OUTREACH

The Outreach Program offers financial support as well as many hours of service by parishioners to organizations and individuals in our community and beyond.  Non-profit organizations apply for Good Shepherd Outreach grants in early March, and funds are generally disbursed in the late spring.  To assist with the evaluation, there were visits to the organizations and presentations to the committee.  Over $300,000 was given to qualified organizations in the areas of education, healthcare, environmental education, and basic needs.  Some of our Outreach recipients are listed below with their websites.

The 2024 grant cycle will open on March 1 and applications will be due April 1.
​The application will be available here on website once available; and will also be emailed to those who have received grants from us in the past as well as organizations that have asked to be included in the 2024 grant cycle.

If you would like to be included in the upcoming application process please email Ellen and ask to be included in the 2024 Grant Application process.

give a donation to help support the outreach grant program

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Outreach Organizations

Community Organizations

AWAKE
AWAKE is a nonprofit that coordinates and advocates services for abused children in Jackson County.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Their mission is to transform children’s lives through mentoring and supportive services.

Boys & Girls Club of the Plateau
Their mission is to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.
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Cashiers Historical Society
The 1920s Cashiers Historical Society is dedicated to preserving the identity of Cashiers through recognition of its history in publications, awards and projects.
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Center for Domestic Peace (REACH)
Their mission is to eradicate Domestic Violence in our community through prevention, intervention, and education.

Community Table
Their mission is to provide nutritious meals to our neighbors in need in a welcoming environment.

Fishes and Loaves
Their mission is to provide free food to people in Jackson County who fall below the poverty line based on family size and monthly income and, thus, to help alleviate hunger in our area.
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Friends of the Library (Cashiers Albert Carlton Library)
Their mission is to ensure our Library has the resources necessary to meet the needs of our community in every way

HERE (Housing Equity Resources & Education)
(Housing Equity Resources & Education) Their mission is to end homelessness throughout Jackson County by providing temporary emergency shelter, housing focused case management services, and short term assistance

Highlands/Cashiers Land Trust
Their mission is to protect valuable land resources, for all generations, that are home to the greatest number of rare and endemic plants and animals.

HIGHTS (Helping Inspire Gifts of Hope, Trust, and Service)
(Helping Inspire Gifts of Hope, Trust, and Service) They are dedicated to improving our community by serving youth, youth organizations and families.

Jackson Neighbors in Need
Their mission is to ensure that all local residents have access to adequate warmth, by bringing together community partners and friends to provide an emergency shelter, heating assistance, and weatherization programs

​International Friendship Center
Their mission is to provide families in crisis, businesses, and local workers with educational, medical, legal and other resources.

​Life Challenge of WNC
They are a Christian program which serves as a residential center for those seeking assistance in overcoming addiction. They help women renew and transform their lives from the pain and destruction of their past through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Literacy Council
They focus their efforts to support and promote literacy throughout the population of the community of Cashiers, NC, from birth through adulthood.

Ministry of Hope
Their mission is to provide pastoral care and spiritual guidance to the inmates of the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women

Pisgah Legal Services
They are a nonprofit that provides free civil legal aid to the most vulnerable people in WNC: disadvantaged children, seniors, at risk families & domestic violence victims.

SAFE
(Shelter Available for Family Emergencies). Their mission is to support the victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse in the community who are in need of physical, emotional and mental care.
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​United Christian Ministries
They are a locally supported non-profit organization that ministers to the needs of North Carolina residents living in Jackson County by providing a client-choice food pantry, financial assistance for critical bills such as overdue rent and utilities, and personal care items for all ages.

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The Village Green
The founders of The Village Green envisioned a very special park in the heart of the Cashiers community that would serve to create community by bringing local residents and visitors together.

Haven of Transylvania County
Their mission is to assist homeless individuals and families in crisis in Transylvania County by providing safe, temporary refuge in a clean, comfortable shelter

Friends of Panthertown
The mission of Friends of Panthertown is to work in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to conserve Panthertown as a backcountry natural resource and to enable sustainable recreation
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Muddy Sneakers
Their mission is to bring an experiential format to teaching fifth-grade science curriculum at participating public schools across Western and Piedmont regions of North Carolina

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Education Organizations

The Bascom
The Bascom creates visual art experiences that inspire and empower individuals and communities through seeing, thinking, and doing​

​Cashiers Valley Pre-school
Their mission is to provide help to preschool children to develop appropriate social, emotional, physical, and cognitive skills in a safe, caring and loving environment

The Hampton Pre-School and Early Learning Center
The mission of Hampton Preschool and Early Learning Center is and has always been to create a rich and challenging emergent curriculum that cultivates life-long learning in a safe, healthy, and caring environment and that respects the uniqueness of each child.

​Blue Ridge School Educational Foundation
Their mission to provide supplemental educational funding to Blue Ridge School and Early College (Pre-K through 12) with an optional 13th year for advanced college credits.​

Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM)
Their mission is to provide opportunities for students, grade 3-12 in the Blue Ridge Area to learn to play a multitude of different musical instruments.
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Summit Charter School
The Summit Community engages students in learning experiences that stimulate discovery, inspire excellence, and nurture a positive influence in an ever-changing world.

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Healthcare Organizations

Blue Ridge Mountain Health Project (Dental Clinic)
This project supports the Blue Ridge Free Dental Clinic who delivers high-quality dental care to people who cannot otherwise afford these critically needed dental services.

Community Care Clinic
Their mission is to provide access to basic healthcare for those in need living in the Cashiers, Highlands and surrounding communities.

Vecinos
They improve the wellness of farmworkers and their families with health care, education, community partnerships, and advocacy​.

Blue Ridge Health-Good Samaritan
The mission of the Good Samaritan Clinic is to provide healthcare to adults with limited income, who are ineligible for Medicaid, and have no health insurance.  

Hospice House Foundation of WNC
Their mission is to provide patients and their families/caregivers a home like atmosphere combined with compassionate, professional, dignified care at end of life.

Four Seasons Compassion for Life
​They serve Western North Carolina with trusted hospice and palliative care since 1979.
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Glenville-Cashiers Rescue
They provide emergency rescue services for southern Jackson County.

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Mission: Provide leadership, direction and voice to the Outreach calling of Good Shepherd. How?

1. Manage the funds raised by the Bazaar to help those in need. Make recommendation to the Vestry.
2. Canvas local agencies to determine how we can help. Be aware of needs within the community.
3. Evaluate and prioritize needs.  Be diligent and good stewards.
4. Collaborate with other organizations and churches.
5. Be more creative with our resources.
6. Have an active role in Bazaar and invite Bazaar chairman to be a member of Outreach Committee.
7. Communicating needs to the entire congregation so as to involve more of the congregation in doing outreach.

Core Values or Beliefs for why we do Outreach as a congregation:

1. We believe as Christians it is our desire and duty to help those less fortunate and make a difference in their lives.
2. We believe we should share our time and treasure.
3. We believe we should be open to any and all problems in our community.
4. We believe outreach pulls us together and strengthens the bonds of our common humanity.
5. We believe we have been given much and are directed to give from our abundance.
6. We believe to give to the poor and marginalized shows our Christian love and compassion and is, thereby, a witness to same.
7. We believe that God wants us to use our resources wisely by leveraging talents, time, energy, creativity, advocacy, connections and finances in a way that maximizes our outreach mission.
8. When we are in God’s will, we walk closer with our God and with our neighbors.
9.  We believe that outreach is not just about money.
10. We believe that people of the Western culture are charitable because we are instructed in the Bible to be so.

   11. We believe that the outreach mission should be shared with our entire
           congregation and all should have an opportunity to be fully engaged.