Outreach

The Church of the Holy Spirit has always taken outreach to others as a prime objective of our volunteerism as well as our financial donations. The agencies we work with are carefully screened as to their mission, viability, and need.

This committee has the responsibility for making grants from the Outreach line item in the Parish Budget, from Badger Fund income and from funds raised by the First Fruits committee and the Heed Fund. We take this responsibility seriously. Our members are liaisons to the agencies we support and keep the committee aware of their needs and activities. We review questionnaire responses and financials annually from our agencies. Meetings, which are always open to the parish, are held the first Thursday of every month at 1:30 p.m. on Zoom during the pandemic. Please contact any of our committee members if you have suggestions or questions.

Agencies that we partner with on the Cape include:

AIDS SUPPORT GROUP of CAPE COD saves lives through prevention, education, and life-sustaining services that address public health crises to build healthy communities across the Cape and Islands.
There is another public health crisis where our staff’s expertise and skillset are needed: the opioid epidemic. Cape Cod opioid deaths now represent the fastest growing cause of death in Massachusetts since the initial AIDS crisis of the 80’s and 90’s. Throughout the opioid epidemic, ASGCC has continued its key role fighting to save lives.

AMAZING GRACE is a community of caring mentors and volunteers who seek to nurture positive and healthy futures for children and their families impacted by incarceration. Programs include a week-long summer camp experience run with YMCA Camp Burgess staff in Sandwich and year-round activities for 8–11-year-old children. We host twice-monthly club meetings via zoom for 12–15-year-olds. We also have a Mentor-In-Training Program for 16-year-olds and a Junior Mentor program for 17-year-olds. Seventy-seven children from 60 families have been supported since our founding in 2014. We anticipate hosting at least 35 kids at Camp Burgess in August 2022. Founded by parishioners at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable, Amazing Grace is supported by grants and faith communities and businesses across the Cape.

BIG BROTHERS/BIG SISTERS matches children 8-12 who need an adult role model, either a girl/woman or a boy/man relationship, when one is missing from the family. The process to be approved, as “Big” or a “Little” is a long one but the rewards can be excellent for both child and adult. There are CHS parishioners who are or who have been “Bigs.”

CAPE ABILITIES is a sheltered workshop allowing physically or mentally challenged people to help support themselves by working in a friendly, supportive environment. Its mission is to serve individuals by educating, counseling, and providing residential, therapeutic, social, and employment supports that empower them to achieve meaningful and valued roles in their community. Founded in 1968 Cape Abilities currently services more than 400 people throughout Cape Cod. The individuals we serve have a broad range of disabilities, including developmental and intellectual disabilities. We offer a wide variety of programs and services including Life Skills Day Habilitation, Pre-Employment Training and Community Job Placement, Transportation, and a range of Residential services and supports including Adult Family Care and Shared Living. In addition to traditional program services, as part of our ongoing effort to meet the needs of individuals seeking meaningful employment opportunities, we have developed innovative, entrepreneurial businesses that provide training and employment and significant community interactions for those we serve.

CAPE COD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES is a consortium of 67 churches Cape wide working together to provide a variety of resources to people in need in our communities. The Hands of Hope Outreach Center provides cash assistance, clothing, and Christmas gifts for families in need in the mid-Cape area. A Baby Center provides pregnant women and mothers with children less than one year old with counseling and necessities such as food, clothing, diapers and furniture. The Council sponsors a variety of other programs, including the Covenant to Care for Foster Families, Street Outreach, Children and Youth Task Force and chaplains in local hospitals and prisons. Our delegates represent the parish at the Council’s annual meeting and volunteers work at the Hands of Hope Outreach Center weekly. The toys brought to our Epiphany toy drive are donated to the service center for distribution the following year.

CHAMP HOUSE is Hyannis’ ongoing mission is to provide transitional housing to adults on Cape Cod who are homeless or near homeless in a safe, compassionate, respectful environment, where we instill confidence and hope through providing life skills, mentoring, vocational opportunities, and self-advocacy, while building faith in one’s God, oneself, in others and, beyond.

FOOD 4 KIDS CAPE COD is a ministry of CHS in partnership with the US Department of Agriculture. We provide nutritional lunches and snacks for Cape Cod children to make up for the absence of school lunches during summer months. Meals are made and distributed to children in many different sites (recreation programs, camps, libraries) on the Lower Cape. Also, through grants, new books are distributed. Volunteers from the CHS community work to prepare and distribute meals in our kitchen, working steadily five days a week for the nine weeks of operation.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY builds homes with volunteer labor, which are sold at low cost with interest-free mortgages to first-time homebuyers who otherwise could not afford a home. Mortgage payments are recycled to build more homes. CHS parishioners have been actively involved with building area homes.

HOMELESS NOT HOPELESS works to educate the homeless to live independent, productive lives. We offer a helping hand to those in need of short- and long-term help through supportive housing, educational training and other tools to help our homeless become productive members of society. Our organization is actively managed by men and women who were formerly homeless themselves. They are aware of the problems and issues the homeless face and are equipped to help. We currently have four homes, two for women and two for men. Our goal is to help residents move back into their communities as productive members.

