Homeless Work Tops UTO U.S. Grant Bids
Episcopal News Service. July 2, 1987 [87139]
NEW YORK (DPS, July 2) -- 276 requests for well over $9 million have flooded the United Thank Offering Office for consideration in 1987. Between now and the end of August, the UTO Committee will analyze, research and, finally, decide which applications will be funded.
"In the United States, far and away the dominant theme is programming related to the homeless," says Marie Rogers, UTO committee chairman. "Church people find their responses to hunger with soup kitchens, to unemployment with training and counseling programs, to homelessness with informal, small programs have led them to greater depth and variety of need related to homelessness. More and more, families are accommodated rather than single persons. More and more, long term plans for permanent housing are promoted." UTO will be able to help a number of groups stabilize and build comprehensive programming as a supplement to initial efforts.
Overseas, the majority of requests continue to be for buildings, because there is no other source that will supply funds for build ings. "The important thing to remember," Willeen Smith, UTO Coordinator at the Episcopal Church Center, points out, "is that the buildings which UTO funds support the extension of mission effort by dioceses and provinces. It may be mission churches in a remote area or diocesan offices in a newly created office or provincial buildings to support partnership decision making among dioceses. A building exhibits commitment to a vital and growing ministry."
The UTO Committee is made up of 13 voting members. It consists of one layperson elected from each of the nine provinces of the Episcopal Church, three members elected by the 1982-85 UTO Committee and one person appointed from Executive Council by the Presiding Bishop. They will meet here in August for the annual granting meeting. In 1986, the Committee distributed $2,615.073.86, of which $2,115,073.86 was for 138 different grants. The 1987 awards will be announced in early September. The first announcement is a complete summary listing of all grants that is mailed to all bishops, UTO diocesan chairmen and diocesan E.C.W. presidents.
The 1988 UTO granting cycle will begin in October 1987, when request forms will first be available. Any diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion and, with the bishop's approval, groups within his diocese may submit a request. In addition, regional, national and international organizations may also apply for grants. 1988 request forms must be completed and mailed no later than January 31, 1988. This date is earlier than in past years to accommodate the earlier date of the General Convention and Triennial Meeting of Women.