Because mission is an integral part of our congregational life that extends well beyond the church walls, our congregation supports outreach efforts in our community that focus on basic human needs – food, water, shelter, education, and safety. The mission committee carefully assesses each organization that requests funds from DPC to assure that its programs are fiscally responsible and truly serving Christ and those in need.
About the Organization: Aid for Friends serves elderly shut-ins with free daily home-cooked meals, which volunteer visitors deliver weekly. This valuable program allows these individuals to remain in their homes by providing food, friendship, emergency aid, and advocacy.
DPC Engagement: DPC volunteers meet on the third Tuesday of each month and on special occasions to pack over 250 meals for this valuable program. For more information on how to get help, please visit the "Get Involved" page in the mission section of the church website. To access the Aid For Friends recipe book, please click here.
About the Organization: Our local chapter of the American Red Cross provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies in this region.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports the general operating activities of the American Red Cross, and has supported the homeless shelter and case management program.
About the Organization: The Ann Silverman Community Health Clinic provides free medical care, dental care, and social services for low-income residents in our community.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports the clinic's diabetes education program, which provides a diabetic starter kit to each patient as well as educational and support programs on controlling the disease. The congregation has also funded the organizations pediatric dental program.
About the Organization: Bread of Life is a ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church and provides a supportive Christian community in Philadelphia for those in recovery by addressing the needs for housing, structure, and personal growth so sobriety can be maintained through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
DPC Engagement: Our funding has helped to reconstruct the bathroom at Trinity Presbyterian Church, as well as supports the organization's program staff.
About the Organization: Broad Street Ministry is a broad-minded Christian community that cherishes creativity, fosters and nurtures artistic expression, extends inclusive hospitality, and works for a more just world through civic engagement.
DPC Engagement: Through the Bridging the Generations capital campaign, Doylestown Presbyterian Church funded the renovation of a new kitchen for the Broad Street Ministry, which helps them to feed those who are homeless and hungry every day. In addition, DPC helps in expanding and sustaining BSM's new worship service, new Youth Ministry Initiative, and the Pastoral Immersion Program. Many members of our congregation have traveled to BSM to worship and help volunteer to prepare and serve dinner. Our youth have also made the trip to Broad Street Ministry for a weekend retreat.
About the Organization: Bucks County Housing Group provides a wide range of housing and related social services to homeless and low-income families, with the goal of assisting families in attaining permanent housing and financial security.
DPC Engagement: Our congregation supports the Bucks County Housing Group's Doylestown shelter. We most recently helped to fund the repair of an outdoor staircase entrance to their apartments. Each year our congregation also participates in the Giving Tree program at Christmastime.
About the Organization: Bucks County Opportunity Council strives to empower low-income individuals in Bucks County to achieve their goals for sustainable improvement in economic self-sufficiency by a personalized case management approach founded on education and partnership with the community.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports the organization's Economic Self-Sufficiency Program, which enables hard-working, motivated, low-income people to acquire the education, resources and employment necessary to achieve permanent economic self-sufficiency without future need for cash welfare.
About the Organization: A mission of the Mennonite Central Committee, the Care and Share Thrift Shop aims to improve the quality of life of people who are suffering from poverty, oppression, and natural disaster by creating a market for reusable items and expanding the market for original creations of Third World Craftspeople.
DPC Engagement: DPC members are invited to volunteer at the Care and Share Thrift Shop on the third Friday morning of each month. For more information on how to get involved, please visit our volunteer page.
About the Organization: Code Blue, or the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless, is a non-profit alliance of approximately 12 faith-based and community service organizations that provides shelter for homeless individuals in Bucks County on very cold nights.
DPC Engagement: Doylestown Presbyterian Church serves as a host site for Code Blue one month a year and in 2012 donated the use of its van for transportation to host sites. All members of the congregation are encouraged to volunteer to assist with the shelter in nights it is in operation or help prepare meals for guests in advance. More information on how to volunteer is available on the "Get Involved" page in the mission section of the church website.
About the Organization: FISH provides emergency assistance with food, heating oil, shelter, clothing, and transportation to those most in need in Bucks County.
DPC Engagement: DPC contributes financially to FISH, helping the organization provide important assistance to those facing crisis situations.
About the Organization: Esperanza Health Center is a Christian community health center that serves the predominantly Latino, low-income community of North Philadelphia. Esperanza, which operates two facilities and has a staff of board-certified bilingual physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, serves thousands of patients each year in family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. No one is denied care because of his or her inability to pay.
DPC Engagement: In addition to looking after the direct health needs of their patients, Esperenza also cares for the spiritual needs and general well being of their clients. As part of this initiative, DPC has helped to support two local community pastors who engage and mentor at-risk youth who play organized recreational basketball in Esperanza's new gymnasium.
About the Organization: Located in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Face to Face meets basic human needs and works to end human suffering. They strive to provide a safe environment and practical tools, which enable the people of our community to confront personal challenges, empower their lives, and fulfill their unique potential.
DPC Engagement: DPC members have visited Face to Face, preparing and serving meals to homeless individuals, enjoying fellowship, and helping to clean.
About the Organization: Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County is an ecumenical Christian housing ministry who strives to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness by working in partnerships with God's people in need throughout Bucks County.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports Habitat's "Brush with Kindness" project and includes the organization's house pins in the Alternative Giving program during advent.
