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Build a Catholic Relief Service Ark of Hope
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) created Ark of Hope as a way to get communities engaged in a fun and creative way. Relating to the hope and promise from the story of Noah’s Ark, the CRS Ark of Hope program allows communities to donate symbolic animals to people in need as they “build an ark.” As communities work towards their goal, they can color in animals and place them on an arc. The materials included with this program are lesson plans, a prayer service, coloring pages, and a bulletin-board Ark to show the progress communities are making towards reaching their goals and building their ark. -
Faith & Food
In June of 2004, the Center for Closing the Health Gap held its first board meeting. Its mission was to eliminate racial and health disparities in the Greater Cincinnati community through education, advocacy, and outreach targeting the African American, Latino, and white Appalachian populations. The vision of the Health Gap was to make Greater Cincinnati a healthier region for all. The Health Alliance was the major funder of the Health Gap along with Mercy Health Partners, TriHealth, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Within a few years, the City of Cincinnati became a funder of the Health Gap, along with other health care organizations helping to fund the grassroots organization.
From 2008-2010, The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati partnered with several neighborhood churches and partners in the Avondale area, outside of Cincinnati to improve access to affordable foods. This led to an eventual partnership with the Food Trust to create lasting change. -
Food and Faith Project
The Baltimore Food and Faith Project works to unite faith communities around issues of food systems in the Maryland area. They work to improve the food crisis at a systematic level, but Jason Jordan-Griffin was personally affected by the work of Baltimore Food and Faith Project. He joined a program called “Food and Faith” when he felt that he was not treating his body as the temple God had given him. The program includes lessons from a nutritionist and faith based perspectives on eating well, not only for one’s self but for one’s community and the world. Jordan-Griffin found that this deeply affected his connection with the faith-based moral and ethical implications of eating. The article below outlines the benefits of uniting mindful eating with faith practices. -
The United Methodist Women: Be Just. Be Green.
Part of the mission for the United Methodist Women organization includes promoting economic and environmental stewardship and sustainability. Their national office has made climate justice one of its four social justice priorities. More specifically, they focus on how climate change impacts people in different ways, depending upon the geographic region where they reside.
The Women’s Carbon Fund is dedicated to carbon issues, focusing on aid to women and children, who make up 70% of the world’s poor according to unitedmethodistwomen.org. They aim to account for gender roles and to incorporate women’s voices because they believe policy makers fail to do so. This organization supports women-led projects that lower CO2 emissions, communities whose lives have been affected by climate change, and climate and energy advocacy initiatives led by women for women.
Their focus on environmental justice stems from their theological belief from the United Methodist Book of Discipline, “All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect (Social Principles, 160).” -
Columbus YMCA Youth Engage in 4-H Urban Gardening Program for Cultural Exchange with Youth in Accra, Ghana
This summer, dozens of Columbus North YMCA youth participated in 4-H urban gardening programs as part of an urban agriculture exchange program with 4-H and YMCA youth from Accra, Ghana. In response, in May of 2017, three Ghanaian youth and an advisor will travel to Columbus to share their urban agriculture experiences at the annual Ohio Future Farmers of America (FFA) conference at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. Please click the link below to read more: -
The Regeneration Project
The Regeneration Project was created as the parent project of Interfaith Power&Light. It is meant to help deepen the connection between ecology and faith and to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation. They do so through educational programs for clergy and congregations -
Office of Social Justice: Climate Witness Project
The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC/CRCNA) has been working for over a year to develop the Climate Witness Project (CWP), which is a campaign designed to walk with congregations as they learn about the realities of climate change. There are advocacy links, resources and action alerts for communities and congregations to learn about what the CWP is doing and engage in related work. So far, over 200 CRC members from 35 congregations in the U.S. and Canada have come together to learn, act, and advocate for a safer and more just world.
