Lafayette Urban Ministry Campaign for the Future
A Tradition of Helping – A Future of Hope

The Lafayette Urban Ministry is an organization of 42 local churches (Catholic and Protestant) that serves as a social safety net for needy children and working families in our community. For 37 years LUM has worked to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and nurture low-income children in the example of Jesus.

LUM Programs (2009)

• Jubilee Christmas – gifts of new toys at Christmas for 1,800 needy children
• Emergency Financial Aid for those facing eviction or utility disconnects
• Tax Preparation - $1.5 million in refunds brought back to 1,200 working families
• LUM Camp – overnight summer camp for 80 children
• LUM Afterschool Program – educational enrichment for 45 children
• LUM Food Pantry – 2,500 individuals fed each month
• Social Justice Advocacy – on behalf of at-risk children and their families
• Emergency Shelter – 529 homeless men and women served
• Case Management – 100 homeless individuals moved off the street into stable housing
• Hunger Hike 2009 - $75,000 raised for St. Tom’s Haiti Ministry, Food Finders and LUM Food programs
• Greater Lafayette Community Thanksgiving Meal
  

LUM’s Campaign for The Future

After a comprehensive strategic planning process in 2008 the LUM board commissioned a $2.8 million dollar Campaign for The Future that will position the ministry on the cutting edge of services to our community’s needy children and working families well into the coming decade. Through a combination of new program initiatives and capital improvements, the Lafayette Urban Ministry will help those it serves to escape poverty. At-risk children will learn to achieve more in school. Low-income parents will be offered the tools to become more self-sufficient. More than $1.4 million has been raised so far in gifts and multi-year pledges.

Twelve new programs at LUM!

 Youth

• Achieve! Stay in School Program for 50 at-risk youth
• $100,000 scholarship fund for Achieve! Program graduates
• Summer learning retention program for 45 at-risk children
• 50% expansion of LUM’s Afterschool Program enrollment

Asset Building for Working Families

• Individual Development Accounts Program
• Financial Management Classes
• First-time Homeowners Classes
• Small Business Start-up Classes
• 50% Expansion of Tax Preparation Service for Working Families

Helping the Homeless Move into Permanent Housing

• Expansion of Case Management Services for the Homeless
• New ID Clinic
• $50,000 New Opportunity Fund for the Homeless

Capital Expansion

• New LUM Youth Program Center
• New Mini Busses for LUM Youth Programs
• Health and Safety Improvements in LUM’s Homeless Shelter
• Additional staff and volunteer offices

To Learn More... And How You Can Help!

We hope you will keep the success of our campaign in your prayers. And we hope you will prayerfully consider making a three year pledge or a one-time gift. Contact Joe Micon, LUM’s Executive Director, to learn more – 423-2691.

Honorary Campaign Chair Patty Jischke

Campaign Chair Sally Byrn

Leadership Team Sonya Margerum

Joe Micon
Mark Hermodson
Charlie Shook
Dave Vorbeck
Ron Smith
Jud Dolphin
Mary Anderson

Did you know that....

• Instead of focusing on differences between people of faith, LUM enables churches to work together?
• Each of LUM’s 42 member churches sends a representative to sit on the LUM Board, making the Lafayette Urban Ministry the largest ecumenical organization in our community?
• More than 3,000 community members, and Purdue students, faculty and staff volunteered in a LUM Program last year? Talk about engagement!
• LUM served more than 5,200 hundred low-income families last year – a full 100% of Tippecanoe County’s poverty population?
• LUM does everything it does because Christ mandates us to love and serve our neighbors?

Loving Neighbors Seeking Justice
Empowering the Least Among Us

“Powerless people in our community need a powerful friend and for 37 years that friend, and voice, has been the Lafayette Urban Ministry. Not only has St. Tom’s been a foundational part of LUM but LUM has been a foundational part of St. Tom’s too. Together, and in Christ’s example, we have fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless cared for children and fought for justice. I pray that our already strong friendship continues to grow."

- Fr. Dan Davis, St. Thomas Aquinas Center

To view our campaign video, or to access a pledge card, click the buttons below: