Fall 2022 Grant Recipients Help Communities Flourish

Texas Methodist Foundation is pleased to announce that it awarded $700,000 to 36 churches, schools, and organizations for its Fall 2022 grant cycle. Grant recipients are changing lives and improving the economic and social factors that impact the communities they serve. St. Luke Community UMC, for example, is bolstering mental health with a community health ministry, while nationally recognized Menninger Clinic is starting a chaplaincy internship. Eight Million Stories is helping youth move from trauma to success through stories, Interfaith Action of Central Texas is building capacity to move communities out of poverty, and the Oikos Institute is helping BIPOC communities harness their social and financial assets to thrive.

Along with providing financial support to these life-changing initiatives, a Texas Methodist Foundation grant indicates that the recipient is both positively impacting communities and creating innovative approaches that others can learn from. As Wendy Abel, TMF Vice President of Grants, notes, “our grant recipients regularly show their commitment to creating impact in their communities in innovative ways, and we are proud to partner with each of these organizations as they enrich the lives of those they serve.”

All recipients this cycle share a focus on improving social determinants of health – an economic and social factors model that predicts health and well-being outcomes beyond genetics and access to medical care, including factors such as employment, nutrition, continuing education, mental health, and housing support.

About Texas Methodist Foundation

Texas Methodist Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the church to achieve its God-appointed mission, and living our values of servanthood, integrity, and competence. Texas Methodist Foundation is one of the largest Methodist foundations in the country offering assistance across the Wesleyan ecosystem through investments, loans, grants, leadership platforms, gift planning, and endowment services. Texas Methodist Foundation serves organizations throughout Texas and New Mexico. Texas Methodist Foundation is based in Austin, Texas. To learn more, please visit tmf-fdn.org.

Fall 2022 Grant Recipients

100 Black Men of San Antonio, Inc. (San Antonio, TX) – Addresses training and education needs of youth through alternative education and workforce programming for at-risk youth 16 and older in San Antonio.

Abara (El Paso, TX) – Responds to needs in the borderlands, including resourcing shelters, and providing respite care for shelter leaders, microenterprise opportunities for migrants, recreation and therapeutic activities for unaccompanied minors, and supporting an immigration para-legal.

Camp Aranzazu (Rockport TX) Enriches the lives of children and adults with special needs and chronic illnesses by providing unique camping, environmental education, and retreat experiences.

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Fort Worth (Ft. Worth, TX) – Supports Stay the Course, which improves community persistence and completion rates for low-income students through case management, targeted emergency financial assistance, referrals, and employment services.

Dallas Leadership Foundation
(Dallas, TX) -- Increases the vitality of low-income communities = working with neighborhoods and partner agencies to help low-income individuals and families secure the skills and resources needed to achieve self-sufficiency.

Dementia Friendly Fort Worth
(Ft. Worth, TX) -- Provides brain engagement and stimulation to improve the overall health of seniors living alone or socially isolated by minimizing anxiety, boredom, depression, and loneliness.

Eight Million Stories, Inc. (Houston, TX) -- Transforms the lives of vulnerable youth and young adults (9-21) break a cycle of poverty and imprisonment, through education, skills training, employment and authentic relationships.

El Calvario United Methodist Church (Las Cruces, NM) -- Provides temporary shelter for refugees, aiding people with basic needs including meals, transportation to final destinations, and shelter with other humanitarian assistance including social, legal and advocacy services.

El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank (El Paso, TX) -- Provides nutritious, healthy food and invests in programs to feed children, seniors, and other vulnerable members of society, making the community stronger and healthier.

FamilyTime Crisis & Counseling Center (Houston, TX) -- Offers emergency shelter and nonresidential services for domestic and sexual violence survivors, including a 24-hour crisis hotline, safety planning, counseling, case management, legal referrals, transportation.

Friends of the Elgin Library (Elgin, TX) – Increases internet and computer accessibility for Elgin
community members who are who are homeless, seniors, children, or people with disabilities, while providing opportunities for low income individuals of all ages to build computer skills.

Grant African Methodist Episcopal Worship Center (Austin, TX) – discovers the needs of the local community through surveys and personal conversation and then implements what needs to be done.

Greater Garth Chapel AME Church
(Dallas, TX) -- Serves the community weekly with hot meals, fresh fruits and vegetables, home care needs, and many other items while engaging and empowering their neighbors.

