Changes in the Child Poverty Rate

 

Data from the 2014 American Community Survey, released Sept. 17, suggests that the national child poverty rate remained stagnant from 2013 to 2014 – a sign that the country’s economic recovery is still leaving the lowest-income families behind. 

See which states saw increases in child poverty rates

Understanding Poverty Workshop

The Vulnerable Children's Ministry

Presents a Workshop

“Understanding Poverty”

With Guest Speaker Lynn Clay, Certified Poverty Trainer

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Willow Creek Community Church

67 E. Algonquin Road, So. Barrington, IL

(Room B204/206 near the chapel)

Caring for those who come from a background of poverty can be confusing and complicated. We can do a lot of damage by assuming everyone should be “like us.” Sometimes an attempt to help can cause harm to the very people we wish to serve. This workshop will help us learn how to step into relationships with people who have a different way of approaching life, as well as teach us how to maneuver between the two worlds. 

This workshop is designed for:

·         Adoptive Families

·         Foster Care Families

·         Safe Families Hosts

·         Those involved in orphan care

·         Those who care about vulnerable children

6:00 Dinner together (Atrium)

7:00 Worship service (Lakeside Auditorium)

7:30 Workshop (room B204/206)

Please register for the workshop at www.willowcreek.org/midweekclasses

Childcare is available with Midweek for Kids (ages 0-5 years).

Suggested book of the month: When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

Safe Families for Children Event with Joel Hamernick

FRIDAY, MARCH 20^th at 7pm

South Park Church, 1330 Courtland Ave., Park Ridge, IL 

Joel Hamernick is the executive director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries on the Southside of Chicago.  Joel will teach how we can better understand people of poverty as well as our role as Christians around justice and compassion.  It is extremely beneficial to understand the culture of poverty as we relate, interact, and extend Christian hospitality to placing families.

This event is open to ANYONE interested in better understanding our role as Christians in today's culture.   

For more information contact Janessa Gustaveson, Safe Families - South Park Church Network Coordinator at safefamilies@southpark.org

Understanding Poverty Workshop

The Vulnerable Children's Ministry

Presents a Workshop

“Understanding Poverty”

With Guest Speaker Lynn Clay, Certified Poverty Trainer

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Willow Creek Community Church

67 E. Algonquin Road, So. Barrington, IL

(Room B204/206 near the chapel)

Caring for those who come from a background of poverty can be confusing and complicated. We can do a lot of damage by assuming everyone should be “like us.” Sometimes an attempt to help can cause harm to the very people we wish to serve. This workshop will help us learn how to step into relationships with people who have a different way of approaching life, as well as teach us how to maneuver between the two worlds. 

This workshop is designed for:

·         Adoptive Families

·         Foster Care Families

·         Safe Families Hosts

·         Those involved in orphan care

·         Those who care about vulnerable children

6:00 Dinner together (Atrium)

7:00 Worship service (Lakeside Auditorium)

7:30 Workshop (room B204/206)

Please register for the workshop at www.willowcreek.org/midweekclasses

Childcare is available with Midweek for Kids (ages 0-5 years).

Suggested book of the month: When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

Monthly Gathering: "Helping Without Hurting"

The Vulnerable Children's Ministry

Presents a Workshop

“Helping Without Hurting”

with Guest Speaker Lynn Clay, Certified Poverty Trainer

 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Willow Creek Community Church

67 E. Algonquin Road, So. Barrington, IL

(Room B204/206 near the chapel)

Caring for those who come from a background of poverty can often be confusing and complicated.  We can do a lot of damage assuming everyone should be “like us”.  Sometimes those who desire to help, can even create damage to the very people they wish to serve.  This workshop will help us learn to step into relationships with people who have a different way of approaching life and creating a bridge that allows us all to walk back and forth between the two worlds.

