Our Church's Wider Mission Projects 

We work within the UCC, ecumenically and secularly to follow Jesus' teachings to help the hungry, the children and the imprisoned to make the world a little bit better locally, across the state, and internationally. 

 

Here are some of our favorite projects.  Click or see Mission Projects tabs:

 

Arlington Heights Faith Community Homes

 

Arlington Heights Food Pantry

 

PADS Meals

 

International Child Sponsorship

 

Illinois Children of the Incarcerated

We want to thank everyone for donating books and toys for the Family Friendly Visiting area upgrades at Illinois state prisons.  We have a very generous church and your efforts will help make these areas and the children’s visits a little warmer.  We continue to work with the Children of the Incarcerated project to lobby the state government to make the lives of children of Illinois prisoners a little better.

 

On Saturday, October 9, the Community Renewal Society held its Annual Membership Assembly at First Baptist Congregational Church in Chicago. The Assembly included a public meeting with the new director of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), Gladyse Taylor, and Michelle Saddler, Gov. Pat Quinn's

chief of staff. Leaders from more than 25 Civic Action Network member congregations came together to call on IDOC to continue and expand its partnership with Community Renewal Society to create change for children of the incarceration, and we won!

 

After hearing moving testimony from grandmothers raising their grandchildren due to parental incarceration; teenagers struggling to forgive, accept and move forward, and church leaders working for change for the 90,000 children in Illinois with an incarcerated parent, Director Taylor committed that IDOC would:

>  Maintain no limit on the number of children who can visit a parent at one time.

>  Ensure that new lockdown procedures accommodate the needs of children who travel long distances to see their parents.

> Expand video visitation to all IDOC facilities and allow CRS to review the proposals for companies providing these services to ensure that they meet the needs of families.

> Transform visitation spaces into family-friendly environments.

>  Move toward contact visits so children can touch and hug their parents.

>  Create family programming prior to parental re-entry.

>  Meet quarterly with CRS and other family advocates to

continue to improve services for families.