Gruene United Methodist Church (New Braunfels, TX) -- Serves food and housing needs for insecure and homeless families, children, and individuals in the greater New Braunfels area.

Hope Disaster Recovery
(Houston, TX) -- Provides basic repairs to restore homes owned by single parents, elderly and/or disabled persons to a sound, secure and healthy condition, as well as addressing economic, mental, spiritual, and physical well-being of the homeowners.

Housing Forward
(Dallas, TX) – Uses expertise, partnerships, and resources to lead a system-wide, data-driven strategy to implement an effective homeless response system to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Humble Area Assistance Ministries (Houston, TX) – Helps community residents in crisis by providing essential resources to move towards self-sufficiency, focusing primarily on senior adults, partnering with more than thirty covenant partners.

Interfaith Action of Central Texas (Austin, TX) – Following their motto “People of all faiths doing good together,” iACT moves people out of poverty through community service programs, Hands on Housing, and their Refugee Program.

Journey of Faith Church
(Humble, TX) – Deepens their connection to their local community, enabling them to better serve the needs of their neighbors.

Lydia Patterson Institute
(El Paso, TX) -- Provides an environment in which Christian faith, values, and knowledge converge to give students a cross-cultural, academic, and state-of-the-art education, by creating opportunities to develop skills to succeed and transform a changing world.

McMurry University (Abilene, TX) – Supports the McMurry Fund, a highly flexible form of financial support to offset the financial needs of students who still have financial need after other aid is awarded.

Menninger Clinic
(Houston, TX) – Supports a Chaplaincy Internship Program for students pursuing ministry-related degrees to learn about chaplaincy services at a nationally ranked psychiatric institution specializing in treating individuals with complex mental illness.

Metrocare Services (Dallas, TX) -- Provides a broad array of services including mental health care, primary care centers, services for veterans and their loved ones, accessible pharmacies, housing, and supportive social services.

Mission Milby CDC
(Houston, TX) -- Helps students in the program stay in school, successfully move to the next grade level, and graduate.

Oikos Institute for Social Impact (Dallas, TX) -- Helps faith communities and BIPOC institutions harness the power of their assets to be a catalyst for communal transformation and economic mobility, in partnership with seminaries, universities, and foundations.

Perkins School of Theology / SMU (Dallas, TX) – Provides scholarships for students to participate in The Mexican American Program, which prepares church leaders with the knowledge and skills for effective ministry in Spanish-speaking and bilingual contexts and cultures.

Schertz Cibolo Universal City ISD (Schertz, TX) -- Provides 15 student/families with $1,000 dollars each to foster improved quality of life, healthy relationships within the family, and an becoming an active and engaged member of the community.

South Oak Cliff "Nu Soul of the South" Band Booster Club (Dallas, TX) – Serves as a financial ambassador that aides the band with improving higher education opportunities and overall music awareness.

Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX) – Provides scholarships ensuring that students from all backgrounds and income levels who wish to pursue their higher education at the University have a variety of financial opportunities to pursue their educational goals.

St. Luke Community UMC
(Dallas, TX) -- Supports mental health and wellness through education, training, and resources that aid in destigmatizing mental illness for those of all ages in the St. Luke community.

Thanks-Giving Foundation (Dallas, TX) – Provides meeting supplies and small stipends for participants to share their lived experience and expertise on their neighborhood in a series of asset-based inquiry convenings for neighborhoods across Dallas.

The Hope Center (Spring Branch, TX ) – Helps a ministry known primarily for its Food Pantry, Thrift Store and Financial Assistance programs, support individuals and families in hard financial seasons, while enhancing their dignity and self-sustainability.

The United Methodist Church of the Disciple (DeSoto, TX) -- Deepens relationships with their neighbors to come alongside the transformative work they are doing (or aspire to do) as collaborative partners.

Urban Enrichment Institute (Houston, TX) -- Empowers its community by supporting young men in becoming responsible and productive members of their families and communities, breaking the cycle of gang violence, drug abuse, scholastic underachievement and incarceration.

University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) (Galveston, TX) – Supports programs that incorporate diabetes prevention and self-management in clinical care while systematically identifying and addressing social, economic, and mental well-being needs.

Wiley College
(Marshall, TX) – Provides scholarships to new and incoming students to a premier HBCU liberal arts institution, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, with an intentional focus on social good and leadership.