Lighthouse awarded grant by General Board of Church and Society

 

Directors of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) approved $131,422 in Human Relations Day grants at its spring meeting here this month.

 

The grants went to five programs: two in the South Central Jurisdiction, one in the Southeastern and two in Africa.

Grant funding comes through Human Relations Day, one of the six Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church. Human Relations Day strengthens United Methodist outreach to communities, encouraging social justice and work with at-risk youth.

 

Twenty thousand dollars will go to a Kentucky United Methodist community center, Lighthouse Promise. Its Boys 2 Men and Government Education Program/Partner in Learning is an outreach to the Newburg neighborhood in Louisville. Children in the neighborhood are at high risk because of poverty, lack of education, single-parent homes and significant crime rates.

 

Boys 2 Men builds on existing Lighthouse ministries. It focuses on outings, meetings with state representatives, judges, police and government workshops. Human Relations Day funding will support general field trips and a reading program.

 

The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program agencies of The United Methodist Church. The agency’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education and Leadership Formation, United Nations and International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center at the United Nations in New York City.

 

More information about Human Relations Day, which is celebrated the day before Martin Luther King Day in the United States, is available at umcgiving.org.