About the Organization: Hunting Park Christian Academy provides affordable, quality Christian education to children living in inner city Philadelphia that celebrates a diverse community and leads children to know and serve the Lord. In the community that this school serves, there is a 53% high school dropout rate, with 45% of the families living at or below the federal poverty level. Tuition is $2,000 a year, and it is not unusual for children who attend one year to become unable to continue due to family finances.
DPC Engagement: In addition to general support for the Hunting Park Christian Academy, Doylestown Presbyterian has committed to providing scholarships for three students to attend the school for ten years each from kindergarten through eighth grade as part of the Forward Together capital campaign, thus preparing them for success in high school and beyond.
About the Organization: A part of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Kirkwood Camp and Conference Center is a residential camp and retreat center where young people, adults, and families in our region can begin or deepen their experience of God in the context of nature and a caring Christian community.
DPC Engagement: DPC provides Kirkwood Camp with general operating support.
About the Organization: Life Abundant assists inmates, ex-offenders, and their families, helping them to develop Christian principles in their social, economic, and spiritual lives and become productive members of society.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports Life Abundant's one-on-one mentorship program, which is vital to client's success in the world and helps them to gain a true understanding of how their faith plays a role in their day to day lives.
About the Organization: The designated food distribution site of the Bucks County Opportunity Council, the New Britain Food Larder provides food for individuals and families in need in Central Bucks County.
DPC Engagement: DPC accepts donations of food, cleaning supplies, and personal products the first Sunday of each month in the entrance to Andrews Hall. For more information on how to get help, please visit the "Get Involved" page in the mission section of the church website.
DPC Engagement: The mission committee sets aside an amount each year for pastors to use in a discretionary way to meet emergency needs that come to them from the community. When transient and homeless people who are in need of food or overnight lodging appeal to the church, the pastors are able to meet these immediate requests for aid.
About the Organization: The Presbyterian Children's Village promotes the healing of the spirits of children, families, and communities broken by violence, addiction, poverty, mental illness, racism, and other serious societal problems.
DPC Engagement: DPC provides general operating support to the Presbyterian Children's Village.
About the Organization: Striving to keep young people safe, Tabor Children Services serves at-risk children and families in the Doylestown area by providing assistance with foster care, special needs-adoption, in-home services, adolescent life skills training, independent living services, parenting classes, and community living homes.
DPC Engagement: Our congregational support helps to provide funding to eliminate transportation barriers for disadvantaged parents and their children, ensuring that they can attend health appointments on a regular basis. This past year, we also provided funding for a new pool canopy, which allowed the children to enjoy some much-needed recreational time while staying safe from the sun.
About the Organization: The Other Carpenter assists low-income homeowners in West Philadelphia in the maintenance and improvement of their homes.
DPC Engagement: In addition to supporting the general operating activities of The Other Carpenter, members of DPC travel together to Philadelphia several times a year to work side-by-side with home owners and assist with home-repair projects. For more information on how to get help, please visit the "Get Involved" page in the mission section of the church website.
About the Organization: The Way Home provides transitional housing and needed social services for homeless men in Bucks County.
DPC Engagement: As part of the Forward Together capital campaign, DPC will help The Way Home secure financing to buy a permanent home to serve as transitional housing for homeless men in our community. Individuals living in the house would agree to clearly defined rules of behavior while receiving case management support that addresses issues of mental health and substance abuse, life and job skills, and assistance in securing employment.
DPC Engagement: Along with other congregations in our Presbytery, DPC contributes to this fund to help further the work of our seminaries in training future pastors and church workers.
About the Organization: USO provides comfort, care, and support to troops and their families in Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.
DPC Engagement: Our congregation helps to cover the cost of proving military families with gift cards at Christmas, a time that many of these families find especially trying.
About the Organization: VITA provides educational programs to families, adults, and at-risk youth in Bucks County to help these individuals gain skills that enhance their ability to deal with real-life situations, meet personal goals, and become more self-determining and self-sufficient. Highlights of their work include programs for literacy, ESL, and GED preparation, and decision-making.
DPC Engagement: DPC supports VITA's work in literacy, ESL, and GED preparation. In the past, DPC has donated the use of classroom space in Andrews Hall for GED tutoring.
About the Organization: A Woman's Place is a community-based social change organization in Bucks County committed to the empowerment of women and ending intimate and domestic violence. In addition to offering direct victim services, A Woman's Place offers prevention education programs and advocacy.
DPC Engagement: In the summer of 2012, our church supported the Peace Works Camp, a summer program for elementary aged children to nurture the concepts of personal power and worth and to help students learn to identify and form healthy, violence-free relationships by focusing on how and when to seek assistance with problem. In 2011, DPC funded the development of a teen line, which gives young people a more accessible way to ask for help and seek information about domestic violence.
About the Organization: This outreach program visits nursing homes and lets residents "shop" for gifts to offer to loved ones during the Christmas season. DPC's Marne Dietterich watched her parents spend their last – often frustrating – Christmas seasons in a nursing home, their desire to get in on the gift-giving stymied by immobility and illness. She now devotes her energies to remedying that predicament for other nursing home residents. Each Christmas, Marne and over 100 volunteers visit nursing homes, turning them into festive shops. All merchandise is new and has been donated, so the gifts are free to nursing home residents. Volunteers help with selection and wrapping.
DPC Engagement: Church and community members meet at Doylestown Presbyterian Church throughout the year to create and wrap gifts in preparation for the Christmas season. For more information on how to get help, please visit the "Get Involved" page in the mission section of the church website.
