The ministry, called Una Familia

Ministry Accelerator helps organizations grow 

Virginia United Methodists are helping established ministries expand by teaching them new skills in a two-day "accelerator" program.

 

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Once upon a time, in a poor community along Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a teenager working on a high school service project gathered five young children from her Spanish-speaking neighborhood for afternoon tutoring sessions at a nearby United Methodist church.

As the students’ academic skills improved, word of the program spread among Accomack County’s Latino parents, many of them immigrants who had struggled to help their children with English, math and other school assignments. Within a few years, the once-tiny service project had blossomed into a full-blown regional ministry.

The ministry, called Una Familia, offers help to 130 elementary-through-high school-age students at five area churches, a small scholarship program, and advocacy and translation services for families.
Its leadership now wants to help even more people by addressing the need for affordable housing and by expanding into a neighboring county.

With these ambitious goals in mind, several of Una Familia’s team members attended a pilot program called Ministry Accelerator in January 2017.

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