Doing Good in the World | St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Mission Outreach Grant Awards

Each year, St. Mary’s provides a total of about $10,000 in endowment-supported grant funding for small, community-oriented non-profit organizations and church outreach activities through the Mission Outreach Grant project. This year, the application review team selected 11 grant recipients, which we have been highlighting in the newsletter over the past few months so that the whole congregation can share in the joy and blessing that our church family is bringing to others through this work.

Choosing Our Roots

Choosing Our Roots supports queer youth and young adults who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. This year, Choosing Our Roots requested funds to help queer youth struggling with food insecurity or housing instablilty. The grant began to make a difference immediately, as Director of Operations (and former St. Mary's staff member) Laura Reijns shared with us:

We recently had a referral from AK Child and Family. This youth has been in their programming for some time and does not feel safe returning to their home of origin due to a father who does not respect their gender identity. This youth is also phenomenal. They are kind and quirky and have been working hard to make a plan to find a safe, supportive future, but they needed some additional assistance with finding safe, supportive housing. We consulted with AK Child and Family and assessed that we would be a good fit for working with this youth. Chami, our programming director, worked with a potential host family and was able to make a match that has truly been a godsend. While we provide a small stipend to host families, it is seldom enough to counter the increased cost of inviting another person into their home. We were able to use some of the funds that you provided us through the mission outreach fund to help this youth buy groceries until their own SNAP benefits kick in and therefore help to ease the financial transition for this host family who is welcoming this lovely youth into their home.

We are so grateful for your partnership and continued support of Choosing Our Roots. You help us do this pivotal work of housing queer youth and young adults. We can't do this without you.