing domestic violence. The organization will use these funds for security personnel, salary/benefits for follow-up counselor and child support worker.
Arab-American Friendship Center – Dearborn, MI
$7,500
The Arab-American Friendship Center reaches out to people in their community by offering English as a Second Language and citizenship classes and has a computer lab with tutors that is open daily. The Sea to Sea grant will help to hire teachers for the classes.
Association for a More Just Society – Grand Rapids, MI
$7,500
Promoting justice in Honduras through a variety of programs is the mission of the Association for a More Just Society. Two areas they focus on are labor rights and providing legal services. Funds from Sea to Sea will help with the costs of these programs.
Community Area Resource Enterprise – Gallup, NM
$7,500
The Community Area Resource Enterprise is working to create opportunities to end homelessness in their community. One program they offer provides transitional housing for homeless men while they deal with the root causes of their homelessness. This grant will help cover some of the expenses incurred by running this program.
Kingdom Causes Bellflower – Bellflower, CA
$7,500
Kingdom Causes Bellflower provides many services to those in their community including Good Soil Industries, which is a nonprofit-temporary employment and landscaping agency that employees recovering homeless people and addicts as they re-enter society. This gift will go to offset some of the costs of this program.
New Way Ministry – Lynden, WA
$7,500
New Way Ministry offers help to homeless women and children by offering them shelter and opportunities. Thanks to a recent gift, which expanded their housing, New Ways Ministry can offer a new program that provides transitional housing for their program’s graduates. The grant from Sea to Sea will help fund this program in its initial year.
Oakdale Neighbors – Grand Rapids, MI
$7,500
Oakdale Neighbors is a community development organization in southeast Grand Rapids that is looking for innovate ways to revitalize their neighborhood. They hope to start up a bike shop where people can learn how to ride, repair and refurbish bicycles. The Sea to Sea gift will help get this project off the ground.
The Micah Center – Grand Rapids, MI
$2,500
The Micah Center aims to educate and mobilize Christians around the areas of Social Justice. As a new organization, the Sea to Sea grant will help get this group up and running.
Word of Truth International Ministries – Tukwila, WA
$5,000
Offering many programs to the diverse community of Tukwila is the goal of Word of Truth International Ministries. This organization would like to expand their programs by providing technology classes and making computers more accessible. The Sea to Sea funds will help to purchase the equipment needed to set up a computer lab.
Zuni Christian Mission School – Zuni, NM
$7,500
Zuni Christian Mission School is a K-8th grade school for Native American Students. The school would like to add a counseling program to help their students develop a practical vision for the future. The Sea to Sea gift will help to develop this program.
