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Congregations for Children (C4C)

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Churches Donate Lunchroom Supplies to C4C Partner Schools

Centenary UMC in New Bern discovered their Congregations for Children (C4C) partner school needed supplies to serve students breakfast and lunch. The Men’s Fellowship of Centenary provided a donation to purchase 1,000 sporks and 1,000 styrofoam-covered plates for the school lunchroom. 

Photo provided by Gayle Midyette.

Swansboro UMC also donated supplies to their C4C partner school after reaching out to the cafeteria manager. The church donated 800 gallon-sized zip lock bags before Thanksgiving. Swansboro UMC is planning to purchase additional zip lock bags for the lunchroom and continue monthly until the lunchroom supplies are back to normal. 

Find out how you can partner with a local public school by contacting NCCUMC Director of Congregations for Children, David Rockefeller, at drockefeller@nccumc.org or your C4C District Coordinator.

Pastors for NC Children Prayer Vigil

On October 18, 2021, Congregations for Children and United Methodist Advocates for Public Schools were represented at an ecumenical prayer vigil for our public school children who are affected by the ongoing Leandro court case, which determines funding for our public schools. The vigil was sponsored by one of our ecumenical faith partners, Pastors for NC Children, led by Rev. Suzanne Miller, Executive Director, and Rev. Chalice Overy, Board Co-Chair.

The purpose of the event was to draw attention to the importance of full funding of our public schools by our NC General Assembly so that every child in NC, regardless of his/her school district, zip code, or home address, receives a “sound, basic education” as directed by the Leandro decision. While we wait for a state budget to be approved by the General Assembly that includes full funding for our public schools, we gathered in prayer for school children, their families, teachers and other school employees, and our state legislators.

Members of our NCCUMC C4C Committee, NCCUMC pastors, and NCCUMC UMC local church members participated in this prayer vigil at the Bicentennial Plaza across from the NC Legislature Building. 

Pictured: David Rockefeller, Director of NCCUMC Congregations for Children and United Methodist Advocates for Public Schools, and Rev. Kevin Seymour, Pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church, Raleigh

Congregations for Children Community Connectivity Mini-Grants Awarded

The NCCUMC Congregations for Children Committee is pleased to announce that five churches in our conference have been awarded C4C Community Connectivity Mini-Grants. The funds were made possible by a $5000 grant to C4C from the NCCUMC Board of Church and Society to encourage and support churches’ advocacy efforts for local public schools.

The purpose of the mini-grants was to help fund initiatives seeking to enhance weekday after-school hours programming intended to address the learning gap exacerbated by online and hybrid in-person/online learning for our public school students during the Covid pandemic. While all twelve applicants demonstrated a strong commitment to the mission of Congregations for Children partnerships, five stood out as being particularly worthy of the financial support that this grant offers. Congratulations to the following churches for receiving a 2021 C4C Community Connectivity Mini-Grant:

Ann Street UMC (Sound District)
Elevation UMC (Capital District)
Englewood UMC (Heritage District)
La Estrella Resplandeciente (Heritage and Capital Districts)
St. Luke (Fairway District) 

C4C Amid a Pandemic

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens opened his novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” with this now infamous quote in 1859. Over 160 years later, we could make a case for describing the ministries of Congregations for Children as “the best of times amid the worst of times.” Members of our NCCUMC Congregations for Children Committee report so many faithful and generous partnerships between local churches and neighboring elementary schools that we can extract other phrases from Dickens’ opening paragraph: “it was the season of light;” “it was the spring of hope.” A few examples of the C4C projects and activities that shed light in the darkness of this pandemic across the Conference include churches that….

coordinated with their fire station, police station, and other churches in their community by purchasing mobile internet hot spots for students, raising money to buy iPads, and setting up places for students to do virtual learning  

bought holiday food and gifts for families in need

helped find appropriate housing for a family of five who were living in one room with no stove or other necessities 

sponsored a drive-through for free food each Saturday for students and their families

provided food through the Backpack Buddies program for children who are engaged in on-site learning to take home over the weekend

provided its partner school with masks, face shields, plexiglass dividers, hand sanitizer, antibacterial cleaners, and wipes

purchased postage for teachers to mail information to parents 

provided hand-made masks for the teachers and staff 

sent flowers to the food service staff for their work providing two meals a day for students attending school virtually 

placed notes of appreciation and small gifts in teacher and staff mailboxes monthly

gave each child in their partner school a new book to take home at Thanksgiving  

partnered with Camp Don Lee to allow thirty students to attend camp two days a week for virtual learning and other activities

upgraded their internet access and converted their sanctuary into a learning space Monday through Friday – complete with volunteer tutors – so students could participate in online learning

raised funds to purchase Chromebooks for students to engage in online learning from their homes and satellite learning sites 

provided welcome-back notes with enclosed gift cards to every member of their partner school’s faculty and staff on their first day back in September

held a community-wide fund-raising campaign to purchase and donate to the school system a food truck so the school system’s child nutrition office could deliver food to children and their families

…and the list goes on.

Congregations for Children began as the shared vision of Bishop Hope Morgan Ward and State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson to establish partnerships between local UMC churches and their neighboring public elementary schools to promote K-3 literacy, help to meet basic needs of children living in poverty, encourage volunteerism in schools by caring adults, and advocate for public education in the public square. Eight years later, amid a pandemic that temporarily shuttered church doors, forced public schools to pivot to online teaching and learning, prevented adult volunteers from continuing in-person mentoring and tutoring of young children inside school buildings, and increased the basic needs of low-income children who were struggling already, churches throughout the conference face these challenges daily with fortitude and creativity, demonstrating that they are still the hands and feet of Christ in their communities.

So we celebrate those C4C volunteers across the Conference who continue, undaunted by the challenges of a worldwide pandemic, to live into the C4C motto: “Helping Children Affected by Poverty – Supporting NC Public Schools.” Won’t you join us?

Summer Learning Loss

The following brief video segment about summer learning loss inspires and motivates our churches to create ways to supplement learning opportunities for our lower-income public school children during the summer months when they are not involved in daily, planned, organized instruction. Sending children home for the summer with donated new and gently used age-appropriate books for them to read; hosting short-term reading camps at church or at school; continuing to serve as reading buddies and reading tutors in person or virtually; encouraging and hosting weekly public library visits — all of these and many more creative ways to keep children learning during the summer will help to close the learning gap based on the economic status of our children’s families. Watch this video and share this message with others. Let’s continue to truly be Congregations for Children all year long.

Spring Book Drives

May is upon us, when many of our local churches throughout the conference hold book drives to collect age-appropriate books for elementary school students to take home in an effort to reduce learning loss over the summer months. Local church C4C volunteers coordinate with their partner elementary school teachers, media specialists, counselors, or other staff to get recommendations on book titles, age levels, and even the number of children that would benefit from this service. Of course, we want to focus on low income children who do not have many of the advantages other children might have, but many churches are able to send multiple books home with every child in Kindergarten through third grade — and sometimes every child in the school! 

When C4C began several years ago, State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson had introduced a statewide “Give Five, Read Five” initiative to encourage local churches and civic organizations to provide five new or gently used books for every child to take home at the end of the school year. C4C used that initiative to jump-start spring book drives across the conference. Many of our churches have made this an annual event, and some have expanded it to other times in the year, as well.

K-3 literacy is at the very heart of C4C. Book drives are one way churches can show their commitment to childhood literacy — “learning to read and reading to learn.” We hope that churches throughout our conference will approach their local elementary schools to see if they might accept this gesture of generosity and support — and then shower the children with books!