Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ

Local Evangelism, Envisioning and Planting

 Strengthen the Church Fund

Ministry with Youth and Young Adults

Funding Criteria

Grant requests should originate from one of the following groups:

·    A youth or young adult group/ministry of a local church.

·    A partnering of congregational youth groups and young adults for a project designed to strengthen and foster racial/ethnic diversity.

·    A partnering of two or more church youth and/or young adult group seeking to minister within a particular Association and/or across associations.

·    An Association or Association Cluster of churches partnering with youth and young adults to do ministry.

·    A youth and/or young adult group seeking to increase leadership participation at Conference, General Synod and other wider church gatherings.

 Beneficiary

The beneficiary of the project must be youth and/or young adults and must have youth and young adults engaged in the planning, implementing and managing of the project.

Funding Cycle and grant amount

Projects will be funded for one year with an option for a second year. An application is required for each year of funding.  A second year request will be considered based on a first year detailed progress report, showing that the projects originally established goals are being reached. The grant amount shall be up to $3,000 over a twelve (12) month period.

Use of the grant, budgeting and mentoring

The STC grants encourage program development, material resources, and project staff support. As such, a budget with these line-items must be submitted with the grant application.  STC grants are not designed to be the sole funding source.  The application must show the partnering organization and the level of support they will provide either monetarily or with in-kind donations (i.e. facilities, utilities, pastor's time, etc.)  

During the 12-month project funded period, representatives of the recipient ministry are required to attend a LEEAP organized event for training and mentoring and to share with other LEEAP funded projects ideas and support in their endeavors.

Reporting

Each approved project should submit a mid-term and an end of the project report answering the following questions:

·    What did you learn?

·    What surprised you?

·    What would you do different?

·    What would you suggest to others in a similar situation?

Deadline

The deadline for applications is March 1, 2008.