Coronavirus Response

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Congregations for Children (C4C)

Stories

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!

Faith into Action: Advocating for Children in NC Event

Congregations 4 Children in the Western NC Conference of The UMC, Western NC CAN (Child Advocacy Network), and NC Child is hosting a virtual event, “Faith into Action: Advocating for Children in NC,” on May 6 from 1 – 2 pm.

The event will include:

  • an overview and explanation of legislative process in NC;
  • current status and needs regarding funding for child and family programs; and
  • steps to activate congregations and community partners.
Register Now

All Children are Our Children: The Community’s Role in Education Webinar

On December 1, 2020 an excellent Zoom webinar was presented by Knollwood Baptist Church in Charlotte as part of their ongoing “Faith in the City” series.  “All Children are Our Children: The Community’s Role in Education” focused on the partnership among the Winston-Salem/Forsyth Public School System, Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, and the nonprofit organization “Imprint Cares” to create remote learning centers throughout the county to enhance educational opportunities for low income children.

The centers are located in parts of the county where they are accessible to low income children and their families and they are staffed by active and retired teachers and other qualified and trained adult volunteers who serve as tutors. Churches in our NC Conference are encouraged to consider ways to use this model to expand our church-school-community partnerships in support of our public school children. Indeed, “All Children are Our Children!”  

Watch the Recording
Passcode: 5sMM@2Fn

Shared with permission.

Soapstone UMC Creates Remote Learning Space for Local Students

Soapstone United Methodist Church in Raleigh (Capital District) began the “Soapstone Schoolhouse” in September 2020 to meet the needs of local students and families who made the sudden shift to remote learning this year. With the church sanctuary and classrooms unused by their traditional ministries, they were able to offer their space to 23 students in the first session, and 29 students in the second session, who came each school day to turn the Soapstone worship space into a gathering place for remote learning.

Photo taken by Danny Peck.

The large space in the sanctuary allowed this group to participate in school in the midst of other students while still maintaining social distance protocols, but also to enjoy fellowship during their breaks. Students from third grade through twelfth grade took advantage of this one-room schoolhouse approach to a learning space and used their down time together for everything from playing four square and basketball outside to learning from adult church members how to knit (and teaching the volunteers how to play “Among Us”).

Photo taken by Danny Peck.

A conference C4C Community Connectivity Grant helped with the big WiFi service and equipment upgrade necessitated by 30+ simultaneous video connections and helped make this dream a reality for the students who were otherwise missing the normal interaction of in-person learning, the parents who still needed to be at work, and the faithful members of Soapstone who were looking for new ways to serve in the ever-changing landscape of 2020.