Our Outreach - Southside Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Southside is a community concerned with nurture. We have both social groups and special interest groups. We practice a covenant to care for persons and families living with AIDS. We sponsor spiritual retreats and we offer contact and support for the homebound and the ill.
We are also a community of outreach, participating in local area mission projects, national and global missions. We support and help local charities and we are a participating member of TAP.
As you walk through our narthex, you'll notice big tubs often filled with various supplies. Many Southsiders donate various items to the groups listed below. There should be a list above each bin listing the types of supplies the various organizations have identified as needs.
Broadway Christian Parish UMC Broadway is a United Methodist ministry on South Bend’s Southeast side. Our ministries of hospitality include a food pantry, a breakfast and fellowship time each weekday morning, a place to come in off the street and take a shower, get a fresh set of clothing, do laundry and receive other assistance. On Sundays, our congregation serves Sunday Dinner to anyone who comes. For twenty-five years we have served over 100 people each Sunday.
Our staff provides pastoral support to many who find themselves in jail; social, emotional, and spiritual support to those who enter our building on a daily basis for whatever reason; and a regular church program of worship, study, and fellowship.
In addition to these weekly activities, Broadway provides gifts and Christmas dinners through our Jubilee Christmas Store, has fellowship and neighborhood programming, and provides Bible study, discussion groups and other activities throughout the year.
The Christmas Jubilee Store includes a shopping room, where parents and caregivers can select and wrap free gifts for their children with the fellowship and assistance of volunteers and a storeroom where volunteers can help organize gifts for giving. We also have a room where children can go for games, crafts, and an opportunity to pick out gifts for their parents or caregivers. Families are selected based on need and without regard to church membership or religious orientation. Last year, more than 350 children received gifts!
Community residents have access to a variety of foods through the Broadway Food Pantry. Over 3,000 individuals per year are aided by this ministry which is supported by the Broadway congregation, other churches and other community groups.
AIDS Ministries / AIDS Assist of North Indiana Our mission is to help create a world that supports and enhances the lives of people infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS.
Our Goals are fivefold...
- to provide access to community support.
- to provide assistance to those in need.
- to educate the public regarding the challenges facing the community regarding HIV/AIDS infection and prevention.
- to raise public awareness and advocate for the dignity and rights of those infected with HIV/AIDS.
- to stimulate and collaborate with religious and other communities of care to build networks for education and support.
YWCA The YWCA has been the leading advocate for women and children in our community for over 100 years. Through a combination of service and social action the agency reaches out to women who are seeking solutions to abusive situations, who are fighting chemical dependency, who are in need of job training and education and who want to improve their lives for themselves and their children. Over 14 hundred women and children were helped last year alone through the YWCA’s domestic violence, sexual assault, and chemical dependency programs.
Michiana Feral Cat Initiative We are a grassroots organization in the Michiana area (northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan) that does trap/neuter/return for free-roaming (stray and feral) cats in our neighborhoods, and helps educate the community about the feral and stray cat population. Our services include loaning humane live traps to feral colony caretakers, aid with trapping, transportation to a low-cost spay/neuter and vaccination clinic, record-keeping, and financial subsidization for colony caretakers who cannot afford to pay for sterilization for their cats. We also offer classes to the public in things like feral cat winter shelter building, trapping, and responsible caretaking. And we are working to amend the local animal ordinances to allow for feeding and caretaking of free-roaming cats, to avoid the needless euthanization of thousands of healthy cats every year.
Our mission is to care for and help humanely reduce the free-roaming cat population in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan by: promoting awareness in and providing education for our communities; implementing a trap/neuter/return program to help reduce the homeless cat population; and establishing managed cat colonies where free-roaming cats have access to food, water, shelter and basic veterinary care.
Other Ministries
Pet Refuge, Hannah's House
Ravina Park 2011 Last summer, the five churches of the URC Women in Ministry Group planned a great day at Ravina Park. Members of our churches came to paint, weed, clean and haul trash (lots of trash!) out of the creek bed. Last fall we went back for another work day. Both times we invited folks from the neighborhood to join us for work, a meal together, and worship. The URC group decided this was such a great experience for all our churches and the neighborhood that we should go back this summer. This is your invitation to be a part of it. We begin Saturday, May 14th with a Kick-Off event. We'll be inviting the neighborhood to come for a "Veggie Tasting Party." Sara Stewart, of Unity Gardens, will be organizing Unity Garden on the east side of Ravina Park and we'll be working together in the park this summer. The veggie tasting event involves members of the neighborhood tasting and then voting on the veggies they like best. Those vegetables get planted. We will build and plant raised beds. In addition, we'll have a couple of craft projects (garden related), games and a sign up table so that kids can sign up for summer activities. We'll meet two days each week, beginning Saturday, June 19, from 11-3, and continuing for seven weeks on Wednesdays from 2-6 and Saturdays from 11-3. The project will end August 6 with an end of the summer party. What can you do? Sign up for a Wednesday or a Saturday or several times. Come and teach a craft, lead a game, help with the garden, serve food, or just spend time talking with a child. Last year it was fun to get to know folks from the other churches and from the neighborhood and work together with them. We're looking forward to a lot more of that this summer. If you want to be a part of a meaningful, fun ministry, sign up and come join us!