This workshop is designed for:

·         Adoptive Families

·         Foster Care Families

·         Safe Families Hosts

·         Those involved in orphan care

·         Those who care about vulnerable children

 

5:30 Dinner together (Atrium)

7:00 Worship service (Lakeside Auditorium)

7:30 Workshop (room B204/206)

 

 

 

Lynn Clay, Poverty Trainer 

Lynn is devoted to Christ for the past 25 years, a wife to Rich Clay for 23 years, a mom to Kristen (20) and Jasmine (16) and is on staff at The Chapel in Libertyville for the past 14 years. Her role at The Chapel includes being a Chaplain at the Lake County Jail, overseeing the jail ministry volunteers, an Area Leader for small group leaders and she does women’s pastoral counseling.  As a certified Poverty Trainer, she and her team teach classes on how to help/partner with those in poverty without doing more harm than good.  Her youngest daughter is adopted, putting her on a path to learn and grow in ways she never imagined and she is passionate about getting messy with relationships that take us out of our comfort zone.

 

Register HERE

 

Childcare is available with Midweek for Kids (ages 0-5 years)

 

Workshop: Working with Families in Poverty

You are invited to:

Safe Family Gathering

Friday, November 15

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

South Park Church - Park Ridge, IL

Fellowship Hall

 

Featuring Joel Hamernick of Sunshine Gospel Ministries

 

 This event is open to anyone interested in understanding how to work with families entrenched in poverty

Light Refreshments

Child Care Available for ages 2 -10

RSVP to Karen Anderson at kand0611@gmail.com to reserve a space for your children

Free Pre-Release Movie Screening of "58"

Could We End Poverty in Our Lifetime?

Entrapped in Slavery—for Life
Sanjiv, his wife, and their children are slave workers in a quarry in India—all because of a $680 loan.

Sanjiv borrowed the money from a private lender in order to provide the needed dowry so his 17-year-old daughter Amuda could marry. When Sanjiv was unable to repay this loan, he borrowed money from the owner of a quarry. This unscrupulous owner paid off Sanjiv’s first loan with a high-interest second loan—and put him to work in the quarry until he could pay off his new debt.

That was a few years ago. Today, Sanjiv and his family still work in that quarry, cutting stone with heavy sledgehammers and sleeping in a rickety hut. His loan is not paid off—and there seems to be no hope in sight.

“I have to carry on with this work,” he says. “There is no way out.” Sanjiv and his family are slaves, entrapped in extreme poverty.

Capturing God's Heart
In 2008, a small group of Christians in Oxford, England prayed, asking God for guidance for the next generation of Christ followers. God’s answer was short and clear: 58—as in Isaiah 58, a passage of Scripture that captures God’s heart around issues of poverty and oppression.

This small group of Christians took action and formed 58. And they are on a mission to engage the global church to end extreme poverty by 2035.

Free Pre-Release Movie Screening of 58
On May 4, 7:45 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Willow Creek South Barrington airs a free pre-release screening of 58,a film that dares to envision a world where people have sufficiency. A world where the local church becomes the transformative agent that can wipe out extreme poverty. You are that agent.

Willow Creek Community Church

67 E. Algonquin Road

So. Barrington, IL 60010

Training Opportunity for Safe Families

Bridgebuilders - Session 2: Guidance on Building Relationships with Parents of Safe Family Kids

Join other Safe Families volunteers for the second of a three-part series on viewing poverty through a Biblical lens. You do not need to be a Safe Family and you do not have to attend all three parts to participate and benefit from any one event. Please mark your calendars for August 21, which is the last session!

Safe Families is built around the idea that what keeps people in poverty is isolation: a lack of stable and reliable relationships to support folks when a crisis strikes. The key to creating a better life for children in poverty is to become that missing support network for parents, in the short term and over the long run. Many of our volunteers have begun building relationships with the mothers of the children who are staying in their homes and continue that friendship after the children have been returned. This is hard work and that requires learning new things about ourselves and about others.

Joel Hamernick is helping us learn those things. He is the Executive Director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries on Chicago's south side and has extensive experience teaching suburban Christians who want to help under-resourced folks.

Here is what people said about the first session:

"What was taught was EXCELLENT. I was not sure I wanted to come, but am overjoyed that I did."

"The session opened my eyes/heart a bit further in trying to see the world and its people through God's eyes."

Saturday, July 17, 2010
10:00 - 2:00
Lunch will be provided ($5 donation requested)
Christ Community Church of St. Charles, Chapel
37W100 Bolcum Road, St. Charles, IL 60175

Please RSVP to Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy at rcynamon-murphy@lydiahome.org or 773.653.2205. All interest-levels are welcome.