The CWP offers their support with coaching and resources when congregations are reaching out to legislators in order to build relationships to help improve climate related policies. The CWP has resources on how to incorporate creation care in worship services, a guide to reduce energy consumption, as well as other resources to combat climate change and help reach the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. -
Stations of the Cross: Climate Change
Stations of the Cross is a project created by artist Mary Button to engage viewers in a greater understanding of social injustices through Jesus’s execution. In 2016, the topic was Climate Change seeking to explore the torments of the Earth and also act as a call to action. The work is comprised of fourteen drawings that illustrate deforestation, desertification, and ocean acidification using hands to tell the story of Passion through gestures. These drawings have been made into a coloring book which can be purchased as a whole or as individual pages. -
Engaged Organization: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America World Hunger is an initiative with domestic and international Lutheran churches to reach communities in need. They recognize the universal human right to food and work to provide immediate relief to those who are hungry. They strive to not only give food, but to connect people with the resources they need to produce food and gain access to clean water, education, health-care and sources of income. -
Engaged Organization: Green For All
Green For All is one of the main initiatives of The Dream Corps. They work to build an inclusive green economy that is strong enough to support people of all economic levels. Their main goal is bring jobs and opportunities to all communities as the clean energy movement grows. It is led by Vien Truong, a policy architect and solutions innovator. -
The Charles Madison Narbit Memorial Garden
The Charles Madison Narbit Memorial Garden website states the purpose for it's creation:
"About the Garden: The Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden
Named 2015 Community Garden of the Year and selected as one of 12 Hub Gardens in Central Ohio by Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, CMNMG@CCAF was created as a living legacy to Charles Madison Nabrit’s commitment to holistic health, self-determination, education and community service.
Our mission is to:
(1) increase affordable access to organic produce;
(2) increase awareness of the spiritual and cultural connections to gardening within black and brown communities;
(3) increase children’s exposure to functional STEM studies; and
(4) increase economic self-sufficiency and sustainability in the garden, in our homes and in our community.
Opened in 2014 in the midst of an urban food desert, CMNMG@CCAF is a 3,850 square foot, organic, biodiverse, self-sustaining space behind a church housing an historic, 105+ year-old, predominantly black congregation, descendents of the African diaspora to the Americas. Our hashtags speak to our spiritual and cultural heritage: #HeStartedUsinaGarden and #WeCameHeretoCultivate." -
2020 Lenten Campaign
In the third year of the three-year (2018-2020), Lenten Campaign themed "Caring for Our Common Home." As a part of the campaign, AOHD (Archdiocesan Office for Human Development) has created resources such as posters, power-points, kit books, action sheets, graphic arts, and other materials that could help more faith organizations host Care for Creation campaigns. -
UNESCO Routes of Dialogue
Throughout history, peoples have exchanged cultural experience, ideas, values and goods through art, trade and migrations.
Human history is the tale of such journeys. As we cross into the twenty-first century, we too have embarked on a journey – whose destination holds out the promise of justice, well-being and a peaceful existence for all.
These encounters, in which individual travellers or communities have conveyed their ideas and customs across whole continents and oceans, are celebrated in a series of UNESCO projects. -
The Common Orchard Project (Incubated by Green Umbrella)
The Common Orchard Project works to install and maintain hundreds of small orchard plantings across Greater Cincinnati and grows “commonly held” resources by educating communities on fresh food and urban land management. These common orchards provide increased food access, tree canopy, walkable greenspace and community building in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment. Founded in 2017 by Chris Smyth, the effort has planted 12 orchards across Cincinnati and two in Cleveland, with plans to install 50 more by 2024.
In 2021, The Common Orchard Project was been adopted by Green Umbrella as an "accelerator project." Chris Smyth continues to serve as the director of the project as it incubates within Green Umbrella and will plant more orchards each year thanks to Giving Grove’s support. Learn more about the project at www.commonorchard.com. -
The Giving Grove
The mission of the Giving Grove is to provide healthy calories, strengthen community and improve the urban environment through a nationwide network of sustainable little orchards to dramatically increase access to healthy food.
