Our weekly check-in meeting is open to anyone interested in supporting compassionate community response to our most vulnerable neighbors in this time of crisis. Meetings are held online every Thursday from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Email LeDayne Polaski for Zoom access code. In addition, if you would like to receive notification when these minutes are posted, please subscribe to our newsletter.
Click Here to Access Zoom Recording: Passcode:0dJk&FyM
In this Issue:
Important Dates:
March:
3/15, 4-5 MeckMIN Youth Leader Meeting (Zoom)
3/15: Deadline to apply as Host Employer for Mayor’s Youth Employment Program (MYEP)
3/15: 2021 NC Community Resilience Conference
3/15: Letters of intent due for grants from National Fund for Sacred Places
3/16-17: 2021 Learning and Leadership Virtual Summit
3/25, 12:00pm: Samaritan House Virtual Fundraiser
3/27-28: Mental Health Expo
3/31, 9-9:30am: Augustine Literacy Rise & Read with featured speaker, Kelly S. King, Chairman and CEO of Truist Financial
April:
4/2: Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation’s Children and Youth Grants Program grant applications close
4/7, 8:00 am: MeckMIN Community Awards Breakfast
1. MeckMIN Updates
Did you know MeckMIN relies on Membership enrollment to support the work we do?
MeckMIN is actually a membership organization, did you know that? We are proud to support any work that is bringing healing into our world, and we rely on our members for financial and other support in our work. If you have found being a part of this weekly call valuable, please consider joining us as a member to take advantage of other opportunities we offer and to make it possible for us to continue. Fees are scaled for the size of the congregation or organization, and can be made on whatever schedule works best for you – one-time, quarterly, etc. We are grateful for what you can do.
Membership Benefits:
Form meaningful relationships with people of other cultures and faiths
Expand your understandings of other faith traditions
Be a facilator of positive change in our community
Promote your events through our bi-weekly e-newsletter, website calendar and blog.
Receive recognition as a community collaborator associated with Mecklenburg County’s premier interfaith organization
Support MeckMIN's continued efforts to promote interfaith collaboration within our community
Save the Date! Wednesday, April 7, 8:00 a.m. The MeckMIN Community Leader Awards Breakfast will be held virtually on Wednesday, April 7at 8:00am. This is a very special event where we honor inspiring local leaders and organizations by presenting The Sydnor Thompson, Jr. Community Leader award and The Bridge Builder Award. Tickets will be available to purchase soon.
Please support this event through ticket sales and sponsorship if you can.
Purchase individual tickets on a sliding scale. Purchase Tickets Here
To choose a sponsorship level visit the MeckMIN website and choose a level:
$250 for a half “table” with four tickets to the virtual event.
$500 for a full table of 8 tickets
$1,000 to become a sustaining sponsor
$3,000 to underwrite an award winner
$5,000 to be the event’s presenting sponsor
BECOME A SPONSOR: In addition to honoring inspiring local leaders, the breakfast is the biggest MeckMIN fundraiser of the year. Individuals, groups, congregations, and businesses who choose to sponsor the breakfast are supporting all the work we do all year to foster understanding, compassion and justice. If sponsoring is not within the budget of your non-profit, please consider whether others in your circle might support this important work and share this opportunity with them.
Please encourage those within your network to buy a ticket and attend the event!
2. Nonprofit Updates
Samantha Williams, samantha.williams@ihclt.org
March 27 Drive-Thru Resource Fair . Volunteers Needed! International House is looking for 5 more volunteers for our drive-through resource fair event. Volunteers will help with some setup, help with different vendors. Everyone will help set up tables and chairs for the vendors and help with traffic control. Please email Samantha to sign up.Drive-thru event at Briarwood will be March 27th, arrive no later than 8 am and stay until 12:30 for breakdown.
Christina O'Dell, christinaodell@me.com, 704-258-7257
Augustine Literacy Project (ALP) has, to date, provided 1,429 tutoring sessions with 135 virtual tutors during the school day during the pandemic. They successfully pivoted to virtual. They are the only CMS approved literacy facilitator in Charlotte that is focused on elementary school.
They are looking for additional volunteer tutors. They provide training and support throughout. Reach out to Christine if you are interested.
Support their work through their upcoming virtual Rise and Read Friend and Fundraiser event March 31 from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m. It will feature Truist Financial Corporation’s Chairman and CEO Kelly S. King speaking on the power of literacy, as well as stories of ALP’s students and tutors.
Help to Promote & Raise Literacy Awareness! To promote the event and raise awareness of ALP we are launching a Readers and Leaders Coffee Cup Campaign featuring videos from our friends in town. Can I count on you to record a quick video on why you are passionate about literacy?
