OUTREACH
Being a faithful steward of God is about more than just going to church and learning about God. We are also called to serve. Santa Clarita United Methodist Church serves others by opening our doors to outside ministries and by serving and providing for our local community and people around the world.
Santa Clarita UMC supports many local service agencies. From collecting donations, serving in their facilities and hosting families in our facility we are a busy bunch. Please take a look below and sign up to serve alongside the rest of us as we become the hands and feet of Jesus in our community.
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"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (James 2:26)
Local Outreach Programs
Alternative Gift Fair
In November, our church puts on an alternative gift fair in which participants purchase gift cards to be sent to service agencies both locally and worldwide. Information and cards are available from 12 different programs ranging from The Children's Hunger Fund to The Heifer Project. Donations were sent to the charities and cards were available to give to loved ones explaining that the gift was made in their name.
Blessing Bags for the Homeless
This past year we included a new activity in which we prepared Blessing Bags to be distributed in our community. A variety of useful items needed by someone living on the street were bagged and distributed. They included such items as water bottles, band aides, granola bars, hand wipes, crackers, and inspirational bible verses. The bags were given out by anyone who wanted to share them.
Blanket Brigade
On the second Saturday of every month from 9-11 am, members gather to make blankets. The blankets are knitted, crocheted or made from fleece. Some of the blankets are given to local children when they first enter into foster care, others are made into baby blankets and sent to the children of soldiers at Camp Pendleton. Some blankets are given to the Veteran’s hospital and at Christmas, some blankets are given as presents to the clients of the county mental health dept. Everyone is invited to come and help. Donations of yarn, crochet thread and fleece are gladly accepted.
Children's Hunger Fund
Volunteers from our church family donate time at the Children's Hunger Fund Distribution Center packaging food to be sent out to children in need across America and throughout the world. The Fund has distributed 26.6 million meals through their Food Pack program.
Domestic Violence Center of Santa Clarita
The Committee on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) supports the Domestic Violence Center of Santa Clarita with fundraising and supplies. All women are encouraged to be a part of COSROW and join in the support of this very important agency. Call the church office to get further information.
Family Promise of Santa Clarita
The Family Promise Network Program brings shelter, meals, and support services to families without homes. Family Promise Networks are a cost-efficient, effective, and replicable community response to family homelessness. We, as a church family, host families in our facility one week every quarter. Servants from the congregation provide meals, donate food for breakfasts and lunches, host families before the over-night chaperones arrive and also spend the night with the families. It’s a great way to get involved with changing lives in our valley. Updated information is regularly included in the worship bulletins or you can contact Chuck Everhart to get more information on the next week we house the homeless. Call the church office for contact information for Chuck.
Grief Share
Griefshare is a program designed to help those who are dealing with the loss of a loved one. Group sessions will include a video presentation, group discussion and workbook. Contact the church office for more information.
Have a Heart to Help Campaign
A food and supply drive is conducted every year from late January through February to provide much needed supplies and materials for several social service agencies in the Santa Clarita Valley. Everything from paper products for the homeless shelter to art supplies for the children of the Domestic Violence Center is collected. Information on this drive is available in the month of January, please call the church office for any additional information.
​Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity partners with people in your community, and all over the world, to help them build or improve a place they can call home.
Santa Clarita Food Pantry
Santa Clarita UMC supports the local Food Pantry. A barrel is located in the lobby of the sanctuary and an updated needs list is included in each weekly bulletin. We also ask for donations of food to be kept in the office for people who come in seeking immediate assistance. You are welcome to bring food in anytime and leave it in the barrel or bring it to the office during the week. The office is open Monday through Thursday 8:30-1:30 and 2:30-4:30.
Santa Clarita Shelter
The homeless shelter is open December 1 through March 15 and Santa Clarita UMC provides the evening meal for 3 nights in one week each season. The week is determined sometime in the fall by the shelter staff. Announcements are made in the weekly bulletin a couple of months before our week and everybody has the chance to sign up to be on a team that cooks, delivers and serves an evening meal. Everybody is encouraged to join, whip up your favorite recipe and help someone get a filling meal. Chuck Everhart is the contact person that can be reached by calling the church office.​
Support for Small World Preschool
We hold a supply drive for Small World Preschool to provide them with needed school supplies in the beginning of the school year.
Global Outreach Programs
Heifer Project
Heifer International works with communities to increase income, improve child nutrition, care for the Earth, and ultimately end world hunger and poverty.
Dan West was a farmer from the American Midwest and member of the Church of the Brethren who went to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as an aid worker. His mission was to provide relief, but he soon discovered the meager single cup of milk rationed to the weary refugees once a day was not enough.
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And then he had a thought: What if they had not a cup, but a cow?
That "teach a man to fish" philosophy is what drove West to found Heifer International. And now, nearly 70 years later, that philosophy still inspires our work to end world hunger and poverty throughout the world once and for all.
Imagine No Malaria
Unlike many other diseases that are awaiting a cure, malaria was eliminated in the U.S. in the 1950s. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria continues to kill a child every 2 minutes.
But, there is hope! Imagine No Malaria is part of a global partnership and together with our partners; our generation can beat malaria once and for all. By improving the ways people fight the disease using bed nets, providing access to diagnostic tests and medicine, draining standing water, and improving sanitation we have already helped reduce malaria deaths by more than half. Imagine No Malaria combines integrated health infrastructure, education and advocacy to address death and the debilitating effects of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
UMCOR Refugee Relief
UMCOR is responding to the needs of refugees through our close partner Church World Service and its network of over 35 refugee resettlement sites across the country.
UMCOR seeks to meet the needs of refugees and build more welcoming communities by facilitating partnerships between newcomers and local United Methodist congregations.
In addition, UMCOR offers a small number of Refugee Ministry Grants to strengthen projects connected to the church that serve immigrants and refugees. Projects must be community based and have a relationship with a local United Methodist church.
USO
The USO strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home and country, throughout their service to the nation.
For over 77 years, the USO has been the nation’s leading organization to serve the men and women in the U.S. military, and their families, throughout their time in uniform. From the moment they join, through their assignments and deployments, and as they transition back to their communities, the USO is always by their side.
Today’s USO continuously adapts to the needs of our men and women in uniform and their families, so they can focus on their very important mission. We operate USO centers at or near military installations across the United States and throughout the world, including in combat zones, and even un-staffed USO service sites in places too dangerous for anyone but combat troops to occupy.
USO airport centers throughout the country offer around-the clock hospitality for traveling service members and their families. Our trademark USO tours bring America and its celebrities to service members who are assigned far from home, to entertain them and convey the support of the nation. And our many specialized programs offer a continuum of support to service members throughout their journey of service, from the first time they don the uniform until the last time they take it off.
The USO is not part of the federal government. A congressionally chartered, private organization, the USO relies on the generosity of individuals, organizations and corporations to support its activities, and is powered by a family of volunteers to accomplish our mission of connection.