HOMELESS PREVENTION COUNCIL’s main objective is to keep people in their homes in times of financial and emotional stress. This agency is a major recipient of our church outreach funds. The council works with other advocacy groups, town agencies, and churches to help people access money, food, furniture, transportation, housing, and other needs. The Church of the Holy Spirit helped establish the Council in 1990 and supports it financially and with volunteers.

HOSPITALITY HOMES provide accommodations in private homes, either free or at low cost, for families who wish to be near family members or friends in Boston hospitals.

INDEPENDENCE HOUSE provides emergency help and continuing support for women who are victims of abuse or sexual assault. Services include crisis intervention, emergency safe shelter, counseling, court advocacy, and support for victims of rape and incest.

LATHAM CENTERS began in 1970 as a therapeutic residential program for girls aged 8-22 who had traumatic backgrounds and behavioral issues. Since then, Latham has evolved into a co-ed program for children and adults with complex special needs, including PTSD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Autism, Depression, Anxiety, Learning Disabilities, and Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder that results in lifelong cognitive limitations, behavioral issues, and insatiable appetite. Without food-security and the proper treatment, PWS is a life-threatening condition. Latham is the only program in the country that meets the complex needs of children, youth and adults with PWS.

LOWER CAPE OUTREACH COUNCIL a major recipient of our church funds, provides emergency assistance to families and individuals in need on the Lower Cape. It supplies nine food pantries, distributes food baskets to over 900 households at Thanksgiving and Christmas, runs quarterly food distributions, Santa’s Shop (where clients can pick out toys for their children), provides free clothing at Katy’s Korner and meets household emergencies with payments for electricity, heat, medicine, rent/mortgage, insurance or transportation. They also have an additional education fund which can help adults with books or tuition payments. Many LCOC volunteers are members of our parish. In addition to financial support from the Outreach Committee, the Holy Spirit congregation contributes generously to the LCOC food pantries.

NAUSET TOGETHER WE CAN is five days a week after school program for Orleans Middle School children. It provides monthly/bimonthly evening activities for middle and high school students.

ORLEANS ELEMENTARY SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM whose goal is a safe, nurturing, creative and fun environment for children of working parents after school. We believe in offering a variety of activities to respond to varying ages and developmental levels, to correlate the needs of our students. The Outreach Committee provides a camp scholarship for a needy child, whose parent(s) work, during the summer months.

SAFE HARBOR is a safe and secure family shelter for Emergency Assistance for eligible women and their children who are homeless due to domestic violence. Case Managers/Housing Advocates consistently confer and partner with outside agencies to meet individual needs of the residents and their children. Educational workshops are designed to help families build healthy, happy bonds and educate them with tools and skills to break the cycle of violence and live abuse-free and independently.

YOUTH OUTREACH AND HOSPITALITY (YOH) is an action team of the Nauset Interfaith Association. Through member contacts from the three Lower Cape High Schools and a Case Manager at Homeless Prevention Council, YOH is available to all high school students and other youth and young adults on the Lower Cape in urgent need of a safe place to stay the night, funds for rent, car repairs or food. Because LGBTQ youth and youth of color are disproportionately represented in the homeless population, YOH invites speakers to raise consciousness on this issue and how this might be addressed and prevented. A YOH Scholarship is awarded to one student graduating from each of the three Lower Cape High Schools each year who has been homeless, at risk, or has overcome significant adversity. Students are supported with scholarships each semester they remain in college or vocational school for up to four years.

UP WITH KIDS is an organization that helps chronically ill children and is led by parishioner Rich Weeks.

WORLDWIDE OUTREACH

AMERICARES donation was made in support of relief efforts for damage in Haiti, flooding in Texas, and Hurricane Ida damage.

EPISCOPAL RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT donation was made for tornado damage in Kentucky and Tennessee, along with a donation made to aid with Afghan refugees migrating to the USA.

ENDUPOTO is a primary school program in Tanzania building schools to provide clean water and education in the bush for several hundred children K-8, operating without government assistance. The first class has graduated and now most of the class is enrolled in High School. Our donations have helped in this process as we have watched in the building of the school, hiring teachers, outfitting the students, supplying books and other materials. Our parishioner Cheryl Kyle has provided critical support for this successful program for many years.

The pandemic has continued to disrupt the schedules and work of all our charitable agencies, but most of them have resumed their work. We try to keep close to them and offer help. If you want to be more involved, Outreach members would be delighted to provide introductions.

OUTREACH COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chip Bechtold and Phil Suraci, Co-Chairs
Pat Carroll
Fay Cole
Sally Dewing
Sally Drew
Brooke Eaton-Skea
Bill Heuss
Robin McLaughlin
Nancy Miller
Brian Ridgeway
Jan Roberts
Vestry Liaison – Kathy Goddard