Select Outreach Ministry Partners

Bread for the World

Cathy Bridge & Kate Howe, Coordinators

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Together with nearly 50 Indiana congregations and despite the ongoing pandemic, Trinity participated in Bread for the World’s 2021 Offering of Letters (and emails) to our members of Congress. These congregations reported sending 1,660 letters and emails, including 62 letters and emails sent by Trinity parishioners. Congress responded with expanded SNAP, Pandemic-EBT, Child Tax Credit and Earned income Tax Credits which together helped keep hunger at bay. A new Bread for the World group has formed to enhance advocacy efforts in Congressional District 7 in which Trinity is located. The initial project involves seeking support of pastors in the District for passage of the very important Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act of 2021. The Act would authorize targeted programs to prevent and treat malnutrition around the world. Towards that end, pastors will be asked to sign onto letters to Senator Young thanking him for being a co-sponsor of this legislation and urging Senator Braun to become a co-sponsor. We encourage Trinity parishioners to get in touch with Kate Howe or Cathy Bridge if they are interested in greater involvement with Bread for the World, in addition to our Annual Offering of Letters. Horizons @ St. Richard’s

AmySue Bacon, Executive Director

Horizons at St. Richard’s Episcopal School (Horizons at SRES) is a transformative six-week, tuition-free summer program serving 150 Pre-K through eighth grade children from underresourced families. 98% of Horizons at SRES students identify as BIPOC. All Horizons’ students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Students, parents, and staff were thrilled to have an inperson 2021 Horizons summer after experiencing virtual programming the previous summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With strict COVID protocols in place this summer, Horizons students arrived at the St. Richard’s campus each morning ready to engage in joyful learning experiences. We are grateful Horizons had no reported cases of COVID during the entire six weeks of programming. Classrooms began days with morning meetings focused on building relationships and social-emotional learning. Horizons students spent time each day developing reading, math, and writing skills under the guidance of licensed teachers. Through our partnership with the JCC, Horizons students took swim lessons and played in the water three times per week. Additionally, each grade level participated in one field trip each week. With Indiana Wesleyan’s Graduate School of Counseling, Horizons students had access to individual counseling sessions and benefited from whole class socialemotional skill building lessons. Students also had the opportunity to grow as artists, dancers, and poets during enrichment classes. We wrapped up the summer with a powerful closing ceremony showcasing students’ learning and talents. Horizons makes a commitment to supporting our students and families beyond summer. In 2021, Horizons’ students benefited from the generosity of Trinity parishioners’ through the annual Giving Tree. Sponsored by Trinity parishioners and SRES families, Horizons students received gifts for the holidays. Horizons also brought back our traditional holiday celebration for families to gather in fellowship in December. Looking ahead to 2022, Horizons is adding new year-round programming for families. Super Saturday monthly events begin in January. These once a month sessions will offer academic and enrichment opportunities for both students and caregivers. Afterschool year-round tutoring is slated to begin in spring of 2022. This programming will target reading growth and help students remain at or above grade level. These new initiatives are possible due to grants targeting learning loss being awarded to Horizons in 2021. Horizons staff grew to include an advancement manager and outreach coordinator in the past year. These new positions will ensure current high-quality programming remains and new programming is equally strong. Additionally, Horizons at SRES’s Board of Directors began strategic planning at the end of 2021 and will complete the process prior to summer 2022. This work will drive Horizons at SRES’s future steps. The Horizons advisory board includes Trinity Episcopal Church parishioners Jenn Dawson and Bob Marchesani. Horizons’ Executive Director is AmySue Bacon. Horizons is grateful for Trinity’s support through sponsorship of Trivia Night and use of its facilities for programming and special events. We look forward to continued partnership in the year ahead!

The Mid-North Food Pantry (MNFP)

Kathleen Strickland, Board President

The Mid-North Food Pantry has had another busy year. Some highlights:

• In 2021, the Pantry served 8,122 households, 24,990 family members, 9,873 children, 1,503 veterans and 284 people experiencing homelessness. The Pantry received 84,918 donated pounds of food, with Whole Foods and Second

Helpings being our primary donors. The Pantry currently has approximately 42 volunteers and paid staff. • Trinity members Cathy Bridge, Timothy Dorsey, Nikeesha

Pittman, and Kathleen Strickland serve on the Pantry

Board of Directors.

