How congregations can support communities during a pandemic

#2: Creatively use church assets to serve the community

It’s hard to see past our losses and anxieties. But by shifting our focus to assets and strengths, new possibilities emerge. Take stock of your church’s resources: What do we have on hand? What can we do well? Then ask: How could we repurpose these assets to connect with community needs?

Brainstorming ideas for sharing assets of the congregation:

• Vehicle:
  • Use to make deliveries of food and supplies
  • Mobile library using books/DVDs from the church library
• Facilities:
  • Large meeting space to accommodate essential community meetings while distancing
  • Alternative work space for workers who can’t use their regular office
  • Parking lot—offer as a distribution site for food, WiFi hotspots, or kids’ play area
  • Sound system for local musical groups to provide outdoor concerts
• Website:
  • Post community resource guides, volunteer opportunities, job boards, links to health info
  • Share mental health resources, suicide hotlines and help for stressed-out parents
  • Community building—site for people to post how-to vids on something they do well, online craft fair, art show, poetry slam
• Tools and cleaning equipment:
  • Loan to families in need (imagine being shut in with kids without a vacuum cleaner!)
• Expertise in the congregation
  • Tech team – offer free consulting to less tech-savvy congregations and nonprofits
  • Financial planners — help households revise their budgets
  • Speakers of English as a second language — offer translation services
  • Gardeners — walk people through planting their own kitchen garden
• Connection tools
  • How are you helping the congregation stay connected (calling trees, online small groups, virtual game nights)? Expand on that to include isolated individuals in the community

#3: Partner with groups serving vulnerable populations

Extend the reach of your congregation through effective partnerships with entities in the community.

• Identify the partners to focus on. In addition to organizations your church currently supports, this may be a good time to cultivate new partnerships, including:
  • Organizations your church has previously supported with funds or volunteers
  • Organizations where church members have a connection (e.g. staff at a nonprofit)
  • Congregations serving aging or high-need populations, or in hard-hit African American and Latino communities
  • Struggling businesses and laid-off workers (e.g. in service industries such as restaurants)
  • Agencies addressing needs of families (e.g. foster care, special needs, domestic violence)
  • Arts and culture organizations
• Examples of organizations connected with vulnerable populations:
  • homeless shelter, poverty relief, international student program, small business incubator, pregnancy center, refugee nonprofit, mental health group, disability advocates, foster care agency, community center, prison outreach, senior care, addiction recovery program …
  • Also consider groups serving in desperate situations around the world!
• Find out how to be a good partner by discovering what is really needed
  • Don’t duplicate what others are doing, or burden partners with donations they can’t use
  • Check online first if they have posted requests for items or volunteers
  • Set up a short conversation to ask: How can we help you to keep serving well?
• Most direct and effective way to help is often: Give money!
  • Use congregational network to organize a fundraiser for a partner
  • Pay for specific needs referred by a trusted partner (e.g. medical/funeral expenses)
  • Donate e-gift certificates, set up a virtual registry for items, or fund a delivery account
• Other examples of partnership ministries
  • Work with charities to distribute cleaning supplies, toiletries, diapers, pet food, etc.
  • Donate tablets or other devices to nursing homes so residents can connect with family
  • Collaborate with local business to provide goods or services (e.g. restaurant partnership)
  • Set up pen pals / prayer partners with shut-ins and people isolated in institutions
  • Work with agencies serving children to build connection and meet practical needs
  • Stand with groups led by immigrants and Asian-Americans against harassment
  • Connect with a school to help with meal programs, or identify families with extra needs
  • Connect with businesses and job placement agencies to help those who are unemployed
  • Come alongside a hospice or funeral home to provide care for staff, help grieving families

#4: Collaborate on evolving neighborhood and city-wide needs

This crisis calls for a coordinated response—to do more together than any group could do alone.

• Get connected with city-wide/ regional coalitions
  • Examples: VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), United Way, Council on Aging, mental health coalitions, community foundations / leadership foundations, neighborhood Facebook pages, Chamber of Commerce, Care Portal, your denomination
• Promote mutual aid forums — “bite sized ways of responding that make a world of difference”
  • Facilitate people in the community sharing their gifts and resources with one another
  • Connect those in need with those who can help (errands, groceries, employment, etc.)
  • Site for posting “I need …” / “I can help with …” via website, Facebook page, hotline, app (e.g. Love Your Neighbor) (will need volunteers for monitoring and updating)
  • Examples launched by churches: volunteer network, Uptown Church
• Work with other churches, local government, businesses and nonprofits to develop strategic responses to community-wide problems — examples:
  • Food security networks—food pantries cooperating, partnerships to feed seniors
  • Coordinated plan to fund aid to families and support for local businesses/ nonprofits
  • Coalitions around issues such as mental health, childcare, and homelessness
  • Strategies to help churches and families overcome the digital divide
  • Efforts to expose and overcome racial and income-based disparities in impact of COVID
  • Collaborate to support local artists and promote virtual/safe distancing cultural events
  • Ex. of churches partnering: Indianapolis Joint Christian Response
  • See additional stories of collaborative action
• Collaborative prayer for and with the community
  • Offer resources for prayer (e.g. prayer hotlines, praying for different professions)
  • Coordinate times for community-wide prayer (morning prayer with healthcare providers; lunchtime blessing on kids; driveway candlelight vigils; pastoral prayer zoom; Unite 7:14)

