2025 OUTREACH & JUSTICE RECAP: Four Major Headlines
St. Luke's Charge Conference (Annual Business Meeting) was held on December 7. Here is the Outreach & Justice report that was shared.
HEADLINE #1: St. Luke’s congregation SERVES in a big way!
Each month there are multiple ways that St. Luke’s is serving our community. Our service generally falls within one of four Areas of Impact: Food Security, Housing Stability, Maternal & Child Health, and Equity in Education. A few of these ways include serving at Crooked Creek Food Pantry, packing sack lunches for the unhoused in the Fletcher Place area, Hub for Hope’s diaper pantry, Creation Care’s recycling efforts, UWF’s Projects with a Purpose, volunteering at Connections Books & Gifts, and so many more! We also go “all-in” with our big events like UWF’s Rummage with a Purpose, I Love My City, Back to School Bash, Thanksgiving Outreach, and Angel Tree. Altogether, nearly 1000 of us have served with Outreach & Justice this year!
Here is a snapshot of our impact…by the numbers:
- 60,000+ visits to Crooked Creek Food Pantry (12,000 unique families)
- 700+ sack lunches delivered each week to unhoused people in Fletcher Place neighborhood
- 1,350 Thanksgiving meals served or delivered
- 6,000+ students received school supplies, and 624 students attended the Back to School Bash
- 200 families served each month through the diaper pantry
- 300+ families served through Angel Tree
- 150 families engaged in Luke’s Leaders and Freedom School
- 42 families assisted with housing support (funds provided by Connections Books & Gifts)
- 12+ families at Washington Township Early Childhood Center supported weekly with groceries
- 25 immigrants participating in a citizenship class
- 70 children supported at Angel House in Tanzania
- 12 local partners supported through I Love My City
HEADLINE #2: EDUCATION continues to be a priority focus for St. Luke’s
With a large investment of dollars and volunteer hours, EDUCATION continues to be a central pillar of impact for Outreach & Justice Ministries. Nearly 200 volunteers support our 6-week summer Freedom School program and our school-year Luke’s Leaders program, which impact about 175 local students. Parents and students alike report that they experience educational growth, as well as improved skills such as public speaking, problem solving, and conflict resolution. Additionally, St. Luke’s participates with multiple other partners to throw an annual Back to School Bash, which provides practical things like school supplies, clothing, books, and medical check-ups for the school district.
HEADLINE #3: St. Luke’s Lays the Groundwork for CITY IMPACT
St. Luke’s mission statement contains an audacious phrase…reaching hundreds of thousands of people. Our vision for City Impact involves redesigning our Outreach AND our Justice ministries for a wider, community-level, systemic impact. Four important initiatives have launched from this vision in 2025, building partnership around different objectives, and establishing St. Luke’s as a collaborative and coalition-building leader in Indianapolis.
- THRIVING FAMILIES INITIATIVE (TFI) launched this year in partnership with St. Luke’s, Second Presbyterian Church, and Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. TFI is built on the conviction that poverty will only be eliminated by rebuilding a social fabric that involves meaningful relationships across differences in class, race, and background. Through a model of individual coaching and intentional community, TFI is walking alongside neighbors out of poverty and toward stability, growth, and good lives.
- St. Luke’s was instrumental in building and convening the coalition that ultimately resulted in STREETS TO HOME INDY. This bold partnership—between the City of Indianapolis, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP), and faith, corporate, and philanthropic partners—seeks to end chronic homelessness in Indianapolis. Phase 1 is already underway, and will provide permanent housing and support services for 350 of our most vulnerable unhoused neighbors by next summer. The faith community has pledged to raise $270,000 for Phase 1, and St. Luke’s participated by raising over $80,000. We are also working with the wider faith community to provide Move-In Kits for each newly housed person.
- In January, St. Luke’s helped to launch a multi-faith, grass-roots community organizing group that came to be known as INDY ACTION COALITION, under the umbrella of the largest grassroots organizing body in the state, Live Free Indiana. Community organizing is deeply rooted in relationships. Through IAC, St. Luke’s congregants are building stronger relationships with other Northside Indianapolis residents who are concerned about building up mental health support, affordable housing, dignity and welcome for immigrant families, and addressing public safety in ways that turn lives around. The focus is on building communities that know each other and work together to create places to live that are based on shared values. A large focus is helping individuals discover what they value in a community, what they are willing to stand up for, and how to tap into the collective power it takes to build exactly that. Together, this group has helped to rally funding for Streets to Home and the 988 clinician-led crisis response line. This group is also working on Indy’s treatment of immigrant detainees and other incarcerated persons.
- A group currently known as NORTHSIDE COMMUNITY PARTNERS began meeting at St. Luke’s in February, with representatives from schools, hospital systems, faith groups, community centers, food pantries, and other non-profit service providers on the North side of Indy. St. Luke’s is taking a leadership role as this group creates a partnership network designed to serve Indy’s North side. The working mission and vision statement of this group is as follows:
“We desire a community where all residents thrive in safety, health, wellness, and belonging. We are building a network of community partners who are aligned on this impact and who serve Northside neighbors by simplifying access to resources.”
HEADLINE #4: St. Luke’s Relaunches GLOBAL MISSIONS
A new Global Mission Council kicked off in 2025, identifying three areas of focus for St. Luke’s. First, we completed the financial support for the UMC Church in Nepal. Second, we affirmed our relationship with Project Rouj (formerly Zanmi Fondwa) by promoting and supporting their local fundraisers. And finally, we sent a group from St. Luke’s on a vision trip to Angel House in Tanzania. This group returned with inspiration for a transformational partnership with Angel House, and is working to build that foundation and prepare for a second trip in 2026.
submitted by Shelly Clasen