A Commitment to Serving All in Elkhart County

Church Community Services is meant to serve all neighbors in need, but until recently has struggled to serve the Latinx community effectively, due in large part to the language barrier. In the past CCS has relied on the assistance of Spanish speaking volunteers to communicate with guests as they visit the food pantry, but Spanish speaking volunteers are not available for every shift, and as a result CCS has not become established as a welcoming place to those who predominantly speak Spanish.

Church Community Services is committed to becoming more inclusive. Last spring, through support from Watershed Consulting and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, CCS translated print materials and signage, and a phone translation service was made available so when guests call the Financial Services program, staff can communicate with Spanish speaking guests. Church Community Services also became the pick up site for City of Elkhart resident ID’s, which are particularly helpful to residents needing a photo ID. The ID is accepted at schools, many banks, interactions with law enforcement and in healthcare settings.

Thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, further steps in outreach to the Latinx community have begun this year. The first step was hiring Yolo López DeMarco as Director of Community Outreach. In this role, Yolo will provide vision and leadership for community engagement-centered activities with the Latinx community. Yolo will be meeting with key stakeholders in Elkhart County to better connect them to Church Community Services. “While many Elkhart residents are aware of the services CCS provides, others like the immigrant and Latinx community don’t really know about assistance CCS has to offer,” Yolo said.

One of the first meetings Yolo held was with parent liaisons from four different Elkhart Community Schools. During this meeting, Yolo got to hear about the challenging circumstances parents are facing with the pandemic, such as shortage of funds for food due to a cut in employment hours, stress, anxiety and uncertainty of whether or not they will have enough money to pay next month’s rent. Yolo was able to reassure the parent liaisons that CCS is a welcoming place for all who are in need of food and financial services, and the parent liaisons were extremely thankful for this and eager to spread the word to the families they serve. 

Some of Yolo’s goals for this year include creating small (COVID-19 safe) community events, promoting CCS services through digital and broadcasting services and assisting in the recruitment of volunteers. She will also suggest new community-based programs and partnerships to link CCS with the Latinx community to ensure everyone in Elkhart County knows about CCS.  

In the coming months Church Community Services will be hiring two part-time Spanish speaking staff to assist in the food pantry and financial services departments. The agency has also received funding from Crossroads United Way that will allow for the purchase of a greater variety of foods appreciated by the Latinx community.

“Being better able to serve those in the Latinx community has been a long time coming. We are called to help all those in need, and we are grateful to our funders for making this needed outreach finally become a reality,” Tom McArthur, executive director, said.