• Kathleen also serves as President and Cathy serves as

Chair of the Operations Committee. • We have been blessed with dedicated volunteers throughout another challenging year. Trinity members

Susan McMahon and Pantry Manager Matthew Jennings once again went above and beyond to keep the pantry running smoothly and safely throughout 2021. Trinity members Michael Arnold, Diane Beardsley, Rick Beardsley,

Cathy Bridge, Lisa Buoy, Tim Dorsey, Nancy Farrar, John

Farrar, Jan Kempf, Jim Knowles, Ross McKenna, Michael

Nichols, Nikeesha Pittman, David Bacon, Quincey Bacon, and Erin Vincent–along with their families–regularly volunteered their time. • Under leadership from Vicky Prusinski, our garden expanded to more than double the growing space enjoyed in previous summers. Carter ProBuild provided a very generous in-kind donation that enabled us to build six new, raised cedar beds, and Vicky and her volunteers planted and harvested vegetables from early summer into the fall. Throughout the growing season neighbors were offered a variety of fresh produce, including tomatoes, collards, kale, okra, green beans, squash, radishes, cucumbers, and several different kinds of herbs. • Fresh Thyme Market donated overage from their inventory, primarily baked dessert items and specialty breads, both of which are popular with our shoppers. • Board member Roberta Rowland organized a mobile

Covid vaccine/testing clinic in the Outreach Center parking lot in September. The Indiana State Department of Health, Trinity, and the Pantry sponsored the event. • Grocery store chain ALDI began providing the Pantry with frozen meat each week. Their donations of lamb and fish appeal to our Muslim neighbors, including the Trinitysponsored refugees from Afghanistan. • Trinity awarded a substantial grant in November to kick off our new produce project, enabling the Pantry to offer a large increase in our selection of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, the most requested category of foods for residents of our Center Township neighborhoods. • Finally, in June, the freight elevator in the Outreach

Center was replaced by Trinity. With our outdoor pantry operations continuing year-round, having a reliable freight elevator is key to streamline service to our neighbors. The

Pantry volunteers, staff, and Board are grateful for this upgrade, which was completed on time and has enabled volunteers and staff to move large quantities of food between the basement and the parking lot. Thank you,

Trinity!

St. Nicholas Early Learning, Inc.

Kathleen Hugus, Executive Director

St. Nicholas Early Learning, Inc (SNEL), located on the first floor of the Trinity Outreach Center, offers safe, welcoming, and high-quality childcare. Despite pandemic challenges, SNEL is going strong. In December, SNEL offered a fond farewell to Jill Brooks and warmly welcomed Kay Hugus as the center’s next Executive Director. Kay took over the leadership on December 1, 2021, and hit the ground running. Kay shares, “These past two months have gone by so fast, and yet, I feel like I have been here forever. The center is a true gem and a blessing to this community. I am especially struck by the partnership SNEL has with Trinity. SNEL staff are true educators that dedicate themselves to making a warm, nurturing environment for these little ones in spite of the social restrictions and protocols.Because our students are too young to be vaccinated, SNEL’s highest priority is to keep all healthy and safe. We are successfully meeting that goal - our closures have been limited to a few rooms with only two positive cases. Another bragging point I can share is no cases of COVID infection can be traced from being exposed at SNEL. I credit this to our amazing staff diligently cleaning and sanitizing.” SNEL continues to utilize its tuition assistance fund to support its mission of providing high-quality childcare for families of diverse socio-economic and racial backgrounds. In 2021, 14 students, which accounted for 27 percent of enrolled students, received some amount of tuition assistance and/or funding from CCDF. Current enrollment for SNEL stands at 52 children with three spots being filled in early 2022. SNEL held one virtual fundraising event, The Walk for Dreams, and participated in Giving Tuesday in 2021, which outperformed previous fundraising metrics for each respective event. Both events enabled us to grow our tuition-assistance fund and help low and middle-income families in need of high-quality childcare. 2022 looks bright and promising! The SNEL Board is currently engaged in strategic planning to set a path for future growth. Trinity parishioners serving on the SNEL Board of Directors include Katherine Anthony and AmySue Bacon. Additionally, the center is in the process of upgrading communication tools to better engage parents and the outside community. We also look forward to the pandemic easing, so we can allow parents into the center to see our good work with their children. We hope to host several parent events and would extend the invitation to anyone in the community that would like to come see all the incredible things happening on our part of the Trinity Campus.

