Marketplace of Meaningful Gifts

The Marketplace of Meaningful Gifts gives us an opportunity to support local nonprofit organizations. Instead of giving people gifts they don't need, we can give to organizations that really do serve the needs of those in our community who are less fortunate. The Marketplace participants for the 2009 Christmas season are listed below. After allocating your gifts via the form (below right), send a check for the total amount to CUCC, or drop your check in the offering plate on any Sunday before Christmas. Make your check out to CUCC, and put "Marketplace" on the check memo line. CUCC will make sure that your designated amount is sent to each agency that you choose to support. If you wish to send gift cards to folks whom you honor via a contribution in their name, you can pick up gift cards at the back of the sanctuary during December.

Alliance of AIDS Services/Carolina
The Alliance mission is to serve people living with HIV/AIDS, their loved ones, caregivers, and communities at large, through compassionate and non-judgmental care, prevention, education, and advocacy. The Alliance serves people with HIV/AIDS and their families through direct services such as providing transportation to medical appointments, providing housing, and skilled nursing services. We serve the Triangle community through education and prevention programs and advocacy for those afflicted with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
AASC
PO Box 12583
Raleigh, NC 27605

www.aas-c.org

Friends of Residents in Long Term Care
Friends of Residents in Long Term Care is a nonprofit citizen advocacy organization for residents in North Carolina's long term care facilities and their families. Friends of Residents' mission is to advance the quality of life in residential long term care. Friends of Residents envisions higher standards than currently exist, and we are a model for other states. Friends of Residents is North Carolina's only private, non-profit consumer advocacy organization that represents long-term care residents and their families. Friends of Residents carries out its mission through education and advocacy for public policy change.
Friends of Residents in Long Term Care
883-C Washington St.
Raleigh, NC 27605

www.forltc.org		  

Good News Message Church, KCC

congo Good News Message Church, KCC, originally named the Church of the Twelve Apostles, is the Congolese community of worshipers who meet in CUCC. Good News Message Church has a nearly 20-year relationship with CUCC, as its first members found a home here in the early 1990s. CUCC and Good News Message Church continue to share in music, celebrations, and the life of the greater community.

FIGS

FIGSFilling In Gaps appropriates donated monies to purchase prescription medicines for qualified people through the Wake Co. Dept. of Human Services and Urban Ministries. Local pharmacies fill the prescriptions which are paid for with your contributions. 98 cents of every dollar goes directly to pay for essential medicines and supplies. FIGS has provided assistance to residents of Wake County for twenty six years.
FIGS of Wake County, Inc.
P.O. Box 12821
Raleigh, NC 27605		  

Haven House
Haven House Services was founded in 1973 as a private, non-profit agency to serve the needs of young people in difficult situations. Haven House offers many programs directed toward serving at risk youths. The following are some examples of the programs at Haven House. Safe Place Outreach, a component of Haven House's crisis shelter, is a network of 200+ public locations that provide young people immediate access to assistance with the help of more than 100 trained volunteers. Wrenn House is the only shelter for runaway and homeless youth in Wake County providing immediate intervention and/or temporary shelter 24/7 for young people 10 - 17 who are runaways, homeless or in a crisis. Homesteaders provides experienced counselors who work to prevent out-of-home placement of youth 7 - 17 through intensive in-home family counseling, parenting skill development and use of community resources.Youth Enrichment Services (YES) matches at-risk or delinquent young people ages 7 - 17 with appropriate, trained adult role models.
Haven House
706 Hillsborough Street Suite 200
Raleigh, NC 27603

www.havenhousenc.org		  

Interact

Interact is a private, non-profit, United Way agency that provides safety, support, and awareness to victims and survivors of domestic violence and rape/sexual assault. Interact also promotes violence-free relationships and communities through collaboration, public information, education, and advocacy. Interact was formed in the 1980's by the merger of three Wake County agencies: Rape Crisis Center, Women's Aid, and Child Abuse Prevention Services. The resulting agency was known as The Family Violence and Prevention Center, Inc., and in 1984 became known as Interact. Interact is the only confidential domestic violence prevention program serving Wake County's twelve municipalities and population of over 800,000. Interact fulfills this mission through the support of its volunteers and community.

Interact
612 Wade Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27605

www.interactofwake.org		  

Koinonia Partners
Koinonia is a Christian farm community founded in 1942 by Clarence & Florence Jordan and Martin & Mabel England. Home of the Cotton Patch Gospel, birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners, Prison Jail Project, Fuller Center for Housing and other ministries. Still growing pecans and peanuts, welcoming visitors, and living the demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God. The Koinonia mission is to live together as Christians in intentional community sharing a life of prayer, work, study, service and fellowship. We seek to embody peacemaking, sustainability, and radical sharing. While honoring people of all backgrounds and faiths, we strive to demonstrate the way of Jesus as an alternative to materialism, militarism and racism. At present, the Koinonia community numbers 25 members. They are committed to a balanced budget supporting ourselves through the sale of farm products and bakery goods so that donations may be used to support our ministries. It is the investment of many faithful donors that allows our ministries--hospitality, Heart to Heart home repair, Koinonia Community Outreach Center, community internships, peacemaking work, classes and education, and much more--to flourish.
Koinonia Partners
1324 GA Hwy 49 S
Americus, GA 31719

