Posted 7/26/01
Submitted by Steve Whitman, Program Specialist for Faith-Based Initiave,
Virginia Department of Social Services, Community Programs Division.,
Richmond, Virginia, USA
One specific topic that seems to be overlooked (or, possibly neglected)
by the media and others commenting on Faith-Based Initiatives is that
THE primary reason that faith-based organizations, particularly evangelical
Christian churches, are so much more effective in addressing and meeting
people's needs is that they very purposefully keep the Gospel of Jesus
Christ central in all they do. This flows from a conviction that the
Gospel is the ONLY thing that can effectively bring genuine and lasting
change to a person/family/community. This is also the main reason
why these particular groups/churches are reluctant to receive government
funding for their programs. It certainly isn't "wrong" for churches
to provide social programs without incorporating the Gospel, but it
must be understood (accurately) why many groups/churches are reluctant
to do so.
Posted 7/20/01
Submitted by Winnie W. Morgan, Faith Involvement Coordinator
for Department of Social Services, North Carolina, Orange County
As the Faith Involvement Coordinator for the Department of Social
Services in Orange County, NC, I have found that faith volunteers
are VERY capable and willing to get involved without evangelizing.
I match volunteer teams from churches/faith groups with families transitioning
off of welfare to work. It has been an amazing program of "church
goers" walking their talk as they truly extend a human hand out to
walk with the family in this transition versus just giving them a
"handout". It is a problem solving model around barriers that these
families face from transportation, child care, lack of education,
and much, much more. I have managed many volunteer programs during
my life but this one has been the most rewarding as far as the outcomes.
Not only do women become successful with employment but people become
friends across socio-economic classes and so many other differences.
They learn that we are more alike than we are different. We have not
slowed down to figure out what President Bush is going to do with
his initative but we are curious.
Posted 7/20/01
Submitted by Gerald (Jerry ) Pannozzo, 2nd Vice President, NY AVA,
New York, NY
I feel strongly about the separation of church and state and I'm skeptical
about monitoring systems. In addition, I recently read an article
in Lambda Update--Summer 2001, with regard to the issue of
civil rights and the faith-based initiative. However, I see this as
an educational opportunity for all of us. I first became aware of
faith-based organizations through ICVA. Therefore, when I was assigned
to work on the NY AVA Membership Recruitment Campaign 2001, I proposed
outreach to four populations with lower representation and/or potential
for increased levels of participation within NY AVA - individuals
who completed the Big Brother Big Sister NYC Mentoring Certification
Program, faith-based communities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
and HIV communities and NYC/IYV (Founded by Rustie Brooke) Members
of the NY AVA Membership Committee have discovered that the definition
of "faith-based" is not necessarily universal and that we can get
sidetracked when it comes to our different philosophies. As we have
faced this multi-layered issue, we have reminded ourselves of our
goals - to effectively engage volunteers, promote and advocate for
the profession, and provide training and networking opportunities
for those who supervise/manage /coordinate volunteer.
Posted 7/17/01
Submitted by Charlotte Smith Neyland, Services Director, Longmont,
Colorado
Good article and good suggestions. I am seeking a grant to offer free
volunteer management training to our local faith-based organizations
and will share your article and probably due as you suggested, get
some folks together. Our agency has a number of local churches signed
up with us for our free recruitment services. We have good relationships
with them. And, by the way, Marlene Wilson founded our agency, Volunteer
Connection of Boulder County in 1969. We have a legacy fund in her
name. She lives here and is one terrific lady.
Posted 7/17/01
Submitted by M. Wilson, The HELP Center, President, CA., USA
Faith-based organizations helping the poor and people in crisis by
becoming non-profits and starting programs is like the start of our
country all over again, except of course we have alot more red tape,
but this country used to have alot of churches and groups who helped
their neighbors and friends, it used to be the American way.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Mary Carchrie, Director, Senior Service Corps, Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, USA
Many of the faith communities have no real experience managing a volunteer
program. We are collaborating with the Parish Nurse Ministries of
Cape Cod to start a volunteer transportation and friendly visitor
program. Rather than competing, we compliment each other. We provide
the structure and they provide the clients and many of the volunteers.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Jeanna Young, Membership Involvement Director/Riverbend
Church, Texas, US
As the Membership Involvement Director for Riverbend Church, in Austin,
Texas, I coordinate the efforts of helping fourteen different Outreach
Ministries recruit volunteers for their organizations. Riverbend has
approximately 8,000 members, and approximately 4,000 that are active
either in Ministries inside our walls, or in the community. These
Outreach Ministry opportunities include many diversified organizations
such as the Austin Children's Shelter, CASA of Travis County, Habitat
for Humanity, Austin Interreligous Ministries, and many more. Our
church philosophy is that these organizations are better trained and
have more expertise in their areas than any effort our individual
congregation would be able to provide. My degree is in Political Science,
and I believe, as with everything in politics, this is just a ploy
by the Bush Administration to impress his right winged supporters.