#6: Equip the congregation to connect with their neighbors

Encourage members to see that community impact begins literally in their own backyard. Give members tools and direction for these five keys to good neighboring—from six feet away:

• Build connection: This crisis gives us all an excuse to introduce ourselves to neighbors we don’t know, and check in with those we rarely see, with a note (see example), call or safe knock. (BUT be prudent when giving out personal info.)
  
  Stay connected through “hyperlocal” online groups such as a neighborhood Facebook page (example: Neighbors Caring for Neighbors) or apps such as Nextdoor or WhatsApp neighborhood pod. See “How to Be a Good Neighbor Right Now” for a list of ideas and tools for building neighborhood connection.

• Practice mutual aid: Offer to run errands, walk pets or do yardwork for frail or at-risk neighbors, or help tech-insecure neighbors set up their online shopping (see Neighbors Helping Neighbors for ideas). Share what you have, ask for what you need! (Only share items that can be washed, sanitized or cooked.) Discover what neighbors have to offer one another.
  
  Organize neighbors to support the community together: plan a neighborhood virtual food drive or support local restaurants with a takeout night.

• Check in with people—calls, texts, emails, social media, doorway chats. Make a list of specific individuals who are at risk due to age, physical health, mental health, finances, fragile family situations (e.g. foster care), loss, or loneliness, and reach out regularly. (And keep it up—don’t stop just because they say things are fine.)
  
  Fight social isolation! Express caring, ask questions, be a good listener. Do activities virtually together, such as online games or museum tours. Share positive news stories and favorite Scriptures Just being there for people is what matters. Connection makes a difference.

• Neighbor prayer: Regularly prayer walk around your neighborhood if you can, or pray for the homes you can see from your front porch. Coordinate prayer candles in windows in your block. Simply let your neighbors know, “I’m praying for you!” Look for ways to connect with people for spiritual conversations and a message of hope.

• Find the fun! Fight cabin fever and promote mental health by organizing neighborhood activities: spot all the teddy bears in neighbors’ windows … window art festival ... scavenger hunt … Netflix watch party … make funny yard signs … put up Christmas lights … play music and have a doorway dance-off … hang a backdrop and show a movie in your yard … hold a joke-yelling contest … fly kites … door decorating contest … group exercise times …

Resources for learning to be good neighbors: Neighboring Movement, Neighborhood Initiative

Other pandemic community ministry resources:

Episcopal Relief & Development webinars and resourcesLiving Missionally amidst Covid-19
Covid-19 Collective Care
Ministering in a Time of COVID-19
Responding to Hunger in a Pandemic
COVID-19 ministry strategy session
COVID-19: how can churches respond?

Caring well in a crisis—and for the long haul

Keep these best practices in mind for engaging the community without becoming overwhelmed:

• KISS (Keep It Simple & Specific)
  • Ministry doesn’t need to be elaborate or all-encompassing to make a difference
  • Coping with change takes energy! It’s OK to do less, to move at a slower pace
• Stay nimble—no such thing now as “the way we’ve always done things”!
  • Look for creative, entrepreneurial individuals who can help you adapt
  • Plan a dual ministry strategy—both virtual and social distancing in-person options
• Respond to crisis needs, but also pace for the long-term challenges
  • Anticipate impact on the economy, poverty, mental health, family stability, arts & culture
  • Need to keep listening to the community so our compassion is strategic
• Keep building connections, affirming that we minister with not to people
  • Address needs in a way that builds on community strengths and resiliency
  • Authentic relationships—even at a distance—are always at the heart of community care
• Stay rooted in prayer and readiness to share the source of your hope and self-giving love!
• Promote health—rest, healthy routines, stress reduction, support network, spiritual care
• Set boundaries and realistic expectations—saving the world is not on your shoulders
• Recognize signs of burnout, anxiousness or entanglement—pause, recharge, get help“When you’re running on fumes, caring for others can tax your already depleted resources to breaking point. But when you prioritize your needs, you’re filling the tank, emotionally and

Practice self-care

• Promote health—rest, healthy routines, stress reduction, support network, spiritual care
• Set boundaries and realistic expectations—saving the world is not on your shoulders
• Recognize signs of burnout, anxiousness or entanglement—pause, recharge, get help“When you’re running on fumes, caring for others can tax your already depleted resources to breaking point. But when you prioritize your needs, you’re filling the tank, emotionally and physically, and that means you’ll be in a position to offer comfort and care to others when they need it most.” (Self-Care in the Time of Coronavirus)