www.koinoniapartners.org

Loaves and Fishes
Loaves and Fishes is a small, private, non-profit organization in Raleigh, North Carolina that serves as an extended family to at-risk children through long-term, individualized support so the children succeed in both school and society. Loaves and Fishes promotes educational success of children and youth who regularly attend high-quality after-school programs provided by the organization.  Loaves and fishes promotes collaboration between staff, teachers, and parents to maximize a child's potential for success. Loaves and fishes provides community service opportunities for all of the students, all the way from kindergarten to graduation. Loaves and Fishes provides a safe, supportive environment that operates during the school year, four days a week, from 3:00pm until 6:45pm. Summer camp for some students are provided as well. Loaves and Fishes educates students about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse and offers a safe place to talk about issues of peer pressure in weekly groups for middle and high school students.
Loaves and Fishes
P.O. Box 14596
Raleigh, NC 27620

www.loavesandfisheschildren.org

N. C. Peace Action
Peace ActionN.C. Peace Action is a part of part of a national grassroots network to place pressure on Congress and the Administration through write-in campaigns, internet actions, citizen lobbying and direct action. Through a close relationship with progressive members of Congress, Peace Action plays a key role in devising strategies to move forward peace legislation. As a leading member of United for Peace and Justice and the Win Without War coalition, Peace Action lends its expertise and large network to achieving common goals.
North Carolina Peace Action
P.O. Box 10384
Raleigh NC 27605

www.ncpeaceaction.org

National Federation for the Blind
NFBThe National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.
>Wake County Federation of the Blind
c/o Lusi Radford
3604 Octavia
Raleigh, NC 27606

www.nfb.org/

Passage Home

Passage HomePassage Home's mission is to strengthen impoverished families and neighborhoods using a community economic development strategy that includes: helping families in transition, providing job creation and business development, affordable housing, and encouraging the spiritual well being of the families and communities we serve. Programs include the following. Transitional Housing in the form of affordable apartment units are made available to women with children for up to 24 months during program enrollment.& Community Development Programs services are provided that are designed to meet neighborhood needs including childcare, youth mentoring, vocational skills, and neighborhood advocacy. Permanent Housing is provided to income-qualified Wake Co. residents along with home buyer education.
Passage Home
PO Box 10347
Raleigh, NC 27605

www.passagehome.org

Stop Hunger Now

Stop Hunger NowEstablished in 1998, Stop Hunger Now is a 501(c)3 non-governmental relief organization that coordinates food and medical aid projects across the globe.  Stop Hunger Now's mission is to provide the maximum amount of food and life saving aid to the maximum number of the most poor and hungry throughout the world in the most rapid, efficient and effective manner. Stop Hunger Now provides direct food relief in crisis areas and in areas where chronic hunger and malnutrition exists. Stop Hunger Now’s innovative model of developing international partnerships, as well as working with indigenous organizations, has created a responsive, timely method of distributing needed resources.
2501 Clark Avenue
Suite 301
Raleigh, NC  27607-7213

www.stophungernow.org		  

Women's Center of Wake County

Womens CenterThe Women's Center of Wake County, Inc. started over twenty years ago as a grass roots movement to meet the needs of women re-entering the community from prison. Over the course of those 25+ years, the Center has responded to the changing needs of women, expanding and providing services as indicated by the women in our community. Over the last 12 years, the Center has shifted focus in response to the most critical needs of women, addressing the growing issue of homelessness for women with children and single women. The Center now serves as one of only two Day Shelters in Raleigh, and the only one for women and children who are homeless. In addition, the Center has re-engineered and restructured its programs and services in response to the growing needs and producing results of increasing self-reliance. The expansion into transitional and permanent housing with supportive services was the next logical step in fulfilling the mission of empowerment for women and their families. In 2000, the Center opened Epiphany House, a communal living environment for single women in a beautiful two-story home in Raleigh. 2003 and 2004 brought more growth as the Women's Center purchased two single-family homes which we rent to low-income, single moms.

Women's Center of Wake County
128 E. Hargett St., Suite 10
Raleigh, NC  27601

www.wcwc.org 		 

Cedar Cross Retreat Center

Cedar CrossCedar Cross Retreat Center: offering hospitality to individuals, couples or small groups for prayer, rest and renewal in a setting of natural beauty and simplicity. Cedar Cross is a place to reflect, learn, re-connect with nature, deepen your spiritual life, and experience community. Whether on a walk along a winding trail, watching the reflections on a pond, talking with a friend, or gaining insights from a retreat leader, our hope is that you will find it a space to meet your needs.

Covenant Community Church operates its retreat center through the Cedar Cross Mission Group. We are a small ecumenical church offering an experiential form of worship that invites lively participation by all. We worship on Sundays from 5 - 7 PM in Raleigh at the Community United Church of Christ.
Cedar Cross Retreat Center
150 Cedar Cross Way
Louisburg, NC 27549

www.cedarcrossretreat.org