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Grants Available to Lutheran Congregations for Service to Immigrants and Refugees:
Good Samaritan Grant Application Deadline March 3, 2008
BALTIMORE, October 23, 2007—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), in partnership with Wheat Ridge Ministries of Itasca, Ill., is offering financial assistance to Lutheran churches to encourage the development of new programs and services for immigrants and refugees.
“The Good Samaritan Fund gives LIRS an opportunity to support Lutheran congregations in becoming engaged in our ministry,” said Ralston Deffenbaugh, president of LIRS. “America’s newcomers become self-sufficient more quickly when Lutherans help to identify and meet their needs within their own communities.”
In 2007, the Good Samaritan Fund awarded grants totaling $74,900 to 23 churches across the country to help implement a variety of innovative programs including citizenship classes, literacy projects, children’s summer and after-school programs, driver’s education, employment, and entrepreneur training.
The Good Samaritan Fund was established to honor the dedicated leadership of the Rev. August Bernthal, a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor who served on the LIRS board for more than 30 years. The program provides seed funds of up to $5,000 per grantee to enable congregations to develop vital support services needed by deserving immigrants and refugees beyond the initial stages of resettlement.
Good Samaritan seed grants will be awarded to congregations of LIRS’s spronsoring church bodies—the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Applicant congregations will be expected to contribute at least 25 percent of the project cost, through either cash or in-kind support. Funding priority will be given to the following types of projects that serve to immigrant communities: social ministry projects, joint projects between community members and new residents, public education or advocacy, and leadership development within the ethnic groups served. Grants will not be made to individuals or church agencies, nor will they be made to support refugee reception and placement activities, refugee resettlement programs or projects of evangelism.
The Good Samaritan Fund is supported by donations from congregations and individuals committed to assisting refugees, asylum seekers or immigrants through the development of local programs by caring congregations. Contributions to these efforts may be sent directly to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Good Samaritan Fund, 700 Light Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230. Donations may also be made by credit card by calling 410/230-2786 or by making a secure gift online at www.lirs.org. Gifts to Wheat Ridge Ministries may be made by phone to 1-800-762-6748 or online at www.wheatridge.org.
Interested applicants may download the Good Samaritan grant application packet or review grant guidelines at www.lirs.org. For more information on the program, please contact Pam Bloom, LIRS senior consultant for organizational capacity building, at 410/230-2875 or pbloom@lirs.org.
Since 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has worked with a range of service, advocacy and education partners to bring new hope and new life to newcomers to the United States. LIRS resettles refugees, protects unaccompanied refugee children, advocates for fair and just treatment of asylum seekers, and seeks alternatives to detention for those who are incarcerated during their immigration proceedings. With bold initiative and careful stewardship, LIRS seeks creative solutions to the needs of these uprooted people regardless of race, ethnicity or religious beliefs.
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