faith in action

Grant Profile: Grace Calvary UMC

Church and Society oversees the distribution of three different grants available to United Methodist congregations and organizations. Here's a profile of one of the recipients of our grants.


Exterior of Grace Calvary UMC, a red brick building with a marquis out front.

The Grace Calvary United Methodist Church Youth Academy Ambassadors program has engaged in the following activities since obtaining the grant from the Board of Church and Society.

Several youth and adults attended the Community Renewal Society social action day, where the youth witness the power of community organizing. Youth participated in the Chicago’s Peace is our Selma, the end of the school year peace march to stand up and declare peace in our city rally, participated in a Faith Based/Local Police District/Community Prayer Event. 12 youth attended a training session on faith based community organizing sponsored by the Chicago Community Renewal Society and in August, several youth attended a state budget cuts rally at the State of Illinois building – the budgets rally addressed state of Illinois budget cuts to immigrants and refugee rights services. 15 youth went to Springfield, Illinois to visit the state capital, Lincoln’s museum and the Old State Capital building, this was the first time that several of the youth went to Springfield and learned about state government.

At the Faith in Action Assembly, hundreds of people of faith will come together to take action to: Reduce Violence through investing in community-based Restorative Justice, End Police Brutality, Sweeps, and the Criminalization of People of Color. These are vital issues that primarily affect our Southside communities. We will ask each of our elected officials to publicly support and endorse our platform, which we have enclosed along with this letter. In order to address any questions you may have about the platform and what your role during the event will be.

The goal of the Reclaim Campaign is to reduce violence by moving limited financial resources away from overly punitive criminal justice systems into community-based Restorative Justice Peace Hubs, mental health, and substance abuse alternatives that rehabilitate lives and make our communities safer. Hundreds of people in Cook County are killed through acts of violence every year. Most of these deaths are happening in neighborhoods in Chicago’s South and West sides. These communities suffer from lack of resources to help deal with mental health issues, drug addiction, and violence.