By Heather Melton, UTO Staff Officer

Nov. 15, 1 p.m. Eastern Time
Register here

Save the date now for our annual webinar featuring grant recipients in conversation with one another and the work our 2023 grant recipients are engaged with around the worldwide incarceration crisis focus from Matthew 25. This year we will hear from four grant sites:

Cypress House Bakery: Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. (Cypress House at St. Luke’s will open a bakery and offer employment to previously incarcerated individuals, with a special concern to hire individuals who identify as Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, or of another marginalized identity. Apprentices will learn marketable skills in the baking industry via a baking methods/skills development curriculum.)

St. Leonard’s Ministries and St. Andrew’s Church: Community Gathering Space, Chicago, Illinois, in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. (This project will renovate Saint Andrew’s Church, on St. Leonard’s Ministries campus, to create a new community space for returning citizens. It will host residents, alumni, community partners, and faith leaders, and together share what it means to welcome returning citizens back into community with needed support, dignity, acceptance, and kindness.)

Well Time 2.0: Empowering Reentry, Des Moines, Iowa, in the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. (Well Time 2.0: Empowering Reentry will recruit/prepare volunteers from churches to provide faith-based support to women recently released from prison through weekly group meetings at the Waterloo Women’s Center for Change and through individual reentry teams for women to offer compassionate guidance to overcome personal, societal, and economic barriers.)

Diocesan Justice Liaison Project, Tulsa, in the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma. (Oklahoma leads the nation in incarcerating mothers and fathers. New Hope at Trinity serves vulnerable children of prisoners, and the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma delivers many prison-based programs. A diocesan justice liaison will serve as an effective bridge between programs, encourage additional and new participation, and provide additional support unique to a social worker.)

Join to learn more about how Episcopal congregations and ministries are showing up and being the face of Christ in their communities while supporting returning citizens, families of incarcerated people, and more. We hope to see you at this wonderful webinar, where we can be inspired by the amazing things the church is doing and give thanks for the amazing work our thank offerings are funding.