Faith Alive!: A Statewide Conference On the role of Faith-Based Social Services in Wisconsin

Publication Date: November 1999

Publisher:

Author(s): Amy Sherman

Research Area: Culture and religion; Social conditions

Type: Report

Coverage: Wisconsin

Abstract:

We are pleased to present to you this summary report of the 1999 Welfare Policy Center conference entitled Faith Alive! A Statewide Conference on the Role of Faith-Based Social Services in Wisconsin. Funded by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Faith Alive! brought together representatives of faith-based organizations and members of government agencies and businesses to address the benefits and challenges inherent in the involvement of the faith community in providing social services within our neighborhoods and cities.

The title of the conference was a response to the New Testament statement, “Faith without works is dead.” The people of all religious faiths and denominations who are providing social services throughout Wisconsin wanted to let others know that their faith is very much alive. It can be seen in feeding of children, in clothing adults, in sheltering the homeless, in giving a hand-up to those making the transition from welfare to work, in months spent in counseling a recovering alcoholic, in years given to regularly visiting the prisoner and helping his family, in caring for the elderly, in offering medical care to the sick, and in a multitude of other ways on a daily basis.