How can I support UUCS families?

Our congregation has begun approaching our ministry to UUCS families as one which does not and cannot only happen on Sundays. Faith formation and religious exploration happens throughout the entire week, and the best ways that we support families is to support parents in their role as their children's primary religious education.

This means we have far more going on than just religious education classes for children and youth on Sunday mornings, and that there are far more ways for YOU to get involved! It may be that you want to be a part of this special ministry, but that your talents lie elsewhere than in the classroom. Take a look at the options below to find out the ways you can get involved.

*Aria Curtis, Director of Children and Family Ministry, will get in touch within a week of you submitting this form.

Contact Information

Name

Phone

This address will receive a confirmation email

Administrative Tasks

Reconciling Family Information Forms: I am interested in helping to reconcile Family Information Forms for the 2018/2019 year.

About once a year, we make a big push to make sure that the emergency information and contact information for each child in our community is completely up to date. We receive a mix of online and paper forms. Helping with this would mean using the information from paper forms to fill out the an online form, and then making sure that the information in our online database for each child is up to date. This is about a three to four hour project, once a year.

Making Posters/Brochures/Graphics for Social Media I am interested in helping with making publicity materials.

There are a number of ways that we get information out to our UUCS community and the wider, Spokane community, and almost all of it requires an attractive poster or graphic. Someone helping with publicity in this way would receive information from Aria about upcoming events and programs, and would then use publicity tool, Canva, to create mostly posters and graphics for a variety of social media platforms, for those events. This is a commitment of 1-2 hours per week.

Distributing Posters I am interested in helping to distribute posters, advertising UUCS events, around downtown Spokane.

This person would receive copies of posters for upcoming events at UUCS and distribute them among the many businesses downtown where families might see them. This is a commitment of about 3-4 hours once a month.

Cooking/Baking

Food is one of the greatest ways that we, as people, build relationships with one another. It brings people together in very unique ways, but it can also be an enormous relief for a family, to have a meal provided for them. Below are a list of events when it would be an enormous help to have a meal cooked for our families.

Here are some on-going opportunities to cook for our children, youth, and their parents: Parent Night Out: UUCS provided childcare for families, so that parents can have a night to themselves. Need a meal for up to 15 kids, 1 youth, and two adults, once a month. RE Facilitator Training: Once every three months, Aria spends the day with new RE facilitators, helping them get oriented in their new role. As a show of appreciate for their commitment, she likes to provide a meal for them, while they train. New Baby: Parents with a new baby are in some extra need of support - particularly if they don't have family nearby. Check this box if you would like to be notified when a new child in our community is born, so that you can cook a meal for that family. Our Whole Lives: On Sunday evenings our children gather together for this comprehensive sexuality class, and oftentimes they need a snack to get through the class productively.

Here are some once-a-year events, that need a team of people working together to create a meal, or set up a bake-sale. Annual Winter Decorating Party: While the philosophy for dinner at this event is Stone Soup, we need at least a couple people in the kitchen who have the recipe and direct traffic. Halloween Party: This is a big, fun, Halloween party, and it could use a small team of people to create a fall feast for about 10 families (about 40 people) Village Fest: While we have set the precedent of getting food trucks for this fun event, having a bake sale for the church would only improve the event! This would be a small team of people who create baked goods to sell to about 200 people. Coming of Age Feast: This is an incredible program, through which our youth spend their time exploring identity and belief systems. At the end of about 8 months of intense self-reflection, we would like to provide a celebration feast for the youth.

Sunday Morning: Snacks: While we don't have an official snack-time during Children's Chapel, sometimes the kids get hungry. Every couple months we need a new set of shelf-stable snacks, which might meet a variety of dietary needs. Fellowship Treat: After Children's Chapel, the children in our community are invited to join together for Fellowship, similar to the adults' coffee hour. This includes tea and hot chocolate, and every couple weeks a special treat.

Setting Up/Taking Down the Space

For the vast majority of our big events, we need a small team of people who will help set up tables, chairs, etc. and/or take the event set up down and put it all away. Below are a list of big events, for which that help is needed: Village Fest (September) Halloween Pumpkin Carving Party (October) Annual Winter Decorating Party (December) Decorating the RE Wing: About every three months, Aria needs help to change out the decorations on the walls of both the RE hallway and of the classrooms. This could include helping to make decorations or just helping to put them up/take them down.

Nursery Care

You might really love spending time with young children and babies, but not be at all interested in facilitating religious education classes or leading Children's Chapel. Below are some times when we could use an extra volunteer to play with the young kids or hold a baby. Sunday morning Nursery Care: help out and support our paid childcare providers when the nursery is extra full, during the services. Parent Night Out: be an extra adult in the room, once a month on a Friday night, who can hold a baby or play with the young kids. Parent Support during the Service: If a parent is needing a break or needs to take their child out of the sanctuary, be a designated adult that will take their child to the chapel or nursery for them, or who will hold the baby for them.

Special Skills

If you have a special skill you would like to share with our children and/or youth, please check one of the options below for how that might be shared: I have a particular crafting skill that might be appropriate for a congregational event, like the Annual Winter Decorating Party I have a special skill that might be appropriate to lead a special workshop on or to bring to an RE class. I have experience with espresso machine and/or have worked for a coffee shop, and I am interested in being an on-site resource for Grounds 4 Change (the youth-run coffee cart)

I would like to support the UUCS ministry to children and families, but I don't have the time for any of these things. Can I donate money instead?

Yes! Keep an eye out for upcoming special fundraisers for ways that you can financially back our ministry to children, youth, and their parents. And, please consider stopping by our Grounds 4 Change coffee cart on Sunday morning, to donate to youth programming.

How can I support UUCS families?

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