Facets (Fairfax Area Christian Emergency and Transition Services):

Thank you for considering this opportunity.

FACETS is an ecumenical organization with more than 27 participating churches in Northern Virginia.

FACETS purpose is to provide direct food and transitional support services to the homeless population on site, at motels and at shelters. The BLC/FACETS Hot Meals program provides evening meals to the homeless.

BLC members continue to feed the homeless, truly filling a need. On the third Thursday of each month, BLC volunteers prepare hot meals in the BLC warming kitchen, then deliver them by "caravan" of our vehicles to three Fairfax City/County motels and one parking lot where we some with no fixed home. BLC has prepared and delivered thousands of hot meals in the Fairfax City/County area over the past four years. We are especially in need of someone to lead the delivery team for the "A" Team (odd numbered months).

BLC members provide support and work with needy people who stay in motels in Fairfax, many of them Fairfax County welfare clients and others working poor who do not have long term homes, and also work with Fairfax County's Robinson Square low-income housing project near George Mason. In addition to our Hot Meals program, you to can help a family or an individual as indicated below:

Family or Group:

• Sponsor a holiday or special event party for kids.
• Sponsor a 'baby shower' collecting things for babies that they will distribute.
• Provide a back-to-school clothes closet for needy families.
• Collect supplies needed for kids at the resource centers: snacks, hygiene items, school supplies.
• Adopt a program, help one night with their ongoing programs: tutoring, arts, computers, etc.
• Help teens in the neighborhood do a community service project.
• Sponsor a summer activity for kids during the day.

Individual:

• Reading to young children at the homeless resource center.
• Babysit with young kids while mothers make calls or practice job skills.
• Share your hobby or talent with a youth.
• Transport a client to a medical appointment.
• Teach a class on parenting, career planning, jobs, seasonal crafts, knitting, or cooking.
• Mentor an adult moving from welfare to work.
• Mentor or tutor a child or teen.

BLC members are tutoring K through 6th grade students. This is our second year of a school-community tutoring partnership between FACETS and Fairfax Villa Elementary School near George Mason University.

In this program, K-6th grade students who have academic potential but whose reading, writing, and math skills are below grade level will be paired with a FACETS' tutor trained jointly by the school and our organization. The students are residents of Robinson's Square, a public housing community served by FACETS' staff and volunteers.

The twice-weekly tutoring sessions can be held immediately after school, in the early evening, or on weekends at the school, a local library, or the community center at Robinson Square. You and the child's parent/guardian schedule the days and times of your tutoring sessions. Each tutor will work as a partner with the student's teacher to develop and implement a learning plan and will also meet periodically with the teacher, parents, and other tutors to assess progress and give rewards. Tutors need to be at least 21 since they might need to transport the children.

BLC members are serving the community by providing hypothermia shelter for homeless adults. During the past two winters, BLC has partnered with FACETS and other area churches to open the church overnight for homeless adults. Adults arrive around 4pm, have dinner and sleep in the church, safe from the bitter cold.

Do you feel God Calling you to assist in this mission? Please contact the BLC church office at (703) 978-3131, or email to bethlehemlutheran@blclife.org for more information or to volunteer.

8922 Little River Tpk, Fairfax, VA 22031   703-978-3131
bethlehemlutheran@blclife.org