On the morning of Saturday, June 11, green bags speckled Hartford’s neighborhoods spanning from the North End to the West End, to Frog Hollow and over to South Green.
The bags were packed with a Hartford area resource guide containing information about free and low-cost health services, a coupon for $5 in farmers market produce, and other helpful information about benefit programs like SNAP and the Summer Meals Program, and were distributed in a door-to-door effort by more than 150 volunteers from 20 organizations in the Urban Alliance network.
This effort, called the Revitalize Community Health Outreach Day, is now in its fifth year and continues to expand.
Suburban organizations team up with urban organizations and set out to help raise awareness about the resources available to Hartford residents who are faced with low income. The effort also provides an opportunity for team members to pray with residents who request prayer.
Connections are made, and needs are met.
During this year’s outreach day, volunteers distributed 6,000 resource bags and prayed with people at more than 100 households.
At a celebratory lunch that followed the outreach event, volunteers shared about their outreach experience and prayed together for the Hartford community and the work being done through Urban Alliance’s Revitalize initiative.
Pastor Miriam Torres from House of Restoration Church shared that their group visited a home near S.A.N.D. School, where a woman was living who was oxygen-dependent. She was experiencing significant health issues and was grateful that the group could pray with her and provide the bag of health resources.
A volunteer from Crossroads Community Cathedral, who also is oxygen-dependent, shared that she was so motivated to participate in the 2016 Revitalize Community Health Outreach Day.
“Once I started walking it was not about me,” she shared. “It was about me doing God’s work. I’m so happy and thankful.”
Team members from Wintonbury Church described how they felt that real friendships were made along the way.
“We had such a tremendous health resource to offer. Being a part of the community and connecting with people was very encouraging for me,” one volunteer said. “Year after year there is a compound impact that this outreach makes and it is exciting.”
Thank you to all of the volunteers from Calvary Church, Calvary Fellowship, Citadel of Love, Crossroads Community Cathedral, Ebenezer Pentecostal Church, FaithCare, Faith Ministries Church, The First Cathedral, Glastonbury Community Church, Glory Chapel International Cathedral, Hartford City Mission, House of Restoration Church, Latter Rain Christian Fellowship, Living Word Empowerment Ministries, Minesterios Tiempo de Cosecha, Phillips Metropolitan CME Church, Valley Brook Community Church, Wellspring Church, Wilson-Gray YMCA Youth and Family Center, and Wintonbury Church who helped make such an incredible impact by distributing resources during the 2016 Revitalize Community Health Outreach Day!
