Christian Assistance Network (CAN) attempts to improve itself in every way possible. This is in order to try and maximize the number of people that they can reach. One of the ways they have attempted to do this is trying to listen to people’s advice and evaluate how they can use that advice given and improve. Patrick Brown, co-founder of Janus Web Consulting, was hired to build the website. During the time when his company was building the website he got an inside look at the Non-profit organization. After he was finished he was asked to give an honest and objective opinion on the website. This was an attempt to try and improve the company. Here are his thoughts:
(insert picture of Patrick Brown)
“I believe that the Christian Assistance Network is performing an extremely needed, important, and effective ministry in Grove City. Its ministry is needed because there many people are suffering in Grove City today. Homelessness, unemployment, drug-addition, and other forms of brokenness create situations in families where a crisis can easily take place if some sort of disruption in income happens. Many times these people have nowhere to turn and assistance can take months to achieve. CAN’s ministry is important because it addresses this need and it is effective because it quickly works to solve crises in families’ lives.
As a ministry, I believe that they have many strengths to commend them. First of all, they are able to quickly address needs, without red tape and a lot of bureaucracy. They are able to quickly help people and thus get them on their feet before they experience a downward spiral that can be very hard to escape from. In addition, each of the board members is very passionate about this ministry and spends considerable time each week working on cases and trying to help people. I also believe that their new leadership in Dr. Wyneken has greatly strengthened the organization. Although the leadership before Dr. Wyneken was very passionate, many of the leaders were retirees who by their own admission understood little about modern technology and marketing, as well as creating a vision for the ministry as a whole into the future. Dr. Wyneken had been able to take a look at the organization with fresh eyes and help chart a new course to take it into the future. Their leadership style is very successful, operating on cooperation and consensus. It is not very often that leadership for such an organization can be so organized and truly friendly with each other. Each of the leaders has a common goal and seeks to accomplish this goal with each other.
CAN has some weaknesses, however. The ministry is often unable to address the needs of the whole person when supporting a client. For example, when a client is helped in crisis, any communication with the ministry usually ends after the client has received sufficient material assistance. In an interview with Dr. Wyneken, he acknowledged that this is something that the ministry is working on but at the moment does not have enough funds or volunteers to maintain contact. I believe that regular forms of communication with clients after material assistance has been rendered will help CAN fulfill its goal of “evangelism through action.” If clients see a continued interest in their well-being, including spiritual and emotional wellbeing, then this will greatly strengthen their goal of evangelism. Although material assistance is important and is stressed in the Bible as an important means to share the love of Jesus, it is still important to share the good news. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 does not specifically mention physical assistance, but it does specifically command believers to “make disciples of all the nations” and to teach them “to obey everything I have commanded you.” If CAN were able to develop a means to maintain contact with clients after initial assistance, I believe the ministry would be greatly strengthened.
All in all, the Christian Assistance Network (CAN) is a growing and dynamic ministry which is extremely effective in its mission, “to help the poor, disabled, disadvantaged and elderly with the basic needs of food, clothing, housing and medical expenses.” It has grown very much from its inception in 1999, when it gave assistance to a family in need, to today, when it is helping over 50 families a year. With its growing focus on marketing and online presence, this growth is likely to accelerate. The ministry itself is very effective in getting people need in a very timely manner (within 48 hours) as well as connecting clients with organizations that can provide more long term assistance. Composed entirely of volunteers, CAN is led by a board of leaders who are very passionate in what they do. The Christian Assistance Network continues to practice what it preaches and works to help those who need help, as Christ commanded believers. To this end, it is helping to spread the love of Christ more and more in the Grove City area. All and all I think CAN is one of the coolest ministries I have ever had the pleasure of working with.”
CAN is currently in a period of transition. Dr. J.D Wyneken of Grove City College has just recently been appointed president and the former president has fully relinquished his leadership. This particular moment is the perfect time for the organization to assess its strengths, weaknesses, potential threats and the multitude of opportunities that are waiting to be taken hold of. Now, the organization is much more open to change and streamlining at this time due to its recently shifted internal structure.
In seeking to enhance its overall appeal, CAN is currently finding a relevant presence online. This is an easy way to effectively provide necessary information to their public. Donors could quickly become familiar with what CAN does and see the breakdown of where and how their money would be used. It is vital that potential donors understand how little overhead there is; that essentially all of their money is being put into assisting the members of the community that find themselves desperately in need. Clients, many of whom have Internet access despite their often destitute situations, would be able to access what they need to know about how this particular non-profit might be able to aid them, while also being able to view a list of other groups that could help them if CAN is not an appropriate source of aid. Not only would this site add to appeal but also perhaps reduce the work of its members. The Website hopes to be a broker of information and streamline some of the volunteer and donation processes. Certainly, it will make it easier to keep track of the volunteers that are available. On a more personal level, a portion of the site will be dedicated to a blog where the president will be able to update all of those who are interested in their current pursuits and potential success stories or testimonies that may arise through the work they do. Specific updates and newsletters could more easily be sent to the volunteers and donors who may feel invested in their information, making them feel more involved and valued. By utilizing the online support available to them as a non-profit through larger sites such as google, the will get free exposure and advertising, bringing in a wider pool of donors to draw from.
