Assisting the Community Together (ACT) in Faith is an interfaith ministry that seeks to support our neighbors in need. ACT members respond to those seeking help by assessing the urgency of the situation, being a friend to those in need, and connecting people to available social services. Volunteers listen, coordinate support, and provide financial assistance to supplement the resources of existing services.
How You Can Help:
• Join our ACT Now Network to receive emails about urgent needs.
• Give support by providing items such as home goods, clothing, and school
supplies, or by offering transportation.
• Volunteer to distribute food through our Community Cupboard or a local meal program.
Anti-Human Trafficking Committee works to support victims and survivors of sex and labor trafficking. We partner with local organizations to provide emergency food and personal care items for men, women, and children who are being exploited in situations of modern-day slavery.
How You Can Help:
• Donate household/personal items for Dawn’s Place collections.
• Assist with preparing emergency food bags at Westminster.
Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester County is a nonprofit, Christian organization working to end and prevent homelessness for single mothers and their children within the Lancaster and Chester County communities. Their mission is to find secure permanent housing, stability, and access to community resources for single mothers through professional staff relationships and mentoring friendships from local congregations.
How You Can Help:
• Volunteer to be a family mentor. Usually there are 4–6 mentors/friendships
per family. This mentoring team, usually from the same church
congregation, will act as a surrogate family.
• Donate gift cards to grocery stores, variety stores such as Walmart, gas stations, etc.
Broad Street Ministry (BSM) is a broad-minded faith community in the Christian tradition for the contemporary world, with a commitment to extend radical hospitality and create a spiritual home for all, especially those who feel as if they don’t belong anywhere else. In 2016, BSM served 76,282 meals and expanded their food program to offering seven meals a week. In addition to food services, BSM also provides mail services, therapeutic arts, onsite health care, and clothing.
How You Can Help:
• Volunteer to serve lunch on the 2nd Saturday of the month.
• Volunteer to serve lunch on the 3rd Thursday of the month.
• Volunteer to serve breakfast on the last Monday of the month.
• Donate men’s clothing and shoes.
• Participate in our underwear, backpack, and coat drives.
Chester County Migrant Ministry is a non-profit Christian ministry serving the immigrant community in Chester County and the surrounding area. This ministry shares the love of Jesus by offering assistance with immigration procedures, citizenship classes, a Christmas for Migrants program, and by providing blankets, coats, and health kits. They also distribute food baskets, donated furniture and appliances, and provide various other services. The Migrant Ministry often serves as the last resort for the immigrants who are largely unchurched and among the poorest of the working poor within the community.
How You Can Help:
• Offer your bilingual skills to help translate conversations.
• Work with the Citizenship classes.
• Donate used furniture and appliances (sofas, love seats, end tables, dressers,
single and double bed frames, microwaves, and kitchen appliances).
Choose Welcome and Refugee Resettlement (CWRR) serves a refugee family from the Congo who moved to West Chester in 2016. CWRR helps transport them to various locations, tutors the family in English, and helps them learn basic life skills needed to live in America.
How You Can Help
• Offer your bilingual skills to help translate conversations.
• Volunteer to tutor the children in school or help the family learn finances
or basic life skills.
• Volunteer to drive the family around to appointments, stores and other
locations.
• Work with the Citizenship classes.
• Donate used furniture and appliances (sofas, love seats, end tables,
dressers, single and double bed frames, microwaves, and kitchen
Community Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM) serves all people living or working in Chester County who lack health insurance. CVIM is a health education resource center staffed by doctors, nurses, medical specialists, and dentists, who provide compassionate, culturally competent, and dignified care.
How You Can Help
• Offer your bilingual skills to help translate medical conversations.
Domestic Violence Center of Chester County serves women, men and children who find themselves victims of domestic violence. They offer emergency, transitional, and permanent housing to help clients live without danger of harm. DVCCC supports over 3,000 individuals a year by offering legal assistance, court accompaniments, and safe housing.
How You Can Help
• Donate gift certificates and gift cards.
• Donate new, sealed, over-the-counter medications for adults and children,
such as Advil, Motrin, Tylenol, aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, Immodium, and Tums.
Family Promise is committed to alleviating homelessness in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. They help homeless families and children achieve lasting self-sufficiency and stable housing. Shelter, meals, and comprehensive support services are provided through a network of congregations and volunteers until those in need can find sustainable housing.
