School systems around the country are facing budget concerns as federal spending for education gets rolled back. It’s prompting a church in the D.C. region to try to fill in the gap.
Global United Fellowship — including its City of Praise Family Ministries, based in the Landover, Maryland, area — is pushing other churches around the country to adopt under-resourced schools in their area and try to help them out.
About 1,000 churches around the country have already committed to helping, Global United Fellowship leaders said, with many more in other parts of the world following suit.
“It’s going to be schools that are in the greatest need,” said Bishop Joel Peebles, the senior presiding bishop at Global United Fellowship and senior pastor at City of Praise. “Title I schools, schools that are struggling the most. Title I funding is getting really decreased, and so we want to make sure, at the end of the day, that we are filling the gaps that our systems have now let down.”
And it’s not just a one-time financial donation — it might not be money at all.
“We’re asking churches to be creative. Sometimes we may not have the funds to help, but you have the manpower to help,” Peebles said. “You’d be amazed at how powerful it is for someone to show up as a mentor at a program. You’d be amazed at how amazing it would be to have individuals that are qualified help to tutor our children. There’s so many things.”
He and his wife, Ylawnda Peebles, who is also a pastor at City of Praise, said they’ve already been working with Prince George’s County Public Schools leadership to identify some schools they can get involved with. It’s something the new leadership team in the county and its school system said will be more than welcomed in the future.
“When we serve the schools, we’re serving the people within our churches. We’re serving the people within our neighborhoods and in our community,” Ylawnda said. “The church just allows us to have a voice with a body of people at one space and encourage them to participate in these initiatives.”
Joel said, at the end of the day, helping schools also helps churches.
“They realize that their students are our congregants,” Joel said. “They realize that we both have an aligned interest in the betterment of all of these wonderful young adults.”
But Ylawnda said it shouldn’t be just churches trying to help out where it’s needed.
“I think every mother, every father, every sibling, college graduate, should get behind such an effort,” Ylawnda said. “If it were your need, you would want the community to galvanize to help you. And so, to that end, we’re trying to encourage everyone in and out of our church to be a part of this effort.”
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