Jenni White, Founding Executive Director

Trinity Haven, Indiana’s first and only home for LGBTQ youth/ young adults at risk for homelessness, was incubated and launched at Trinity Church; although it is now an independent 501(c)(3) with a gorgeous home a few blocks off the church campus, the two organizations will always have a connection that is more meaningful than words can describe. 2021 was an absolutely thrilling year for Trinity Haven. After years of planning and preparation, unexpected delays and a global pandemic, we celebrated our grand opening on April 30, 2021, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on our front lawn. Guests from far and wide gathered together, for many – for the first time since the pandemic began – seated in chairs carefully placed six feet apart, to celebrate the opening of not one, but two housing programs! Our Transitional Living Program provides safe, affirming, shared housing for up to nine LGBTQ youth ages 18-21 (and those ages 16 and 17 with parental consent and DCS approval) for up to two years; and our Host Homes Program, which provides safe, temporary housing for up to six months in the home of a member of our community, for youth/young adults ages 16-24. The goal of host homes is to provide safe housing where the young person has time to repair their relationships with self-identified family or make decisions about other housing options with the support of our Youth Engagement Specialist. We are always looking for hosts (both respite and longer-term), so if this interests you, please let us know! Another exciting project that involved members of Trinity Church was also part of a young man’s Eagle Scout project: Malcolm Hembre, son of Kate Howe and Erik Hembre, raised funds to purchase materials and then built a storage shed which allows us to store lawn, yard and snow removal equipment securely. And many members of Trinity Church provided an amazing Christmas dinner for our residents, including four baked chickens, mashed potatoes, all the trimmings, several pies…and a fabulous disco ball ornament from Mother Julia: it was a glorious first Christmas at Trinity Haven! And finally, we also celebrated each other at our very first major fundraising event, the Homecoming Bash! Here we raised over $17,000 for our Resilience Fund, which will allow us to assist graduates of our program when they need a bit of financial assistance to stay on track. Car breaks down and needs fixed? We can help! Unexpected expense that would bust your budget? We can help! We are excited to see this fund grow and to be able to help our residents even after they move out of our programs. We hope you will sign up for our e-Newsletter, which you can subscribe to from our website, so you can stay tuned on all the incredible things Trinity Haven is doing. We hope you will continue to follow our progress, and we thank you for your continued support of Trinity Haven and LGBTQ youth/young adults experiencing housing instability.

The Rev’d Adam Pierce, Program Director

After several intentional years of discernment around the use of the 3256 House (on Pennsylvania Ave) on Trinity’s campus, a dedicated group of Trinity parishioners led by Mother Julia concluded that an Episcopal Service Corps program was the direction God was calling Trinity to pursue. The Episcopal Service Corps is a network of young adults ages 21-32 serving through locally organized intentional communities that are dedicated to serving others in solidarity, promoting justice, deepening spiritual awareness, discerning vocation, and living in community. The program lasts roughly 10 to 11 months, during which time corps members commit to a household Rule of Life, regular spiritual direction, discernment and community practices, as well as volunteer service in the local community. Trinity Service Corps plans to welcome its first group of 6 corps members in August 2022. Since accepting the role of Program Director for Trinity Service Corps in September 2021, I have worked closely with our Advisory Board of Trinity Parishioners to get this program off the ground. Thanks to Tracey Lemon, we have a website where potential applicants can learn more about us. The Advisory Board is assisting me in recruiting partner agencies to provide full-time volunteer opportunities for our corps members. Some interested partners are Trinity Haven, St. Richards’s Episcopal School, Bread for the World, Indiana Justice Project, Mid-North Food Pantry Inc., Indiana Youth Group, Christ Church Cathedral, and Horizon’s at St. Richard’s. We are also overseeing the renovations that are currently underway to the 3256 House, and I cannot wait to see the finished product. I have begun interviewing applicants for the inaugural program year and I am exceedingly grateful for these young adults who are choosing to take a year to discern their future within the context of an intentional community. I want to thank our advisory board members, Todd Relue, Kate Howe, Andy McConnell, Jen Phelps, Lisa Adler, Luana Nissan, Shelly Furuness, John Brady, and Mother Julia for their commitment to seeing this program come together. A special thanks to EriK Hembre for his knowledgeable assistance with oversight of the renovation process.

To learn more visit: trinityservicecorps.org