Incidentally, this website is being assembled by students of Grove City College, who have the intention of assembling similarly indispensable websites for other non-profits after graduation. The developers of this website are Patrick Brown and Ford Jordan. This is a perfect example of how the college is a market that has yet to be reached. Students are unaware of the need that surrounds their beautiful campus and the faculties are largely unaware of the avenue that CAN provides to reach out to their neighbors. Dr. Wyneken has managed to make time to be the president while maintaining his position as professor at Grove City College and it is possible that the faculty of the college is a potential source of people willing and able to volunteer as caseworkers in the years to come. Students are an excitable and passionate group of people, who, once hearing what CAN is about, are likely to desire a greater degree of involvement in the community. They can be an effective means of making more events possible off campus as well as volunteer workers in construction or other projects where their skills could be used. CAN hope that the new website and Facebook fan page will be tools that help bring the students of the community to CAN. Be sure to Like Us on Facebook.
As part of the new online presence that CAN is building, is to use the website to tell people about themselves. These will include interviews, outlining the need that Grove City has and the way that CAN seeks to address that need. When people become aware of what they seek to do and the way in which they do it, they will want to help in some capacity. CAN does not require a campaign to make it look like anything than what it truly is. CAN is just trying to do a better job of marketing itself. This will help to spread local awareness of the existence of CAN and what they do. The intention is that clients would feel more comfortable about approaching CAN with their need and admitting that their need exists. Also, residents of the area would become aware that their skills might be useful in helping out their neighbor, literally. We hope that you will help CAN today check out the Volunteer Page or the Donor Page.
The Challenges of Getting the Word Out - by Kokogiak
Christians Assistance Network (CAN) has several marketing challenges. First, we are limited to aiding those in the Grove City school district by the 501-C3 charter that allows us to remain tax free. Making those in need aware of the help that we can provide for them is crucial and a major challenge. CAN is also limited on the help we are able to give due to the lack of funds and volunteers that are available. Altogether, we have three audiences that we want to reach; clients, donors and volunteers. Reaching each of these groups will require tailored strategies specific to each of them.
The Client
Our first and foremost audience is our client. Communcating what we can and can’t do is extremely important. First of all, CAN is not a long term solution for its clients in most cases. CAN should be viewed as more of an emergency room agency that can respond quickly, but doesn’t have the resources to help longer term. We then connects the client in need to the people who can help them long term. In addition, CAN is a broker of knowledge that is extremely useful to people in need. Even if we cannot help out directly, we are committed to getting our clients in touch with any organization that can help them. Finally, CAN is limited to aiding those in the Grove City school district by our 501-C3 charter that allows us to remain tax free. CAN sometimes receive requests for aid from people within Mercer County or in other surrounding areas. We are not able to help them directly, but we are able to give clients information to help connect them with those who can help. We are also sometimes approached by people looking for help that CAN is not able to produce. In those instances, we are able to redirect their prospective clients to others who can better provide for their needs more effectively.
The Supporter
CAN’s chief job in financing is raising awareness in the community to people who are able to donate to CAN financially. At this time, most of our budget comes from churches in the area and other charities in the community such as United Way, which has given us a yearly grant of $20,000. This has been a huge boost to CAN’s finances, but there is still so much that can be done if we were able to receive more funds. It is especially important to CAN that we receive financial aid from individuals from the community, not just organization’s, because we are a community organization. Right now, we are reaching community supporters through talks at local churches, our new website, and even our facebook fan page. If you would like to receive updates from our ministry, please sign up for our e-mail list.
The Volunteer
The final group of people we want to reach is volunteers. Volunteers are the biggest demand that CAN is currently facing. The majority of the members of CAN are retirees, which gives us the unique ability to commit time flexibly to deal with cases. There is, however, a huge lack of youthful presence among the members; a gap that could potentially be filled as a greater knowledge of this service opportunity is spread among those who are invested in the Grove City community. Some of the work that CAN does would be ideal for younger adults because of the physical activity like building wheelchair ramps or cleaning out gutters. Caseworkers also need to have certain qualifications in order to be effective, such as knowledge of how to deal with financial issues and skills for dealing with people in distress and potentially traumatizing situations. This makes finding volunteers particularly difficult. CAN also faces another difficulty because it is a responding ministry. The volunteers’ time commitment or even when they are needed is uncertain; this makes it hard for volunteers to commit. Local involvement is essential and CAN is really trying to focus on spreading the word on the great work that they do. We are confident that if people really know what they do they would love to help.
Please Help CAN today in whatever capacity you are able to whether that is financially, physically through volunteering or spiritually through prayer. The Grove City school district area needs your Help!
The Christian Assistance Network (CAN) is now online! The Christian Assistance Network was founded in 1999 when a group of individuals felt led by God to help a family in need. The father and primary breadwinner had fallen ill and was unable to continue working. In addition to struggling to meet their daily needs the home was in need of many repairs. This dynamic group not only made the repairs but also helped the family find proper medical care, and provided financial guidance. Their persistent Christ-like love and service eventually led the family to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Since then, CAN has aided the disabled, provided financial assistance for medical expenses, found jobs for the unemployed and even encouraged community members to volunteer for local organizations.
Now we hope that this website can help CAN continue its mission in an ever changing world. We hope that this can be a place where we can easily connect volunteers in the Grove City area with people in need. In addition we hope that this website can be a resource to those who are experiencing a crisis and need help. Our goal is to serve others, not to judge and we hope that this website can help facilitate asking for help while remaining anonymous.
Please subscribe to our newsletter if you would like to receive updates about our progress. We would also love to hear from you. Please use the “Contact Us” page to send us a message with any questions or comments. Thank you for being a part of this new chapter in the life of the Christian Assistance Network.
