Church Health Ministries set agenda for 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — Churches United for Healthy Congregations (CUFHC) held its first quarterly meeting for 2015 at the James B. Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Service Center Sat., Jan. 17. Attendees included 44 church liaisons from 25 participating CUFHC churches.

The theme for this year is “A New Year, A New Outlook for Your Health Ministry.”  The meeting focused on helping liaisons develop mission statements and goals for their health ministries, as well as pointers on how to set about creating tasks to aid in team growth.

CUFHC serves as a vehicle through which health information can be disseminated to churches as well as other community organizations. Through this venue, a greater number of individuals can be reached by networking, collaborating and coordinating programs and services that positively affect the health of all people in the community.

Another initiative of CUFHC is to equip churches with the tools to develop more formalized health ministries that strengthen existing nurse’s guilds with education and help from community resources.

CUFHC health liaisons meet quarterly at the center. These meetings provide information and tools to help with growth of the ministry, give attendees an opportunity for networking, educate the liaisons about community resources through guest speakers and offer technical support. The organization also has a website that offers toolkits, links to many health organizations and a whole host of health topics to help the liaisons grow their ministries.

The churches participating in CUFHC are encouraged to partner in their efforts to promote health initiatives/activities. This year, $1,000 mini grants were awarded to partnering churches that submitted proposals for events addressing health topics. These topics include mental health, diabetes and health issues affecting today’s youth.

The 2015 awardees are: Mt. Zion Progressive MBC and Mt. Pilgrim, MBC, Pentecostal Temple and Christ Gospel, 10th St. Church of God and Elim 7th Day Adventist and 5th Ave. Church of Christ and Northwest Church of Christ.

CUFHC is a program of the James B. Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Center. The Allegany Franciscan Ministries provides funding for CUFHC and for the annual Caregiver’s Conference that will be held this year at the Enoch Davis Center on March 28.

To learn more about CUFHC, visit the website at cufhc.org.