The Charitable Choice Handbook

First Quarter 2002

by Amy L. Sherman

While President Bush was urging Congress in December to complete action quickly on his Faith-Based Initiative, many states and faith-based organizations were not waiting for Washington to act. Many have been moving to implement and benefit from Charitable Choice provisions already in the law since 1996. For that purpose, hundreds of faith-based service organizations across the country are using Amy Sherman's The Charitable Choice Handbook for Ministry Leaders, published last year. The handbook is a product of a Center for Public Justice project funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation. To download the handbook and to find other information on the implementation of Charitable Choice, go to the Faith-Based Initiative section.  Interspersed through the handbook are stories of actual collaborations between government and faith-based organizations to serve the poor. Three of those stories are excerpted below.—Ed.

The Middleton Outreach Ministry of Dane County, Wisconsin offers a variety of support services for the community's homeless and low-income families. Its Neighbor-to-Neighbor initiative matches well-trained church mentors with struggling individuals and families. Director Dietrich Gruen reports that last year the ministry received $15,000 from the Dane County Human Services Department to underwrite this program, which served 25 families and involved a consortium of ten churches. The program has been granted a $20,000 contract for 2001 and ministry leaders have already begun training 44 additional mentors. (The mentors go through the rigorous 20-week "Stephen Minister" training curriculum now utilized in many Protestant churches around the country.)

According to Dan Kittle of the Dane County DHS, the County has been impressed with the ability of local faith-based organizations like the Middleton Outreach Ministry to provide services the County wants—such as help for the homeless—at a low cost. The Ministry is not only a good neighbor to homeless people and single moms in the community, but also to several County employees. The Ministry shares its office space with staff from four other County-funded social service programs. The informal friendships developing between ministry staff and County workers is further strengthening the government-faith partnership. The Ministry receives a modest stipend of $150/month from the Country to cover office and cleaning supplies.

Shasta County FaithWORKS! initiative is a major example of collaboration between the faith community and government in California. FaithWORKS! won a $125,000 contract in 1998 to match TANF families [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—the federal government's welfare program] with mentors from the faith community who could provide emotional support and coaching. The ministry currently holds a $227,000 contract with the Department of Social Services to provide mentoring to an even larger number of individuals (they served 576 people in 2000).

Almost all the mentoring volunteers are drawn from the faith community. Some mentors focus on job readiness issues, others on job retention issues, depending on the client's needs. The ministry also offers a "drop-in" center where clients can stop by for a chat with staff. The program has become so highly regarded that other government agencies and secular social service organizations refer clients to FaithWORKS! for help. Executive Director Mike Evans reports that there have been no church-state problems. "Really, we are seen as a sort of 'Chaplain' to the social services community now," he says.

Mission Waco's "M-Powerment" initiative involves two contracts totaling over $300,000 between the ministry and the Texas Workforce Commission. Mission Waco's first collaboration with government came in 1998, when it received a small contract for just under $14,000 to work in a pilot mentoring and job training program with 25 TANF families. Its high success rates positioned the ministry to significant1y expand its community outreach. Today through the "M-Powerment" initiative, over 150 families are being served by staff and church volunteers. The program has a dual focus: "workplace literacy" (life skills, computer training, GED, etc.) and job retention efforts. Part of the contract funds are used to employ a Volunteer Coordinator who mobilizes volunteers from the faith community to assist in the program.

[Dr. Amy Sherman is Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute's Welfare Policy Center, where she directs the Faith in Communities project. She is also the founder of the Charlottesville (Virginia) Abundant Life Ministries.]