Journey of Faith​ Christian Church

The West Willow Health and Wellness Initiative is a free community-based program designed to improve the health and wellness outcomes of older adults in the West Willow neighborhood (Ypsilanti, MI 48198). The goal is to increase access to care; expand the use of clinical services, and help strengthen the community’s capacity to address factors that impact older adults’ health and wellbeing.

Specifically, the program will raise awareness and expand efforts to increase prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and management strategies, particularly involving chronic diseases and serious injuries.

Mission Area: Older Adult Ministries

Grant Amount: $10,000

Over the past two years, Journey of Faith Christian Church has cultivated relationships with community members, ecumenical communities, and social services agencies throughout Washtenaw County, Michigan, to establish a network of resources to support seniors. Most of this foundational work has been accomplished by a few dedicated individuals. The grant funding from NBA will increase their impact by creating a formalized program, Senior Connections, to improve the wellbeing of older adults throughout Washtenaw County. Each partnering faith community will choose a ‘Community Champion’ to be trained on the particular needs of seniors in their respective communities and the specific resources available to address them. These trained Champions will be equipped to build better linkages between their congregation and its senior members, the congregation’s senior neighbors, and the myriad of resources for older adults that already exist in the county.

Concurrently, Journey of Faith Christian Church will train community members both within and outside its congregation to serve as ‘Friendly Visitors’ to visit with one or more seniors, once a week, to provide companionship. This training will include teaching on active listening, “how to help, not harm,” and a condensed version of the resource training that the Community Champions receive. These Friendly Visitors will meet once a month to share stories, struggles, and support with the supervision of a trained facilitator. The long-term goal of this project is to build and support more volunteer cohorts from various supporting congregations. The Senior Connections project team will curate a program resource catalog, including an online database, website, and regular information/learning sessions. While Journey of Faith recognizes that there are many people doing a lot of good work, their project is about considering ways that a more integrated system might improve seniors’ well-being.

Mission Area: Older Adults

Innovation Grant: US $10,000

Community-based health and wellness program for seniors addressing health inequities and improving access to care.

Older Adults · Innovation Grant, $9,000

This project is done in partnership with other local churches and community members to provide resources to the underserved in their area. This includes help with homelessness, food insecurity and education support for youth.

Mission Area: Intergenerational

Grant Amount: $5,000