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Outreach

Local Outreach

Second Presbyterian Church is committed to supporting ministries of compassion in our local, national, and global community. As a mission minded church, we are dedicated to supporting people and families who are vulnerable with a special focus on missions ministering to individuals who are financially insecure, sick, oppressed, hungry, underprivileged, and powerless. Each year, we commit funds and offer volunteer engagement to the following agencies.

If you are interested in learning more or becoming involved, contact the church for more information.

Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI)

Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI) provides an opportunity for families of the incarcerated to video conference with inmates while jailed. Second Presbyterian has been hosting families of inmates since 1995. Volunteers are needed to host families during the video calls at the Alexa House.

Bradley Free Clinic

The Bradley Free Clinic provides free medical, dental, behavioral health and pharmacy care to the Roanoke Valley’s working uninsured, temporarily unemployed and their families through volunteer health care professionals. In 2019, Second Presbyterian began supporting Bradley Free Clinic’s behavioral health programs. Volunteers are needed to greet patients and provide meals to volunteers on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

CHIP Roanoke

Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley, an early childhood home visiting program focusing on providing health care access to the underserved has been supported by Second Presbyterian since the early 2000’s. Volunteers are needed to serve at the Breakfast with Santa and Back on the Rack fundraising events.

Congregations in Action

Congregations in Action (CIA) is a partnership of seven Downtown and Old Southwest congregations focused on supporting Highland Park Elementary School. Through CIA, Second Presbyterian sponsors the Pack-a-Snack program, a Back-to-School drive, and Fun Day. Volunteers are needed as Lunch Buddies, tutors, mentors, and to help at Fun Day. Second Presbyterian has been a member of CIA since 2009.

Cool Springs Presbyterian Summer Camp Program

Each year, Cool Springs Presbyterian Church in Thaxton, VA sponsors at risk children from Bedford and the Roanoke area for a week at Camp Eagle, a Baptist camp in Fincastle.

Family Promise of Greater Roanoke

Family Promise of Greater Roanoke helps families with children facing homelessness by providing shelter, case management, and stabilization programs once they have secured housing to ensure they remain independent. Since 2004, Second Presbyterian has helped host and feed families at our Alexa House. Volunteers are needed to help host families, prepare meals, and provide minor repair work to homes.

Family Service of Roanoke Valley

Family Service of Roanoke Valley, supported by Second Presbyterian since 2010, provides a broad range of mental wellness services for youth and adults throughout the Roanoke Valley. Volunteers are needed to help maintain their children’s garden and to serve at their annual Bike, Car & Truck Show. Snack donations are also welcome for children in the program.

Feeding Southwest Virginia

Feeding Southwest Virginia, whose mission is to nourish neighbors, engage community partners, and develop solutions to address food insecurity, has received support from Second Presbyterian since 2014. Volunteers are needed to assemble food boxes, prepare meals, and distribute food.

Habitat for Humanity of Roanoke

Second Presbyterian has partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Roanoke since 1993 through their Apostles Build. In 2023, Second Presbyterian entered a standalone home sponsorship in partnership with St. John’s Episcopal Church. Habitat for Humanity of Roanoke is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating, and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions.  Volunteers are needed to construct and rehab homes. No experience needed!

House of Bread

House of Bread is a program for formerly incarcerated women focused on giving women job training and hope as they reintegrate into society. Second Presbyterian has supported House of Bread since 2017. Volunteers are needed as bakers, mentors, and to help with transportation and mock interviews.

Kids Soar

Kids Soar, supported by Second Presbyterian since 2010, is a faith-based organization whose focus is on empowering children and families in the Roanoke Valley to end the cycle of poverty in their families through literacy education. Volunteers are needed to read during story time and help students with homework and reading.

Presbyterian Community Center

Second Presbyterian has supported the Presbyterian Community Center (PCC) since its founding in 1967 from a small office on our property. PCC addresses homelessness and poverty of underserved families in southeast Roanoke by providing emergency financial aid, food access, after-school education, and spiritual development through direct services and community partnerships. Second Presbyterian collects a monthly food item and our youth coordinate a large Hunger Busters food collection during the month of November for PCC’s food pantry. Volunteers are needed for front desk help, food pantry organization and delivery, and Pathways for Youth tutors.

Rescue Mission of Roanoke Drumstick Dash

Each year, Second Presbyterian Church sponsors a team for the Rescue Mission’s Drumstick Dash in support of their meal service programs. Runners and walkers are encouraged to join our team.

