Peace with Justice Grants help ministries make a difference
By UNY Communications | Email
Across Upper New York, churches, ministries, and organizations are working to address injustice, strengthen communities, and create meaningful change in the lives of their neighbors.
The Peace with Justice Grants program provides an opportunity to support that work. Grounded in The United Methodist Church’s Social Principles, the grants help support ministries working toward justice, reconciliation, and peace in communities throughout Upper New York.
Gifts made through the Peace with Justice Sunday offering help fund grants of up to $1,500 for ministries working to address poverty, injustice, and other challenges facing their communities. You can make a contribution to Peace with Justice Sunday by clicking here.
As the October 30 application deadline approaches, past grant recipients show how Peace with Justice funding is being put into action across Upper New York.
Operation: Home Repair lends a helping hand to Schoharie County homeowners
In Schoharie County, Operation: Home Repair provides critical home repairs at no cost to low-income homeowners. The project is a ministry of the Schoharie Mosaic Cooperative Ministry, which includes ten United Methodist congregations in Schoharie County.
Volunteers from Schoharie Mosaic Cooperative churches, the community, and United Methodist congregations as far away as Rochester and Buffalo have rebuilt unsafe porches and stairways, installed accessible ramps, replaced deteriorating windows and doors, and repaired leaking roofs. Because homeowners are not charged for the work, the ministry relies on church fundraisers and grants, including the Peace with Justice Grant.
“Allowing homeowners to safely remain in their homes supports their dignity and maintains their connections to their communities and families,” said Paige Bulmer of Cobleskill United Methodist Church. “The Peace with Justice Grant allows our volunteers to be the hands and feet of Jesus with our neighbors, and we are deeply grateful for the support.”
Sacred Pause creates space for healing and connection
In Schenectady, a Peace with Justice Grant is helping Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church create space for healing and spiritual connection through Sacred Pause, part of the church’s Hope Restored Recovery Ministry.
Created especially with the recovery community in mind, Sacred Pause is also open to anyone seeking healing, reflection, and spiritual connection. Gatherings include music, storytelling, guided meditation, breath prayer, journaling, silence, and conversation.
Musician and storyteller John Dillon of Hope Road Music partners with Pastor Katelyn Bradwell in leading the gatherings, using original music and story to help participants explore recovery, spirituality, and their own experiences. Peace with Justice funding has helped support Dillon’s participation and provide participants with tools including palm labyrinths, prayer beads, and worry stones.
But the ministry is also providing something less tangible: time and space to be present. At Sacred Pause, participants are invited to come as they are. People are returning month after month, relationships are forming, and feedback has consistently described the gatherings as places of safety and grace.
Fall into the Alphabet helps young readers get a strong start
Also in Schenectady, The Reading Is Fun Program, Inc. is using Peace with Justice funding to help young students build foundational literacy skills.
Through its Fall into the Alphabet project, a Peace with Justice Grant helped purchase Z is for Moose for pre-K students and Oops Pounce Quick Run! for kindergarten students across all 11 elementary schools in the Schenectady City School District. Last year, the program distributed 475 pre-K books and 740 Kindergarten books, with similar numbers expected for this school year.
“This grant, along with support from local foundations, ensures Schenectady’s youngest learners begin school with the essential tools for lifelong academic success,” said Mary Lou Russo, executive director of The Reading Is Fun Program.
The organization also supports pre-K through third-grade students through weekly sessions where trained volunteers work one-on-one with students to reinforce critical literacy skills.
Freedom Church of the Poor connects faith with justice
At Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, a Peace with Justice Grant helped the Rev. Pat Dupont bring the work of the Freedom Church of the Poor into a local setting.
After participating in a 2023 faith leaders learning cohort led by the national movement, Rev. Dupont began a local Freedom Church of the Poor initiative through Asbury First’s Community Outreach Center. The center hosts four free meals each week, bringing together hundreds of people experiencing poverty and homelessness.
Worship services were held in the dining area following meals around Christian holy days including Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints. The services included music, prayer, scripture, and reflections connecting the observances to justice work, often accompanied by invitations to opportunities for social action.
“It has been powerful to engage familiar scriptures and holidays in this unique setting, with such a diverse community, and with an intentional and unapologetic bent towards uncovering the testimony of God’s desired social change (peace and justice!) woven throughout our traditions and observances,” Rev. Dupont said.
Together, these ministries show the many ways Peace with Justice funding can support work rooted in the Social Principles and responsive to the needs of local communities. They also show what gifts made through the Peace with Justice Sunday offering can help make possible here in Upper New York.
For churches, ministries, and organizations with a new idea or a next step in their work for justice and peace, the grant program offers an opportunity to move that vision forward.
Peace with Justice Grants are offered twice each year, with application deadlines of April 30 and October 30. Applications may be submitted on a rolling basis and are reviewed following each deadline, with funding decisions typically made within four to six weeks.
Grants provide up to $1,500 and are designed to encourage emerging and next-step ministries. Repeat funding is not available.
Applicants are asked to provide a project budget, a statement of support, and a plan for sharing outcomes. Grant recipients are also asked to submit a follow-up report highlighting the impact of their work.
The next application deadline is October 30, 2026. Those interested in applying can fill out the application here.
For more information about Peace with Justice Grants or the application process, contact Peace with Justice Coordinator Heather Smith at peacewithjustice@unyumc.org.
