Joshua’s Place | Families Serving Families

Joshua’s Place is a Cincinnati, OH based, volunteer driven, church supported organization focused on helping families overcome instability. They not only help/serve those in our city that are currently struggling, impoverished, and/ unstable, but they get involved, educate, and aid these families in a way that teaches them that they can rebound and rebuild.

My whole family has been serving at Joshua’s Place for over a year now. I had first heard about Joshua’s Place at our church, Rivers Crossing, as our church is one of their primary supporters. I learned of the mission and vision of what Joshua’s Place was and knew immediately that I wanted to get involved in the good that they were doing in our community.

So…What is Joshua’s Place?

I couldn’t possibly describe this incredible organization any better than they can explain themselves, so I will refer to their website for this answer:

THEIR STORY

Joshua’s Place started in the basement of small house in South Lebanon in 2008. When we started we served just 15 families with 10 volunteers. We started as simple Free Store Food Pantry with critical distinction… we wanted to be in relationship with every family we served. The relational approach to service allows us to hear directly from those we serve so that we help with real problems, not just solutions that make us feel good.

Since then we’ve grown to an army of more than 200 volunteers serving hundreds of families each month. Our focus is developmental as we seek to engage in generational change. We provide practical and material benefits but know that poverty is defined more by broken relationships, instability and lack of options. This understanding has taken us into innovative approaches to engaging domestic poverty.

We partner with churches in the area and are primarily supported by Rivers Crossing Community Church in Mason and The Village Church in South Lebanon.

MISSION & VISION

Joshua’s Place exist to help individuals and families overcome the barriers in their lives that cause instability. We look first at what our community and the individuals we serve have to offer versus just what they lack. We believe every person is an image bearer of God and therefore has tremendous value and worth. We work to preserve that worth by only doing help that preserves dignity and promotes personal engagement. We measure the help we provide to ensure we are not perpetuating dependency and avoid being viewed as parental figures in the lives of the adults we serve. We know that poverty is often perpetuated by addiction so we focus much of our energy to the cause of recovery.

To learn more and get involved today, fill out the form you will find on this page: https://www.joshuasplace.cc/get-involved/

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Start making a difference in your community today!

My Involvement at Joshua’s Place:

As I said, my whole family serves at Joshua’s Place. It all started with my daughter’s and I. After I went through the orientation process, I decided that I wanted to do something that I could do along side my two toddler daughters (10 months and 3 years old at the time). I decided that picking up the food from Kroger and stocking the co-op pantry would be the best fit for me. We love being a part of doing good in our community and it is so important to me to make sure that my girls grow up with a serving heart and an attitude of gratitude. Being a part of Joshua’s Place has continually grown our passion to help and serve others. We were even featured as a volunteer spotlight in Joshua’s Place’s March newsletter. You can read our blurb here: https://www.joshuasplace.cc/march-newsletter-care-closet-program-and-spotl/

The girls and I continue today to deliver and stock the pantry today, but my husband and I are also involved in other areas within Joshua’s Place as well now. My husband is a business relationship manager for a large bank and I am a former athletic trainer with a degree in Bio-mechanics and Kinesiology. Joshua’s Place requires and offers classes to those in the co-op program. Two of these classes are a finance class and a health/fitness class. So my husband now teaches the finance class and I the fitness class! We love getting to connect one-on-one with those we are serving through these courses. You truly grow in compassion and empathy when listening to, learning of and loving others through their struggles.

So…Where can you serve at Joshua’s Place?

There are several places for you and/ your family to serve at Joshua’s Place. Once you complete their orientation process, you will have a better idea as to where you might enjoy serving most. However, you can start to get an idea of what to expect by reading through the different serving roles that they mention on their website:

Food Co-Op – Families come to Joshua’s Place bi-weekly to receive about $50 in groceries. It’s a cooperative program that ask the participants to donate $4 each time they come and to be actively involved in a developmental programs we offer. We are open 5:00-7:30 every Wednesday and need greeters, stock room workers and coordinators (meet with and pray with participants).

**Several opportunities in this area to serve with your family/kids.

Whiz Kids – Whiz Kids is a one-to-one reading literacy tutoring program. Each week of the school year an elementary age child meets with the same adult tutor for an hour. We need tutors that are available between 4pm and 5pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. You do not need to be an educator or have experience tutoring. We provide all the training and materials you need to be a hero to your Whiz Kid.

PowerPacks – Every week of the school year we provide more than 250 bags of weekend food to children in the Kings School District alone! The bags at designated school districts are filled with food that is easily prepared and shelf stable. The packs are packed once a week and delivered to the respective schools by volunteers. We need people to receive the monthly bulk orders during the day, drivers for the different schools each week, and weekly help packing PowerPacks.

**Awesome opportunity to serve as a family/with your kids!

Seasonal Programs & Projects – Throughout the year we have several project-oriented opportunities to volunteer. In May we have our Appreciation Banquet, in June/July we have Summer Camp in the Village, and in November we have our annual fund raising banquet and Neighborhood Thanksgiving Food drive.

**Another great family/kid serving opportunity!

Administrative/Graphics/Communications – We have a few key roles for volunteers skilled in organizational roles. These roles help us write newsletters, design promotional materials, fund raising, inventory management and plan large events.

To learn more and get involved today, fill out the form you will find on this page: https://www.joshuasplace.cc/get-involved/

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Start making a difference in your community today!

To discover more family friendly things to do in and around Cincinnati, OH, check out Cincinnati PLAYces!

Thank you for considering serving at Joshua’s Place! It’s people like YOU that make a difference in this world!

Reference Credit: https://www.joshuasplace.cc/

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