New Jerusalem Evangelist Temple has always worked to connect with the community that is near to us, worships with us, and serves with us. Our founder Bishop Bobby L. Williams was an advocate of service to the needs of all. It did not matter the educational level, the financial level, or even the ability to give back. Service to ALL others was his mantra.
New Jerusalem served the community throughout the years with a Clothing Closet, Food Pantry, back to school programs, childcare and after school programs, in-house community library, Health Fairs, and Homeless initiates as well as other services. We also served the greater community through our World Mission division during crisis such as Hurricanes, Earthquakes etc.
The pandemic created a gap where we couldn’t connect in all of the ways we historically had. When we heard about this program we immediately wanted to help our community to get through this dreadful situation by becoming a resource and connecting the community to the health initiates that were available to them to combat COVID. Through word of mouth and previous professional connections to the program leaders we were convinced that the program would allow and support us in connecting in the vital ways emergently needed in the community.
Although there were barriers, we persevered to overcome them as they occurred. Our initial experience was very eye-opening to the fact that the community wasn’t necessarily open to having a testing site nor were they aware of the resource. We had our work cut out to ensure we raised awareness and that we helped in educating the community of the need to test, and eventually vaccinate.
Through the efforts of our volunteer team we were able to help individuals and families work, stay or go back to school, know if they had antibodies all in one location. They were then able to vaccinate during our vaccine clinic dates. We also provided food, clothes, school supplies, eye exams and childhood immunizations to return to school.
Working with this program has allowed New Jerusalem to re-connect to the community, be a resource center in many ways, connect with other faith-based and community based partners, and make new connections. We would love to continue working with PHIO and would like to share some constructive feedback about our experience. When the program re-engages it would be advantageous for PHIO to share from on the on start any reporting expectations. This ensure that information is gathered and maintained throughout the life of the program. Transparency in communicating any challenges that may prevent or hinder the progress of the partners delivering to the community helps partners keep their community engaged and not lose trust. Valuing what lessons were learned in technology challenges, responsiveness to partners, the reporting process, and the database usage friendliness. We thank you for the opportunity and look forward to working with you in the future.