Roanoke Area Ministries

Roanoke Area Ministries (RAM), supported by Second Presbyterian since 2000, provides day shelter services, meals, and emergency financial services for those facing or are threatened by homelessness and hunger. Volunteers are needed in the kitchen, shelter, and pantry and for event support during fundraising events.

Roanoke City Jail Ministry

The Roanoke City Jail Ministry seeks to reach out and serve inmates and staff members of three jails in the Roanoke Valley by offering prayer, support, and Bibles to inmates. Second Presbyterian has supported this ministry since its inception in 1967. Donations of paperback books and magazines are welcomed by the Roanoke City Jail.

Society of St. Andrew

Society of St. Andrew (SoSA), supported by Second Presbyterian since 1993, gleans fresh fruit and vegetables to feed at risk children, women, and men delivering food to churches, church food pantries, shelters, food banks, and other feeding agencies. Volunteers are needed to glean fields, pack food, sew reusable vegetable bags, and write devotions for seasonal devotional booklets.

Super Hero Kids

Super Hero Kids, supported by Second Presbyterian since 2018, is a peer-supported therapy group for children and young teenagers who have been exposed to domestic violence. Volunteers are needed to help Sabrina’s Place, the site of Super Hero Kids meetings.

Turning Point

Turning Point is Roanoke’s only secure and accredited center for Intimate Partner & Family Violence. Survivors who seek shelter at Turning Point receive a safe place to stay, legal support and counseling. Volunteers are needed for administrative support and in the family store.

West End Center

West End Center, supported by Second Presbyterian since 1997, focuses on assisting the children of Roanoke’s West End neighborhoods through programs centered on academic education, social skills development, and wellness education. Volunteers are needed as tutors and reading partners.

National Outreach

Second Presbyterian supports the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry as its national mission.

Beth-El Farmworker Ministry

The Beth-El Farmworker Ministry focuses on supporting migrant workers in the Tampa, Florida area through hunger relief, education, family support and healthcare programs. Second Presbyterian has supported Beth-El since 2006, at times sponsoring a missionary at the ministry and sending youth to do mission work several summers.

Additionally, Second Presbyterian Church is committed to building the PC(USA) through support of the vital institutions of Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Montreat and Massanetta Conference Centers. Also, our congregation’s signature contribution is the Trent programs that equip and support new PC(USA) pastors in ministry, such as the Kittye Susan Trent Symposium for Newly Ordained Ministers.

Union Presbyterian Seminary

Union Presbyterian Seminary, located in Richmond, VA, equips Christian leaders for ministry in the world—a sacred vocation that requires deep learning, commitment to service, and an ability to read culture and circumstance in the light of the rich resources of Scripture and theological tradition.

Massanetta Springs Camp + Conference Center

Massanetta Springs Camp + Conference Center‘s mission is to provide a place for all people to experience God through renewal, discovery, and hospitality through various programs, group events, reunions, retreats, summer camps, or other programming.

Montreat Conference Center

Montreat Conference Center is a private, non-profit conference center with roots in the PC(USA) offering a place of worship, a wilderness preserve, and more. The center hosts a variety of conferences throughout the year ranging from arts and music to youth conferences to continuing education.

Second Presbyterian Church contributes funds to the work of the higher governing bodies to which it belongs: the Presbytery of the Peaks, the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic, and the Presbyterian Church USA.

International Outreach

Our primary international involvement is in San Juan de la Maguana of the Dominican Republic where we partner with Dominicans to transform barrios through medicine, construction, and education.

Solid Rock International

Since 2006, Second Presbyterian has partnered with Solid Rock International and Dominican partners who work to improve life in barrios in and around San Juan de la Maguana of the Dominican Republic. The church has been involved in the following ways:

  • Medical/Construction: Every February or March, a Medical/Construction team is sent that conducts surgeries, sees patients in clinics in barrios in and beyond San Juan, and builds needed structures at clinics and schools. Over several years, hundreds of people were fitted and provided needed prosthetics. Members donate money and supplies in support.
  • Construction of the new Hospital: Second Presbyterian has supplied volunteers and funds to help build a new hospital—the REVOLUTION Clinic—in San Juan to replace the current clinic that sits in a floodplain. For three years, church member Ken Potter lived in San Juan to help oversee construction and control costs.
  • Bibles & Bricks Mission Trip: Every other summer, a group made up of high school and college aged youth and adults travel to the Dominican Republic to lead Vacation Bible School for children and to serve on construction projects.