This Fact Sheet has steps to record and send to ALP. We’ll post on social media and request you share our posts on your social media. Ready to help with a video?
Fill out a Google Form with your delivery address, and we will drop off a Rise and Read coffee cup to your residence or place of work. It’s a great prop to use in the video.
Samaritan House 2021 Virtual Fundraiser, March 25th 12pm. REGISTER HERE!
3. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Resources
Mental Health Expo March 27-28
LIEAP Federal Money for Energy Assistance - MARCH 31st Deadline
Jennifer Rupp, Jennifer.Rupp@mecklenburgcountync.gov
Low income residents are eligible for LIEAP federal energy assistance between $300 and $500. LIEAP will have to return the money if it is not all claimed and money is still available! If anyone in your household is a citizen, the entire household is eligible.
March 31st Deadline: Your heating bill does not need to be in the process of disconnection to qualify for assistance through LIEAP. Download application HERE or call DSS Call Center at 704-336-3000. Pick up an application from DSS at 301 Billingsley Rd. or 3205 Freedom Drive. Applications can also be submitted via email to: lieap@mecklenburgcountync.gov or dropped off at one of the DSS drop boxes, or mailed to DSS (Attention: LIEAP) 301 Billingsley Rd Charlotte, NC 28211.
Once your application is processed, you will receive notification in the mail to determine whether or not you were approved and the amount you qualify for. If you are approved for assistance, the payment will go directly to your utility/heating company and show as a credit on your account. This process may take between six and eight weeks to credit to your account so please continue to make regularly scheduled payments.
4. Mecklenburg County Covid-19 Vaccine Updates & Resources
Lisa Bennett, Program Manager, NC Covid-19 Care Coordination, lbennett@kepro.com, Mobile: 720-724-0098
Charged with helping anyone impacted by COVID 19! Now Scheduling folks for vaccinations now. Anyone can call and it goes to all 100+ of community health workers. If they register we can let them know if they are eligible and then schedule at a location near them.
Novant Health Community Engagement- COVID-19 Updates
5. Updates from the NC Center for Nonprofits
Spread the Word: Don’t Miss Out on Federal Stimulus Payments : As part of the COVID relief package that was approved in December, most Americans were eligible for Economic Impact Payments – or stimulus payments – in the amount of $600 for each person in their household. The IRS has made direct deposits or issued checks for these stimulus payments, but many North Carolinians – particularly those with low incomeswho don't typically file federal income tax returns and those with children, may not have received these payments or may not have received the full amount they are due. The IRS has a tool to allow individuals to Check the Status of your Stimulus Payment Here
Individuals and families that did not receive their stimulus payments are eligible for a Recovery Rebate Credit, which they can claim by filing IRS Form 1040 and using line 30.
The Center strongly encourages nonprofits , particularly those serving North Carolinians in poverty and those serving children, to help spread the word to ensure that those who did not receive their full Economic Impact Payments file a Form 1040 and use line 30 to request their stimulus payments.
Take Action: Your Nonprofit Can Help Eligible Community Members Get Vaccinated
Nonprofits are trusted messengers, and many North Carolinians are more likely to take important public health actions if the message comes from a familiar nonprofit organization rather than a government official.
Your nonprofit can make a big difference in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by spreading information about the availability, safety, and importance of vaccines and about the continuing importance of wearing masks and social distancing when in public.
On Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina is expediting its plans for vaccinations of North Carolinians. As of Wednesday, frontline essential workers – including social workers, public health workers, clergy, homeless shelter staff, veterinarians, college and university instructors and support staff, and workers in stores that sell groceries and medicine – are eligible to begin receiving vaccines. North Carolina is also currently vaccinating educators, school personnel, child care workers, health care workers, long-term care staff and residents, and people 65 and older.
Here are three things your nonprofit can do to help ensure that people you serve get vaccinated once they are eligible:
Share the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS’s) online Find My Group tool to help North Carolinians know when they will be eligible to get their vaccine.
Share the DHHS Find My Spot search tool to help North Carolinians locate vaccine providers near where they live and work.
Help the people you serve and others in your community get appointments for vaccinations. Many North Carolinians are struggling with the technology required to get an appointment to receive a vaccine. Nonprofit staff and volunteers can help people navigate the onlineappointment systems to ensure that technology is not a barrier tovaccinations.
Prayer for Nonprofit Leaders
Within you, there is compassion, strength, kindness, love, goodness, and grace – may you feel those virtues and live in them. Within you, as within us all, there are also harder things – fear, anger, jealousy, apathy – may you see those too – and may you greet them with compassion, strength, kindness, love, goodness, and grace, that you might live with them. May you live well, do well, and be well with yourself as you are and life as it is. Amen. (LeDayne McLeese Polaski, MeckMIN Executive Director)