The Giving Grove envisions:
- thousands of little orchards in food insecure urban neighborhoods across the nation;
- a system of local food production that feeds people for decades;
- a national network of neighborhood stewards trained in holistic methods for growing fruit; and
- urban neighborhoods transformed by their own work and generosity. -
Faith Communities Environmental Network (FCEN)
We are a community of diverse faith traditions networking together to advance the environment & Eco-justice through:
- Advocating for environmental and climate action including racial, economic and social justice in all of our work
- Learning together and sharing best practices
- Building a diverse community that inspires hope and action to protect the interdependent web of life -
The Greening of the Federated Church of Orleans
The church began in 1646 – That year Pilgrim families from Plymouth Colony moved across the Bay to settle on Cape Cod, and some of the group ended up in today’s Orleans. They quickly established regular patterns of worship and fellowship, and eventually, in 1718, they built their meetinghouse on the site of today’s church – next to the cemetery, on the road to Nauset Beach.
August 2016 – The church started a new green journey. Federated Church's 10-person Care for Creation Team (aka C4C) began its work. It soon adopted the UCC “Green Congregation Challenge.” Ten months later the church had completed enough environmental-friendly steps in the Challenge’s Level One to be recognized by the UCC Mass. Conference's annual gathering as a “Green Congregation.”
Now (March 2018) – We anticipate completing enough additional steps to be recognized in June as a Level Two “Green Congregation.” We hope to complete Level Three next year! -
Deeptime Journey Network
DTN’s mission is to orient humanity to an evolving interconnected universe as expressed in our vision. We bring together science, ancient wisdom and the arts inside community to share learning, global conversation, celebration, and action. The significance and profound power of a deeptime perspective — when shared in community — inspires, guides and motivates us to create a flourishing future.
DTN is a project of The Deep Time Journey Network, a 501(c)(3) non-profit in Princeton New Jersey, founded to build a global community, offer courses, and share resources. It’s a vision of community in which everyone is source and where connecting and collaborating mirrors the way the universe itself evolves through new partnerships. -
The Story of Stuff Project
The Story of Stuff Project is:
Community-Minded
Our global, online Community of over 1 million Changemakers includes parents, community leaders, teachers and students, people of faith, entrepreneurs, scientists and others interested in creating a more healthy and just world. The interests and needs of our Community members deeply informs our work, and your passion and support enable our small team to have an outsized impact.
Solutions-Focused
We know all about the problems — from climate change to income inequality to political corruption. Our movies and other media focus instead on the big, exciting innovations driving the environmental and social change we need, as well as the little things individuals and communities can do to make a difference. We call it ‘Growing Solutions’.
Action-Oriented
We believe that dramatically increasing civic participation — not just refining our consumer choices — is the key to unlocking the profound challenges we face. Our four-week Citizen Muscle Boot Camp program equips participants with the basic skills they need to organize and lead a local project. And our campaigns provide diverse, engaging opportunities for our Community members to get involved, from the global level down to where they live and work. -
IRI Colombia continues far-reaching communications campaign to grow awareness on the importance of tropical forests
IRI Colombia continued its communications campaign to raise awareness about its mission and expand engagement in the 36 local chapters where IRI has a presence. IRI Colombia radio spots (which will run through the end of 2021) are being broadcast seven days a week on the country’s leading radio networks and will reach over 250,000 people. Listen to the radio spots in Spanish here.
IRI Colombia has also commissioned 10 billboards in strategic locations with messages like “Forest = water and oxygen” and “Plant a tree” to increase awareness about the importance of protecting and restoring tropical forests. The 36 IRI Colombia local chapters continue implementing their 2021 action plans, which include activities such as reforesting watersheds and springs, cleaning up riverbanks, and establishing tree nurseries. -
Cincy MultiFaith Calendar
The Cincy MultiFaith Calendar empowers multi-faith learning and experiences through sharing traditions celebrated by different faiths with the wider public.
"This project was inspired by the inaugural Cincinnati Festival of Faiths held on June 24th, 2018, on the campus of Xavier University. That amazing event, which attracted 25 faith communities representing 13 world religions, was the most inclusive gathering of faith traditions ever assembled in the region’s history. Within days of that historic event, ideas for more multi-faith learning and experiences emerged, among them the idea of producing a multi-faith calendar. The purpose and hope of the calendar are that people of different faith traditions, or without a faith tradition, might learn more about one another. We all hold the hope that we could create a tool to help open the eyes of young people who could understand one another and break down those silos that segregate our world."