ATLANTA – The Andrew P. Stewart Center and Touching Miami with Love received grants this year from the Venture Ministries Fund for Youth Camping Scholarship, which supports organizations that work with inner city youth.
Originally established by Dunwoody Baptist Church in Atlanta, the fund has been administered since 1999 by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Foundation. The fund is a $150,000 endowment, a permanent fund invested to provide ongoing financial support for vital ministries. Grants from the fund are designated primarily for work with inner city youth in Atlanta, but provides support to organizations beyond Atlanta when funds are available.
The Stewart Center, located in Atlanta, received a Venture Ministries grant for the third consecutive year. The Center, which serves the Reynoldstown community, offers after- school activities and an eight-week summer camp.
"The Venture Grant allowed us to provide high quality all day programming to children and families who would not have been able to afford it otherwise," said Brittany Mackey, Stewart Center director. "We were also able to offer a community-wide block party for the residents of our neighborhood. In short, the money allows us to continue to teach children and teens about a God who loves them just as they are."
In the Overtown neighborhood in Miami, Touching Miami with Love (TML) serves one of the poorest communities in the state of Florida. TML offers six weeks of summer camps at two sites, providing at-risk children with creative and recreational opportunities, field trips and bible study. Each summer the TML camps serve approximately 120 children.
"It was an honor to receive funding from the Venture Ministries Fund for Youth Camping," said Jason Pittman, the director of TML and one of CBF’s field personnel. "This summer we were able to expand our camp to a second location and add two additional weeks due to this funding and the partnership with the 12 churches that came to Miami to help lead the camps. As we work together in God’s kingdom, we are able to share the love of Christ with some of the neediest children in Florida."
The CBF Foundation began in 1994 and exists to raise and manage endowment funds for CBF strategic initiatives and CBF partner organizations and churches. Two components exist to the Foundation, raising endowments and offering endowment management and promotional services for all ministries of CBF and its partners.
"This endowment is a beautiful example of how the CBF Foundation can serve churches in managing funds to accomplish ministry beyond their own local work," said CBF Foundation president Don Durham.
For more information on the CBF Foundation, go to www.cbff.org or call (800) 352-8741. To learn more about the Venture Ministries grants, contact Laura Cadena at lcadena@thefellowship.info.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.