This Initiative is not needed for religious institutions. You are
correct, we did not ask for it.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Pat Tufton, Nutrition Education Assistant, NDSU Extension,
Family Nutrition Program, North Dakota, Dickey
This is a very interesting topic. I think you have covered all angles
of it pretty well. Faith-based ministries have always been active
in this country and they have high rates of success. I would like
to see a method by which these faith based ministries could continue
as they are and still have funding for, perhaps buildings and the
physical type of needs, without interfering with their procedures
for ministering to the individuals. If even these needs were met,
it would free up their funds to be used directly for people needs.
I think it can be a good thing; but I also think it could be death
to the faith based ministries, if they are going to be subjected to
the rules of never mentioning God or Jesus and telling people about
the bible. These are the reasons for their success and why they have
such higher success rates. They give people a reason to live and improve
themselves. The Government run programs work just the opposite so
many times. They destroy a person's sense of worth and make it harder
to rise above their circumstances. When people are told they are nothing
but an animal and are at the mercy of circumstances, it is very discouraging.
When they are shown from the bible that they are actually created
by a God who loves them, they can rise up and know their worth. There
are definitely many pitfalls, and possible benefits to the President's
program. I really believe he means it all for the good of the people
and this country and that he does not want to destroy, but to build
up.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Nita Moser, Public Relations, Cary Medical Center, Maine
I have worked with many volunteer programs in our area and it seems
that the hardest community to motivate to action is the church community.
With all those people, buildings, kitchens, and other resources...
I welcome the initiative but hope that Bush includes a motivational
video especially for our area.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Jayne Cravens, Online Volunteering Specialist, UNV, Bonn,
Germany
I have been deeply disturbed that, under Bush's similar plan in Texas,
faith-based organizations were not subject to the regulations and
reporting required of secular organizations -- and the reports of
abuse of both people and funds are now coming to light. If faith-based
initiatives want to compete for funding, fine -- but they absolutely
should be subject to the same rigorous reporting and regulation of
nonprofit, secular organizations. Also, I have been deeply disturbed
that many of those closely allied with Bush that are pushing for this
plan represent only one area of faith. Some are people that have been
openly hostile to non-fundamentalist-Christian religious. I can't
imagine that Bush's plan would look at a mentoring program run, say,
by Muslims, and one run by a Christian group, in the same way.
Posted 7/9/01
Submitted by Betty Clark Keenan, Barton County Interfaith Volunteer
Caregivers, Kansas
As a coordinator for Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers one of our main
concerns is how to keep our program going through fund raisers. We
are aware of the guidelines most foundations offer. They have a limited
interest in funding a program that is ongoing. So the interest of
receiving funding is uppermost on the mind. The question that comes
to mind is how much control will the government have and how much
paper work is involved.
Posted 7/5/01
Submitted by Rustie Brooke, Founder, NYC/IYV, New York City
Great topic. In New York City this previous May 2001, The Support
Center for Nonprofit Management sponsored an excellent roundtable
discussion of the Faith-Based Initiative. A diverse representation
of community interacted at this initial exploratory meeting, which
I attended. May I recommend to those in the area interested in this
topic, please contact Dr. John Vogelsang at The Support Center, 212
924.6744. This important conversation will be continuing.
Posted 7/3/01
Submitted by Lisa M. Anderson, Supervisor, Journey Partners, Lutheran
Child and Family Service, Mi, USA
I am the supervisor of a faith-based volunteer mentor program, subsidized
by state and federal funds. We have had tremendous success with this
program, despite having to overcome a variety of prejudices. State
workers tend to be hyper-vigilant and suspicious about the temptation
to evangelize on the part of volunteers. Volunteers are sometimes
outraged at the perceived lack of response on the part of workers
to families in crisis. It has been heartening to see the hand of "a
higher power" at work to build long-lasting supportive relationships
between all these groups of people after getting through our more
basic human distrusts.
