Program areas at Servant Partners
Servant Partners conducted community development and relief projects in California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as well as in a number of foreign countries.Spiritual Discipleship and Church Planting: Servant Partners seeks to establish churches that flow from the organic life of the local Christian community and to build relationships that develop life-long followers of Jesus. All of the sites have home churches and/or small discipleship groups where people can grow in faith, find encouragement, and intercede for each other. Develop Leaders and Organize Communities: Servant Partners values community engagement. At several sites, it provided local leader and community organizing training, including conflict resolution, mentoring, and counseling. At one of the locations, this included 175 community members. In the domestic sites, several local leaders focused on engaging local officials to improve housing conditions in their communities. Engaging Families and Communities in Lifelong Learning: Youth programs play a key role in healthy communities. Almost all of the Servant Partner sites have programs devoted to youth and their well being. Programs include tutoring, sports, arts, and summer enrichment programs. These programs range in size from 20 to 200 youth, depending on the community. Parenting programs often accompany the youth programs, and include parenting skills, budgeting, housing, employment, and identifying misinformation. The majority of the overseas locations offer language learning opportunities, with English being the primary language, but one site also offers Spanish.Promoting Health: In 2022, several sites worldwide partnered with local agencies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. One site distributed covid tests, another became a vaccination site, and several locations distributed food relief to over 120 families in need. Other health efforts include teaching about hygiene and healthy living habits, providing mental health and wellness workshops, providing counseling and psychological support, and both proving and teaching about inner healing prayer. These efforts touched hundreds of people worldwide. Promoting Economic Growth: Servant Partners seeks to build economic sufficiency in the communities it serves. Language learning in foreign countries plays a role in these efforts, with approximately 300 people benefiting. Other efforts include offering business skills courses, computer skills classes, business plan development assistance, business budgeting, finding small loan programs and working with community members as they apply for, receive. and repay their loans. One of the domestic sites offers welding and CAD classes that lead to industry certifications, including a training specifically for Women in Non-Traditional Careers. Promoting Beauty and Creativity: Efforts for promoting beauty and creativity include local community gardens, tree planting efforts, cultural events, general art and painting classes, and providing maker spaces where community members can come, use provided supplies, and create. Organization Development: Rebuilding organizational integration was a focus in 2022. Servant Partners conducted six regional gatherings that allowed staff to gather for the purpose of training, fellowship, sharing ideas, and reconnecting. The organization also continued to provide additional remote and in-person training opportunities, fund development support, intercession and spiritual mentorship, and administrative support to all staff.