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Outreach Committee
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Appointed by the Vestry, the Outreach Committee is charged to provide leadership in outreach by supporting persons, organizations, and situations in demonstrable need. The Committee seeks to serve Christ in all persons whether in the town of Washington, the Diocese of Connecticut, or the larger world.
In addition to dispensing grants of financial aid, the Committee's mission is to identify organizations with which it has the potential to create multi-faceted opportunities for support, including volunteering. To this end, Committee members are encouraged to develop primary relationships with its grant recipients, both to monitor the church's support and to find additional ways of serving these recipients. Consistent with this goal, the Committee's intention is to focus on local needs rather than distant ones, and to concentrate its support on a few, rather than many, beneficiaries.
Outreach Guidelines
The following guidelines are helpful in considering potential recipients of support from St. John's.
Ideally, the recipient will meet one or more of these general criteria:
--Have at least one member of the Outreach Committee involved with and/or knowledgeable about its activities
--Have a charter based on Christian values
--Provide a vital service (food, shelter, rehabilitation, healthcare, etc.)
--Make its financial data available as requested.
2009 Outreach Grants
In 2009, the Outreach Committee approved grants to:
--Dominican Literacy Project
--Family Service of Greater Waterbury
--St. John's Fund (administered by the town social worker)
--Bishop's Fund for Children
--Doctors Without Borders
--The Fistula Foundation
--Susan B. Anthony Foundation
--Greenwoods Counseling Services
Donations of food and other household necessities are delivered on a regular basis to the local food bank.
As part of its outreach activities this year, St. John's, in cooperation with other churches and local organizations, established the Judea Garden. The produce grown in this community garden will be distributed to clients of the Town of Washington Social Services, and the Food Bank and Loaves and Fishes ministry in New Milford. Volunteers "adopted" a crop and for the past several months have been tilling, planting and weeding their patch of the garden. St. John's volunteers have been responsible for 200 onion plants!
In addition, many St. John's parishioners are extremely active in local philanthropic programs that are unconnected to the church.
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