Outreach Supported Organizations Outreach Activities 2006 Sharing our Space

Outreach

Outreach Activities 2006

In 2006, members of First Congregational Church shared their abundance by supporting these Outreach programs:

Hands-On Outreach

• Mission Trip to New Orleans (6/06): This year marked a re-commitment to mission trips. Sixteen people helped to clean up debris and rebuild homes, buildings and spirits around UCC churches in Louisiana. (Another trip to New Orleans is scheduled for June 2007.)
• Little Red Wagon (monthly): Solicit and deliver bags of food for the local pantry at the Woburn Council for Social Concern.
• Habitat for Humanity (approximately four times each year): Work groups from our church participated at sites in Lawrence.
• The Dwelling Place (monthly): Preparing and serving a meal to local families in need.
• Turkey Drive (11/06): 32 turkeys delivered to Pilgrim Church in Boston.
• Christmas Tree Giving (12/06): Hundreds of gifts to some 100 individuals in need at Germaine Lawrence, Rosie's Place, and Woburn Council for Social Concern.
• Book Drive (12/06 - 1/07): We collected more than 400 books for the Good Shepherd UCC Book Project to help replenish classroom shelves of the Dr. Martin Luther King Charter Elementary School for Science and Technology in New Orleans. We also purchased additional books with Outreach funds to fill out the school's requests, staying true to our commitment to remember and continue to support New Orleans.
• Mother's Day gift bags (5/06): We collected four large baskets of toiletries and other goodies that were packaged into individual gift bags for the 13 ladies at New Day, the residence in Somerville for pregnant and parenting women in recovery for substance abuse.

Information and Advocacy

• Mission Trip 11th hour and worship service (10/6): With a service marked by three moving sermonettes against a backdrop of photos and an 11th hour after the service, the 16 members of the mission trip to New Orleans shared their emotions and stories with the congregation.
• Bread for the World/Offering of Letters (5/06): After church, adults, children and teenagers wrote over 100 letters to our congressmen to raise awareness of world hunger, to fight poverty, and to increase support for the Millennium Goal. (We have scheduled another Offering of Letters for May 2007.)
• Women's Lunch Place 11th Hour (11/06): We welcomed the Director of WLP to talk with us about homelessness, the services offered by WLP, and the opportunities for us to help. This program launched a deeper relationship with this day shelter for homeless women in Boston, with additional programs with WLP happening in 2007. (We also held a similar 11th hour with Respond for March 2007, to offer visibility into another cause -- domestic violence.)
• Gables Tea on Mission Trip (11/06): As the guest speakers, we shared some of the stories and emotions of the mission trip with members of the congregation at the Gables in Winchester.