Social Action and Community Outreach

Through social action and community outreach, Thoreau Congregation strives to fulfill our mission of working for social justice and religious freedom in Fort Bend County. Social action programs cover both ongoing and limited timeframe projects. Ongoing programs include the Criminal Justice and Prison Issues Program, Read to Kids/Books to Kids Program, Hearts and Hammers, Thoreau Scholarship Fund, and Fair Trade Coffee Sales. With a huge prison complex in our county and prisons being the number one growth industry in Texas, in early 2003 we started the Criminal Justice and Prison Issues Program. The program has received recognition throughout Texas and nationally. Direct service programs include prisoner correspondence, a creative writing workshop inside the prison, and prisoners as college writing mentors. We work for systemic change through collaboration with other congregations and organizations, educational events, advocacy, and outreach. We also collaborate with Fort Bend Family Health Centers in our Read to Kids/Books to Kids program, which is currently administered by the high school youth. Thoreau volunteers semi-annually restore a home for a family in need through “Hearts and Hammers” and have conducted food drives, clothing drives, and special collections for local charities and emergency relief efforts. We now have seven students that we are putting through college, paying for both their tuition and books, through the Thoreau Scholarship Fund. Begun in 2002, the Fund awards scholarships to area low-income students who are the first in their family to attend college. All of this outreach will be especially effective in our new home, which will be located in a low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood.

Social Action Calendar

Val Tolman

The Social Action Committee met in August and planned volunteer and community outreach opportunities for the next year. Take some time to look over the proposed calendar of activities below and see which look the most interesting to you and you might like to get involved with.  As we get closer to each event, we will provide more information, but if you have any questions now or if you see something that really speaks to you and you want to offer to get more involved, please feel free to talk to any member of the committee: Valerie Tolman, Cassey Crouch, John Speer, Joanne Speer, Joanie Havlik, Janice Milo, and Johanna DeYoung.