December 13, 2024
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | cebulaj@lei.org
Grants will support efforts nationwide to engage youth and young adults in faith and service projects
INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded grants to 12 organizations across the United States to help them nurture and deepen the faith of Christian young people by engaging them in intentional acts of service and in reflection about the meaning of service in their lives.
The Endowment made the grants through its National Youth and Young Adult Initiative on Faith and Service (Faith and Service Initiative). Totaling more than $70 million, the grants support a wide variety of efforts that will provide opportunities for Christian teenagers and young adults to serve others and then explore connections between those experiences and their faith. Researchers, youth workers, and pastors and other religious leaders report that service is an important path through which adolescents and young adults find meaning and recognize the relevance of faith in their lives. Service experiences also can provide young people with a sense of belonging and a deeper connection to their faith communities.
“Many young people are eager to discover ways to serve others and contribute to the well-being of their communities and the world,” said Christopher L. Coble, the Endowment’s vice president for religion. “The projects being funded through the Faith and Service Initiative hold the promise of helping young people grow spiritually by drawing on Christian traditions to reflect on the meaning of service. They also will strengthen their ties to faith communities and help those faith communities understand more fully the needs and perspectives of young people.”
The newly funded organizations will take different approaches to engaging young people. The organizations will recruit and connect young people with faith-based service opportunities and help them draw on biblical and theological traditions to integrate their acts of service with their lives of faith. Many will facilitate peer communities among young people and connect them with mentors who will support their efforts to serve others.
The organizations also will identify practices for engaging young people in service experiences that can be replicated by various faith-based organizations and provide workshops, coaching, online training opportunities and small grants so leaders from other ministries can develop and implement their own faith and service programs for young people.
The organizations and the grants they were awarded are as follows:
Appalachia Service Project, Johnson City, TN | $5 million
Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA | $5 million
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA | $10 million
Center for Youth Ministry Training, Brentwood, TN| $4,903,808
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA| $10 million
Leadership Foundations, Tacoma, WA | $5 million
National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry, Washington, DC | $5 million
Orthodox Volunteer Corps, Pittsburgh, PA | $1 million
Project Transformation National, Dallas, TX | $4,250,000
Together Chicago, Chicago, IL | $5 million
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN | $9,999,997
Youthfront, Kansas City, MO | $5 million
Each of these organizations has experience working with young people. Many will collaborate with colleges and universities, national and regional denominational offices and agencies, multidenominational church networks, parachurch organizations and service agencies. The organizations funded through the Faith and Service Initiative represent a broad spectrum of Christian traditions that includes Catholic, mainline and evangelical Protestant, Orthodox and Pentecostal faith communities and communities rooted in Black Church and Hispanic traditions.
About Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. While the primary aim of its religion grantmaking focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States, the Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.