While we are best known for our Day4Hope initiative, we believe that lifelong change happens in community. Our Continuing Hope initiative works to prepare and equip churches to maintain relationship with the families they serve during our summer events.
Continuing Hope can be anything from immediate monetary assistance, year round events to build relationship, or offering tutoring to children in need.
We have recently started utilizing a volunteer hub platform to provide assistance and broaden our circle of influence 365 days a year. We acknowledge that we are better together and strive to share each other’s burdens.
“Just do it!” It’s a Nike slogan that has penetrated Hope 4 Communities’ way of intentionally serving our clients to achieve more results.
14 years in the making, we now have a path to success.
Our project and target is to have 8 churches commit to providing Continuing Hope through year-round resources and support services that enrich the lives of their Day4Hope families.
To date we have received a resounding YES with enthusiasm from 12 churches! And we trust more will commit in the days to come.
We are sharing our vision monthly at our group meetings and including a personal testimony each month from one of our churches that has a story to share based on serving a family above and beyond Day4Hope. It is all being received with excitement and anticipation!
Continuing Hope brings together year-round support resources and services to the families through the continued building of the relationship between the church, the school, our community partners, and the families in need.
1
Provide in-house events for the school and their Day4Hope families.
An example from Kirkwood Presbyterian Church in Manatee: “Participating in Day4Hope stirred our giving spirit and moved us to do more. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 20 of our Day4Hope families were invited to come back to our church to pick up Publix turkey dinners. Additionally, we started collecting $25 Walmart or Target gift cards to help some of the Day4Hope families with Christmas shopping. Together with Sea Breeze Elementary School, we coordinated invitations to 35 families, inviting them to return to Kirkwood on December 15th to receive $50 in gift cards per child, blessing 70 children for Christmas. We were touched by
their honest gratitude and joy!”
2
Partner with our Community Partners to bring their resources, services, and tools to the church campus and/or the school to serve the families.
An example from Grace Community Church in Sarasota, where they were partnered with a local restaurant, salon, and retail store, all who provided a “giving tree,” collecting both needs and wants for the children being served: “In combination with a Christmas festival, the families went home with wrapped gifts to put under their otherwise bare tree. Christmas spirit of giving accomplished!”
3
Personal connection serving a Day4Hope family.
An example from Crosspointe Church in Manatee, where a volunteer hears the squealing brakes a Day4Hope family’s car: “There is a mechanically inclined individual sitting in EVERY congregation that would fix the family’s car if the church purchased the parts. And that’s exactly what they did at Crosspointe! That family could not have afforded to take their car to a mechanic, starting a snowball effect of problems. Now, problem solved and more avoided!”
Through these 3 avenues, we are building the strength of the relationship, providing tangible needs, creating a net of support services that didn’t previously exist, and helping to improve the family’s overall living situation and quality of life.
We are asking each church to identify a liaison who will coordinate efforts between the church, school and families in need.
We recognize demographics are different across the map and will work individually with each church to create their personal action plan for Continuing Hope.
We have put together a survey for the churches regarding the resources and support services they would like to see offered, and are developing a Continuing Hope manual to help coach and implement such needs.
We know that what makes our Day4Hope so successful is the resources and support we bring to our churches, allowing them to serve families in need. Now, we can bring that same level of support with an action plan year round, to not only support the churches, but also to benefit the people who need it
most!
I believe what we learned most from this experience is with targeted focus we can achieve more than we thought possible.
Our approach going forward is now two fold. Our community will continue to hear about Day4Hope, but almost in the same breath, they will hear our hearts for Continuing Hope! They will still hear the stories that make us all laugh and cry, but now we know how to track and share numbers for actual impact!
We are so thankful to Robin and Hal with Results First and beyond excited to witness the outcomes!
Hope 4 Communities is sponsored as a 501(c)(3) affiliate of galatians 6:2, inc. (www.g62.info). All donations to Hope 4 Communities are tax deductible.
Copyright © 2022 Hope 4 Communities. all rights reserved.
