Background and Need Served:

Henderson Settlement is a part of the Red Bird Mission Conference of the United Methodist Church of Kentucky. While Henderson Settlement was originally established in the early 1900’s to bring educational opportunities to the children of south east Kentucky, it is also a working agricultural center with cattle, orchards, and greenhouses. In the 1970’s public schools opened and the settlement schools adapted to address other community needs; adult literacy, maternal infant health outreach and youth recreational afterschool and summer programs. Continually adapting its mission to meet the changing needs of the community, today there are community care and outreach ministries, agricultural, craft and clothing ministries and work camps providing home improvement and building projects.

Henderson Settlement has an application process to select families and projects for the year. Many families simply do not have the financial resources to purchase the materials needed for even simple improvements and other families may be physically unable to do the labor.  A project list is created from the applications and it lists the cost of the materials, the number of people needed and the number of days required to complete the projects. The work crews purchase the materials needed for the specific job and provide the labor needed to complete the project. While working on someone’s home work crews may have the opportunity to work side by side with families or they may only be able to meet the family as they head off to work. Occasionally families are reluctant to meet the work crews because they are embarrassed by their need of assistance or are physically or mentally challenged.

Outreach Project Purpose:

The ministry focus of the FUMC Appalachia Mission trips to Henderson Settlement is to::

• Build relationships between families in Ann Arbor and families in Frakes Kentucky; dispelling stereotypes and prejudices between city life and life in the mountains.
• Serve together as a family of God; with children and adults working side by side.
• Give volunteers with limited free time the opportunity to serve, whether it is a full week or four days.
• Provide the physical labor and purchase the materials needed for a community project on a families home and to improve or maintain the facilities of the settlement .
• Work in the greenhouse and give support to the staff of the Opportunity Store (the resale shop) by working in the storage room.

Accomplishment to Date:

August 2007 – 15 member team – replaced porch roof, sided a room addition, installed windows, a door and build a walkway from the porch to the room addition for a disabled man; sorted and hung up clothing for the re-sale store; painted the youth afterschool craft room; helped prepare decorations for the after school program and picked cherry tomatoes.

August 2006 – 11 member team – replaced a broken sliding door with French doors, and built a bookcase for an elderly couple; assembled the Henderson Settlement newsletter; sorted donations of Campbell soup labels and worked in the storage room of the resale store. 

August 2005 – 26 member team - shingled the roof, installed window, and applied aluminum siding to a two story room addition for a single mother of 3 children; sorted books in the settlements library and stained new stairs outside the dormitory building.

Project Goals/Timing:

• Two trips are planned for 2008:
  • Spring Break trip April 6 – 12 (Sunday to Saturday)
  • August TBD (Wednesday to Saturday)
• For each trip:
  • Henderson Settlement provides a detailed list of home improvement/ constructions jobs for families in need. A project will be chosen based on the skills of the work crew and the funds needed for the project.
  • An additional project will be selected from the campus list to help with the maintenance of the facilities used by the work crews. These projects might include painting, staining a deck, or working in the greenhouse.
  • The greenhouse and garden are all organic and provide flowers for fundraising projects and vegetables for the various meal programs.     
  • Participants also have the option of working in the resale store sorting clothing, hanging up new items and organizing the storage room.

Estimated Costs:   ~

Participants cost for food and lodging at Henderson’s:

• April trip : ~$4000 (25 people @$160/ea)
• August trip: ~$1800 (20 people @$90/ea)

Project costs: Community projects cost from $200-$2000 per trip:

• April trip:  ~$200- 2000
• August trip:   ~$200- 2000

Project related materials & donations:

• Additional donations of supplies will be collected for the resale store, the food pantry, and other items from the settlements list of current needs.
• Plans include participating in the Campbell Company’s label collection program which provides Henderson Settlement with vans, computers and other equipment at no cost.

Additional Notes:

• April trip $ 160 per person, for the large dormitory
• August trip will be approximately $90 in dorm or house
• Houses which accommodate 10 -15 people may be available for an additional charge in April and include a full kitchen.
• Children under 3 are free and children ages 3 – 5 yrs are half price
• Wednesday is designated as Appalachian Day or free day and volunteers will have the opportunity to explore the area. Mountain crafters may demonstrate their skills which volunteers may be invited to learn; a community van trip might be arranged for visiting families in the ‘hollers’. Breakfast and supper are served but lunch is not provided.Scholarships are available.

Proposed Source of Resources/Funds

• Participants fees: tbd
• Fundraisers: Will be determined by the volunteers and might include a breakfast or brunch, a babysitting night. Fundraising will occur in February and March
• Congregational Appeal: Will focus on donations of supplies, Campbell Company labels, and any project funding requirements after fundraisers.

Volunteer Needs:  

• 15 adults and 10 children for April service project  (Reservations are for 15 adults and 10 children to arrive the evening of Sunday April 6 and depart the morning of Saturday April 12.)
• 10-20 volunteers (multigenerational) for potential August service project. Details TBD.

Note: For the April trip, there is an opportunity to split the week; with one family or participant arriving on Sunday evening and leaving Wednesday morning and another family of equal size arriving on Wednesday evening and leaving on Saturday morning.

Date Completed: October 29, 2007
By: Ellen Lewis (ellen@fumc-a2.org)