How You Can Help
Volunteer during one of our host weeks held four times a year:
Good Works is a faith-based nonprofit organization which exists to improve the living conditions for low-income families in Chester County, PA. Good Works transforms substandard houses into warmer, safer, and drier homes. Their services are offered to homeowners at no cost and volunteers do most of the repairs. Westminster has two teams working on the home improvements the second and third Saturdays of each month.
How You Can Help
• Volunteer to repair homes on the second and third Saturdays of the
Habitat for Humanity (HFH) is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide and to making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action. HFH was founded on the conviction that every man, woman, and child should have a simple, decent place to live in dignity and safety.
How You Can Help
• Volunteer on a construction team.
• Volunteer at Habitat’s ReStore in Coatesville or Kennett Square.
• Donate new furniture, appliances, cabinets, building supplies, and other
Interfaith Housing Alliance creates positive outcomes for Chester County families experiencing the harsh and complex realities of poverty and homelessness. It guides single working parents toward stability and financial independence through a combination of rental assistance, monthly budgeting sessions with professional caseworkers, and various workshops aimed at helping the participants gain further financial, career and practical knowledge.
La Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana de Toughkenamon is a mission church that provides seven-day-a-week ministry to the Spanish-speaking people in Southern Chester County. They also hold a special Saturday School in both Kennett Square and Toughkenamon Presbyterian churches to help instill a love for Jesus in the hearts of the families’ children and youth.
Project ONE is a case management program for HIV-positive individuals in Chester County who need assistance in obtaining medical care, counseling, mental health and/or substance abuse treatment, food and housing. Project One is sponsored by Family Services of Chester County.
Safe Harbor is a shelter for West Chester’s vulnerable. They offer beds to 20 men and 20 women and serve lunch for 30 to 60 people six days a week. In addition, they provide the support, encouragement, and resources to help each person end their homelessness.
How You Can Help
• Serve dinner on the first Saturday of the month.
• Prepare and deliver lunches on the third Monday of the month.
West Chester Food Cupboard is a non-profit organization currently serving well over 600 households every month by providing them with a variety of much needed food and personal-care items. This is a client-choice cupboard that allows clients to select their food and household items.
The West Chester Senior Center enriches the lives of its senior neighbors through friendship, activities, education, and nourishment. The Center offers more than 50 programs to 3,500 seniors in the Borough of West Chester and surrounding townships each year.
Bread for the World acts as a collective Christian voice that urges our nation’s decision-makers to end universal hunger. Bread serves millions of individuals domestically and internationally who are hungry and/or dealing with malnutrition. Each year, Bread helps to make Congress more aware of the hunger problem through WPC personal letters and emails that encourage more compassionate laws for those who struggle with hunger.
How You Can Help:
• Participate in an Offering of Letters campaign at Westminster.
Estado 29 is an orphanage located in Mexico near the city of Ensenada that’s currently home to approximately 50 children, ranging from three months to 18 years in age. By creating a home where love reigns, Estado 29 surrounds these children with the love of God, provides them with a moral upbringing and education, and prepares them for their future as good, productive members of society.
Living Waters for the World (LWW) is a global mission of the PCUSA that fosters long-term, mutually beneficial, relationships between volunteers and communities, as it provides sustainable, clean water in places of need. By using a water treatment system that is simple and affordable, LWW and its trained volunteer teams partner with communities to develop sustainable solutions for providing clean water, allowing the local people to take ownership of their health and well-being.
How You Can Help
• Make a donation directly to LWW.
• Support or pray for the members from Westminster who travel to Honduras
for the training and installation of the water filtration systems.
• Travel to Honduras to help participate in a week long trip building a
Rise Against Hunger is a nonprofit organization working to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable people. Rise Against Hunger operates meal packaging programs, then distributes the meals through feeding programs in developing countries.
How You Can Help
• Participate in a meal-packaging event at Westminster.
• Donate directly to Rise Against Hunger to support their efforts.
Serving at the Crossroads (SATC) built, equipped, and now supports a modern medical and dental facility in La Entrada, Honduras in partnership with Manos Amigas. Striving for long-term sustainability, the clinic is staffed with local health care professionals. SATC augments this effort with brigades of U.S. specialists who treat patients and train local healthcare providers.
How You Can Help
• Volunteer your time to support the ongoing work of SATC.
• Donate directly to SATC to support their efforts.
• Participate in a trip to assist at the clinic in Honduras.
