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Plymouth Outreach
Volunteer Opportunities

Heading Home Plymouth (HHP)
Advocacy to End Homelessness
Sign up to receive action alerts on legislative updates via email from the HHP Leadership Team. Check out past and current action alerts and links to organizations working on these important issues.

Saturday, May 10, 1-4 p.m. World Of Whittier Community Celebration promoting peace. Plymouth will host the very popular cake walk. We need volunteers who want to have fun with kids for a few hours in the park at 26th St. and Grand Ave. So. Fair flier   Small poster

Saturday, May 17, 7:30 p.m.: Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a benefit for the Groveland Emergency Food Shelf at St. Mark’s Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove St., Minneapolis. For more info: 612/870-7800. $10 from each ticket will be donated.

Sunday morning, May 18, we'll be honoring those who have participated in one or more of the 15 working groups of Outreach. Names will be listed in the church bulletin and we'll have a flower to pin on volunteers. Thank you for participating in this aspect of our congregation’s life together!

Sunday, May 18, following worship in the Lenmark Dining Room. Join in conversation on the Sustainability Statement that Caring For Creation and the Board of Outreach are presenting for the congregation to consider. More on Caring for Creation.

May 18, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Third Sunday Meal Sign up for a summer date as a family!
Plymouth hosts the third Sunday of each month and needs 25 volunteers to serve approximately 300 guests in our dining room. Sign up for a future date with Kim Lutes at kikrlu@aol.com. You’ll make the day for a family in need of a smile and some warm food.

Summer dates set for Habitat for Humanity: July 7-11 to make minor repairs on an existing home in Minneapolis (possibly painting). September 8-12 to work on new construction at corner of 13th and Como Ave. All skill levels needed. There are opportunities to provide snacks or the noon meal for workers as well. Contact: conniem@plymouth.org or jwcole1536W@aol.com    Read more

July, August and September: A small, weekly farmer's market in Plymouth's parking lot, Wednesdays 4-7 p.m. Watch for details.

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Connecting Beyond the Walls of Plymouth

Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches In-Depth Mentor Training to help ex-offenders returning to the community: Saturday, May 17,
8:45 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Flier

Posted April 27, 2008
(From Deborah Schlick, Executive Director, Affirmative Options Coalition. 651/292-1568)
How deep will the cuts
to low income Minnesotans be?
The Governor announced Thursday that he will only reduce his proposals for drawing down the Health Care Access fund if the legislature agrees to cut another $125 million out of health and human services spending for low income Minnesotans.  This would be on top of $81 million in cuts proposed by the House or $165 million proposed by the Senate. (The Health Care Access fund is money raised specifically to fund health care coverage for low income working Minnesotans.)

The Governor would focus his cuts on taking General Assistance Medical Care from some low income Minnesotans, as well as unspecified eligibility and benefit cuts to Medical Assistance and “other human services programs”.  The Governor also said in a memo outlining his concerns about the legislative budget proposals that he does not support proposals to increase work supports in MFIP – work supports that would cost less than 10% of the welfare-to-work reserve funds.  The work supports he objects to are the ones Affirmative Options is working to advance this session: continuing the funding of “steppig stone jobs” (paid supported work experience), funding community programs to help repair and replace cars, and repealing the benefits freeze to MFIP families with new babies.  The Governor’s budget would spend 100% of those reserves on filling holes in the state’s general fund budget and none on work supports – despite the weakening labor market and growing unemployment.

The legislature responded today to the Governor with an offer saying legislators will consider an additional $40 million in cuts in the overall budget – without saying where.  The offer also said that the legislative leadership is still intent on using the health care access fund to support health care reform and coverage – not to fill holes in the budget.  The current House and Senate budgets already refinance most of the TANF to solve budget problems.

Affirmative Options continue to advocate that a weak labor market is the time to deploy not deplete funds – like the welfare-to-work reserve, the Workforce Development and Minnesota Job Skills Partnership funds – that are intended to help Minnesotans get and keep work.  Spending 90% of the welfare-to-work reserve funds on budget holes created by tax shortfalls and less than 10% of those reserve funds on work supports hardly seems an unreasonable course of action.

For more on the state budget link to the Minnesota Budget Project blog at http://minnesotabudgetbites.org.  It is a wealth of frequently updated information on what is going on in the budget negotiations – in short, easy-to-understand postings that always keep the focus on the impact to low income Minnesotans.

Plymouth's Outreach Working Groups

Connie Marty
Plymouth Congregational Church
Outreach Volunteer Coordinator
1900 Nicollet Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403-3789
612-977-1284

 

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Lydia’s closet always in need

It’s always exciting to move into a new space. It’s also expensive … especially if you’re moving out of homelessness into an apartment like those at Lydia Apartments. You could go to Target, Wal-Mart or Macy’s for your household items, but if you’re moving into Lydia, you probably can’t afford those stores.

That’s why Lydia’s Closet was established; it offers one-stop "shopping" for all new tenants and also allows long-term tenants to re-supply when they need to. There’s always someone moving out and someone moving into the 40 efficiency apartments, so the demand remains steady. Lydia’s Closet is one of the supportive features that helps the tenants begin their new lives.

Like most of us, Lydia tenants appreciate new or like-new goods, not those which have been worn out or don’t work so well. So please help to fill up Lydia’s Closet with your donations of new or used goods, which you can drop at Plymouth on Sundays, May 4-18.

Household goods that are always in demand include:

• Linens: new twin sheet sets, new pillows, almost-new blankets and bedspreads, almost-new or new towel sets.
• Kitchen items: pots and pans, toasters, coffeemakers, dinnerware.
• Household items: table lamps, working TVs, DVD and CD players, area rugs.

Please don’t donate coffee mugs. We all have too many of those. Also, the Closet doesn’t accept clothing, only household items.

Look for the drop-off tables in Jones Commons.

–Marcia Giske