Congregational Care

We all need help from time to time.  We may be grieving, or recovering from an illness, or dealing with transportation problems.  The members of the Congregational Care Committee are here for you in times like these. If you or someone you know needs support, contact the team as shown below.If you know someone who needs help, find out first if they are willing to be contacted by the committee before submitting a request on their behalf.

Formal Support Planning: How to Ask for Support from the Volunteers of CCC

Someone from the team will get right back to you with a few questions to determine how we can best help. If you need ongoing support,  a Care Coordinator will call you, determine your needs, and begin a schedule of assistance that may include several volunteers who will work together. Again, everyone on the team is committed to absolute confidentiality.

Informal Support: How to Get in the Loop

If you would like to stay aware of people’s ongoing personal lives and offer informal, casual, and nonconfidential general conversational emails, you can join the church email/chat/newsgroup communications channel, an online Yahoo group called Joys and Concerns. 

How to Join the Yahoo Email Group

  1. Create a Yahoo account at www.yahoo.com (if you don’t already have a Yahoo account)
  2. Send an email from your regular email account to joys-concerns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will become a member of the Yahoo group and start getting emails. You can reply to these in the usual way from your regular email account. You can also see the emails and all the archives of the group at the Yahoo group page, so you don’t need to save or archive them on your personal email account.
  3. When you want to post a message, send an email to joys-concerns@yahoogroups.com
  4. For assistance with computer questions, call Susan at 512-342-2527, Bobbie at 512-833-6223, or Tom at 512-412-4644.

Guidelines for Using the Yahoo Email Group

In this group, you can send and receive emails about the issues in the lives of those who choose to post there. You can send an email to the group even if you are not in it, by sending an email to joys-concerns@yahoogroups.com. Please observe the following guidelines about what to post in this newsgroup:

  • The purpose of the group is to support the loving connections among us. You are encouraged to share your joys, good news (like, I got a job!!), and accomplishements.  Also, this is a place to let people know if you are having a challenge and just want to stay in touch.
  • Please note that posting here is not a request for help; to do that, you must contact the committee directly (described above). If you know someone who needs help, find out first if they are willing to be contacted by the committee before submitting a request on their behalf.
  • Non-Confidential: The yahoo chat/email group is a semi-public channel, and replies go to everyone on the list, so confidentiality is not guaranteed here. You are cautioned against sharing extremely personal or confidential information.
  • Keep messages brief, under 100 words. 
  • The list is moderated and information can be edited at the moderator’s discretion. 
  • Church members and their friends can join.
  • No solicitation for any business offers.
  • Do not forward messages outside the church without written permission from the person who wrote it and the moderator.
  • Don’t post information about someone else unless you have their approval. Your submission of the information is your commitment that this permission was obtained.

How to Become a Team Volunteer

First, being a volunteer does NOT involve attending any meetings or other time-consuming commitments.  Requirements include:

  1. Contact the committee to let us know you want to sign up. Phone: 512-452-6168, extension 315 (voicemail) or Email: uucongcare@gmail.com.
  2. Choose which of the following you are interested in doing: Visits, Cards, Calls, Meals, Rides, Errands, Listening Ministry.
  3. Meet once with a committee member for orientation and training.
  4. Sign up to the online planning calendar tool at www.lotsahelpinghands.com   (It’s free, and assistance with computer questions is provided – call Susan at 512-342-2527, Bobbie at 512-833-6223, or Tom at 512-412-4644). You need to be in this tool because each person with ongoing needs gets a calendar set up in it so that all the help can be coordinated.  The Care Coordinator will send you a separate email and link for each person you help in an ongoing situation.
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