Dream Incentive Grant Applications Open
Greetings from the National Office! Thanks so much for your faithful ministry! In Church Ministries, we highly value what takes place in the local church and seek to provide support and assistance to the local church in every possible way. One of those ways is the annual Dream Incentive Grant (DIG). This grant is provided through a generous donation from Orchard Alliance, the stewardship and generosity ministry of The Alliance. In the last eight years, 133 churches have received grants totaling $1,624,340. The spiritual impact has been immeasurable.
This year Church Ministries and Orchard Alliance are partnering to provide refugee and immigrant ministry start-up opportunities to Alliance churches and ministries seeking to welcome Forcibly Displaced (FD) families (refugees, evacuees, and other immigrant groups) here in the U.S., by showing them the love of Jesus in practical ways. There are over 110 million FDP globally and over 35 million are refugees. The U.S. is expected to receive between 50,000 to 75,000 refugees and evacuees through 2024 and 2025. We want our churches to be equipped and prepared to welcome these families in practical ways. Therefore, the focus of the Dream Incentive Grants will be related to ministries impacting refugees and immigrant families.
Do you have a dream to establish a ministry that is focused on serving the refugees and immigrants in your community?
Do you have a dream to organize an ESL (English as a second language) program in your church that will help non-English speaking people in your community?
Do you have a dream to assist the refugees and immigrants in your community to find a path forward through the complexities of the immigration legal process?
Grants are available to churches of 200 average weekend worship attendance and under. This year the grants will be awarded in the form of services that you can choose from our following implementation partners.
Alliance ESL will provide English as a Second Language (ESL) training to churches who have a director (not the pastor) and a minimum of 6 volunteers who commit to 4-5 hours/week to teach two 16-week semesters.
Christian Immigration Advocacy Center (CIAC) will provide in person, virtual or remote legal immigration services to refugee/immigrant clients working with an Alliance Church or ministry.
Refugee and Immigrant Network (RAIN) will provide grant project management, consultation, training, welcome center development, and related small grants for specialized local and district projects.DREAMINCENTIVEGRANT
You may apply for a grant using the online application link below. Your application may include a maximum of one service from each partner.
Submitted applications will go to your district superintendent for review and approval. Once your DS completes his application section online, it is automatically sent to our office for review. All applications and DS approvals are due by September 30. A team at the National Office will consider each grant prayerfully. Grant recipients will be announced by October 15, 2024. We can’t wait to hear the dreams that the Lord is stirring in your hearts!
From its earliest days, The Alliance has been about welcoming the immigrant and the refugee. Our founder’s vision to reach the world’s lost and disenfranchised was birthed by his burden for the estimated 8.5 million European immigrants entering New York City between 1870 and 1900.
CAMA Services’ 50 years of fruitful relief and development ministry was launched in refugee camps along the Vietnam/Thailand border to care for the needs of those ravaged and displaced by the war. Today, CAMA continues its work among suffering and displaced people throughout the world, including Rohingya refugees in one of the largest and most densely populated refugee camps in the world.
Evelyn Mangham, pioneer Alliance missionary to Vietnam, along with her husband, Grady, cofounded World Relief’s Refugee Resettlement Program and convinced U.S. evangelical churches to sponsor 10,000 refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in 1975 alone—work that has blossomed into the establishment and ministry of 260 Vietnamese, Hmong, and Cambodian churches throughout the U.S. C&MA family.
Today, U.S. Alliance churches are responding to the recent influx of refugees and immigrants fleeing adversity in their homeland and seeking asylum here in the States. These churches are welcoming their new neighbors by helping them secure work permits and Temporary Protected Status, find gainful employment, seek safe, affordable housing, obtain medical care, and provide for their families’ basic needs. Through the excellent tools and services offered by Alliance ESL, CIAC, and RAIN, we invite your church to take the next steps in extending our Alliance legacy of welcoming the refugee and the immigrant.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please email us at DIG@cmalliance.org.
I remain at your service,
Rosilio Roman
Interim Vice President for Church Ministries