Welcome to Partnerships & Service: Outreach and Volunteer Opportunities

Plymouth members are committed to serving others and particularly people whose needs are greater than their own. Local volunteer opportunities abound. Every week the bulletin includes invitations and information encouraging members to get involved.

Plymouth gives an additional $60,000 to community organizations in 2009:  Thanks to an unexpected surplus at the end of 2008, Plymouth Church was able to help 11 community organizations and programs in addition to the 16 already funded.  Click here to read the P&S report detailing how the money was distributed. 

OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE FINANCIAL SUPPORT	OPPORTUNITIES TO VOLUNTEER
Plymouth's Five-for-Five UCC Special Offerings One Great Hour of Sharing Offering, usually received during Lent, is a UCC Special Offering that addresses international needs and global disasters Strengthen the Church Offering is usually received May - July. This offering is dedicated to starting new churches, providing money to renew existing congregations and helping to fund ordained leadership as congregations begin to form and grow. It also funds programs for youth and young adults, addresses international needs and global disasters. Neighbors In Need Offering ic received usually on World Communion Sunday in October. It is for national concerns - funds the American Indian Ministries, Appalachian ministries, health needs for the poor, women's projects, etc. The Hunger Offering, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, is collected for hunger needs: Money is divided between local hunger needs (80%) and the UCC Hunger Action (20% of the offering). The Christmas Fund Offering is received the Sunday before Christmas. Two-thirds goes to Veterans of the Cross (financial assistance for retired pastors) and 1/3 goes to the Zelma George Shelter (for homeless women & children).	Buckeye Woodland Schools www.cmsdnet.net/schools/schoolbuildings/buckeye.htm Buckeye-Woodland School is Plymouth's adopted inner-city elementary school located a couple of miles west of the Church. Volunteers are needed as tutors, Science Fair judges, and Career Day speakers, and for special Saturday academic events and fairs, and reading projects. Call the church office to get more information.  Other opportunities to help Buckeye-Woodland: The Peg Gray Book Fund Offering is collected during the whole month of February. The recipients are the children at our adopted school, Buckeye-Woodland Elementary School. The money collected is given to the RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) Distribution Program which provides books to the students. Backpacks with School Supplies. Summer Collection of 60 (our goal) new back packs filled with school supplies to be given to the children at Buckeye-Woodland School (Plymouth's Adopted School) each September. Click here for list of School supplies needed:  Shopping List Interfaith Hospitality Network www.ihncleveland.org Through participation in IHN, Plymouth reaches out to homeless families. Approximatelythree times a year, Plymouth provides shelter, meals, and hospitality to families for one week at a time. About 80 volunteers are needed each time we host to prepare meals, play with children, spend the night, make breakfast, set-up and take-down the cots and supplies, etc. Other Partner Organizations Plymouth Church supports many local, national and international organizations.  We invite you to learn more about those organizations and ways to support them financially or through volunteer work by clicking on the links below:    AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland www.aidstaskforce.org   Botanical Garden Green Corps  www.cbgarden.org/green_corps.html     Care Alliance  www.carealliance.org   Chicago Theological Seminary  www.ctschicago.edu   Cleveland Foodbank  www.clevelandfoodbank.org   Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) www.e4s.org   Interact Cleveland  www.interactcleveland.org   Merrick House  www.nhlink.net/ClevelandNeighborhoods/tremont/merrick/merrick.htm   Metro Youth Outreach  www.lgcsc.org   New Life Community  www.newlifecomm.org   Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH)  www.neoch.org   Senior Outreach Services (S.O.S.)  www.soscleveland.org   Shaker Square Area Development Corp  www.shakersquareareadevelopment.org   Shaker Hunger Center – Shaker Community Church  216-561-8358
Other Special Offerings The Christmas Eve Offering is collected at the candlelight service on Christmas Eve and is donated to an organization identified by the Partnerships & Service Department.  Recipient organizations have included Senior Outreach Services and The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland.	Other Opportunities Meals. Prepare and/or deliver a meal to someone in need in our congregation. Contact BethKarr@aol.com for more information. The Flower Delivery Teams deliver a bouquet to our homebound of hospitalized members. There are four rotating teams, so you would deliver only once a month, and at the holidays.  Contact discoverqz@sbcglobal.net for more information. Memorial Reception Committee plans and facilitates the reception following Memorial Services. Feed Our Neighbors. To respond to people who come to the church in need of food, the Caring Department facilitates a "Feed Our Neighbors" program at Plymouth Church. To help you can either purchase a grocery store gift card or a bag of groceries or make a donation earmarked "Feed Our Neighbors." Prayer Shawl Ministry create tangible bonds with people in need of support and healing, solace and love by knitting prayer wraps/shawls that surround each recipient in prayers, knitted with each stitch. The wraps are blessed and given as a source of comfort to the recipient.  No special knitting skills are needed.    Pageant Gifts - Congregants bring unwrapped hats, gloves, scarves, mittens, etc to the Christmas Pageant. The past few years, these were given to the children in Head Start. Alternative Giving Market, December, after worship, held in Fellowship Hall. Heifer Gift Cards are sold. Congregants can purchase shares of chickens, goats, pigs, cows and other animals. These proceeds go to support families throughout the world. SERRV Handicraft products are sold for three Sundays in December in Fellowship Hall following worship. This program promotes the social and economic progress in the developing regions by purchasing and marketing their crafts in a just and direct manner.