wfn.org | Agency gives 46 grants to minority outreach projects

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 19, 2000        News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-31-32-33-34-71B{209}

NOTE TO EDITORS: The word "four" is correct in references to the Spirit Four
Youth project.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - A United Methodist agency has awarded more than half a
million dollars in Minority Group Self-determination grants to 46 projects.

The grants, administered by the United Methodist Commission on Religion and
Race, range in size from $4,000 to two awards of $25,000. The smallest grant
is going to the Spirit Four Youth Employment Project to serve Native
Americans in Topeka, Kan. The two largest grants will enable an advocacy
team from Puerto Rico to attend General Conference, the church's highest
legislative body, and will pay for two members of the Spanish-speaking Rio
Grande Annual Conference to assist their conference's two delegates at the
same meeting in tracking legislation. 

Recipients include local church programs, such as the Wesley Chinese
Language School program for Asian children in Alhambra, Calif., which is
getting $13,000; community projects involving a number of groups, like the
Spirit Four Youth program in Topeka; and regional or nationwide efforts,
such as those receiving the two largest grants.
 
The commission awarded a total of $595,928. Nine grants were given at the
national or regional level; 13 serve the community; and 24 are for local
church projects. Grants are awarded to projects that offer leadership
development, education, advocacy and research related to empowerment and
self-determination.  

The two dozen local church grant recipients cover a wide range of programs.
For example:
·	The Edisto Fork Community Health Initiative and Resource Bank in
Orangeburg, S.C., was awarded $20,000 to assist African-Americans residents
of the area through eight collaborative outreach ministries, including a
health taxi, sheriff's substation, a midweek church school and an
informational bank designed to provide greater access to health care and
social services.
·	A $19,500 grant to the Target Success and Cultural Preservation
Academy in Palo Alto, Calif., focuses on Tongan students in East Palo Alto,
described by the applicants as a low-income, ethnically diverse and
violence-prone community.
·	"Hispanic Sunrise" in Temple, Texas, was awarded $20,000 for its
work, which includes providing comprehensive restaurant training, community
gardens, English instruction and citizenship classes for Spanish-speaking
immigrants.
·	In Grand Rapids, Mich., the PaWaTing MaGedWin United Methodist
Church was awarded $16,000 for its "Cultural Celebration Circle," which aims
to help youth appreciate their Native American culture and language and
explore Christianity.
·	The St. Luke's Snyder United Methodist Church in Philadelphia was
given $18,500 for its "True Light Ministry," an outreach effort for the
growing number of Vietnamese in the community.

The 13 community project grants included $19,000 to assist the Multicultural
Urban Ministry for Latin Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans in
Lincoln, Neb., by offering advocacy training and spiritual formation. 

Another was the $11,000 awarded to the Faith Action for Community Equity
Jobs Project in the Kilohana United Methodist Church in Honolulu. The
project seeks to ensure job opportunities and training for Filipino and
Pacific Islander workers.

The community category also includes a $7,000 grant to a Washington project
that focuses on reintegrating ex-offenders, primarily serving African
Americans and Hispanic Americans; $13,060 for a program that serves
Vietnamese young people in Anaheim, Calif.; a $15,000 award to a group in
Palmer, Alaska, that works for the rights and freedoms of indigenous people;
an $18,000 grant to assist Haitians in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and others.

Grants for regional or national groups also included awards of $5,000 each
for the Western and North Central jurisdictions' Vietnamese convocations,
$5,000 for a Southeast Native American advocacy project and $20,000 for
projects of the denomination's Inter-Ethnic Strategy Development Group.

A full list of recipients is included in the current issue of Monitor, the
commission's newsletter. For a copy, call Michelle Tello, (202) 547-2271,
Ext. 16.
 
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