Leader Gatherings Lead to Clothing Neighbors

In February, 21 community leaders gathered at the East Neighborhood Network’s Community Leader Gathering. The goal of all of our Neighborhood Network gatherings are to build trusting relationships, deepen our understanding of context, and collaboratively love our neighbors. And when school resource coordinators from Lake View Elementary and Mendota Elementary had an opportunity to share with leaders of local churches and ministries, these goals were met!

Rachel, the community resource coordinator at Lake View Elementary, shared that clothing is a significant need for many Lake View students and families, and access to free clothing in the community is fairly limited, especially for those without reliable transportation. They also have limited storage space at the school, so they’re not able to keep clothing on hand for ongoing distribution.

Two of the community leaders at the gathering that day are a part of Love First Ministries, a nonprofit that clothes neighbors as love in action. Many of the church and ministry leaders took a chance to connect with the school staff, but when the Love First ladies connected with them, a plan was set into motion.

In March, Lake View’s family-teacher conferences were paired with a larger resource fair that included food, afterschool club and summer camp registration, support from social workers at Joining Forces for Families (JFF), and clothing — provided by Love First. They shared:

“We brought 1000 items with us the LakeView Elementary and were floored by how many families thanked us! Our goal was to not bring any clothes home with us, and after packing up the 8 or so boxes left we were able to send the rest of the clothing to the future clothing closet at The River Food Pantry!

Not only that, but our friends at Lake View sent us home with boxes of about 200+ brand new coats that they didn’t have space for!

I just keep thanking the Lord for the connections and for so many hearts aimed at serving his people. We pray that every item of clothing continues to grow relationships that build, steward, and show love in action!”

Afterward, Rachel confirmed the gift of this connection:

“The clothing they provided was incredibly popular with the 436 individuals that the resource fair served, and it was the second-most popular resource offered - a close second to food. Being able to offer a large amount of clothing during conferences was incredibly impactful.

Overall, this was a very joyful, win-win situation, and I am really grateful for the opportunity to have connected with them to meaningfully take care of our community.”

The next Community Leader Gatherings are in April:

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