Love INC Services

Love INC has formed a network with more than 170 churches in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Many of those churches have completed a "Time & Talent" inventory of their congregations to determine which volunteer services their members are willing to offer to people in need.

When a referral of a need comes in to the Love INC office it is referred on to a Love INC church volunteer in one of Love INC’s partner churches.

Performance of any requested service is dependent upon the availability of a church volunteer willing to donate that service. Below are some of the services that have been provided for the poor, elderly, and disabled in Charlotte Mecklenburg by Love INC church volunteers.

Adopt An Elder Program

To most frail, elderly or disabled individuals, remaining in their own home for as long as possible makes all the difference in the world in their sense of independence and hope for the future. This can prolong the period before they have to leave their home for long-term care. But if they are unable to get to the grocery store to buy food or to the pharmacy to pick up their medications for themselves, they can become ill and lose the independence that is so important to them. Just helping these individuals with a few services each month can dramatically impact their lives for the better.

Love INC can help your church to have that impact by assisting you to form one or more LINC Teams (Love INC Teams) to help them. A LINC Team is a group of 6-12 individuals who agree to provide certain types of services. Love INC provides training and ongoing encouragement for teams. Your team decides which of the services the client needs that they are willing to meet. They are not required to meet every need the client has. Provision of only a few of the services such as transportation, grocery shopping, yard work, house cleaning, visitation, meal preparation, telephone contact, etc., makes all the difference in the world to the quality of life of a frail, elderly or disabled client. Your team can become a “second family” to the individuals you serve, some of whom have no family at all. We can almost guarantee that your team members will be more blessed than the people they serve.

If you would like to know more about the Adopt an Elder Program, come to an Information Session. One Session is held each month. An information Session is required for Team Leaders and is highly encouraged for all potential Team members before attending a formal training session for a LINC Team.

Scheduled sessions for 2010 are listed below:
April 24      (Saturday) 10:00 AM
May 27     (Thursday) 6:30 PM
June 19     (Saturday) 10:00 AM
July 29      (Thursday) 6:30 PM
August 28 (Saturday) 10:00 AM
Sept. 23    (Thursday) 6:30 PM

Baby Layette Ministry

Love INC often receives requests for clothing and baby items for newborns whose mothers are poor and are near the time to give birth, but have absolutely nothing for the baby. Because of this, Love INC has helped four network churches to form Baby Layette Ministries. These churches are donating a complete baby layette to mothers sent to them by Love INC.

This is a large undertaking and to help these churches, Love INC asks that other network churches consider having a once-yearly drive to raise items to include in these layettes.

Items needed are: new or gently used baby clothing (0-12 months), disposable diapers, receiving blankets, crib sheets, baby bottles, etc. Call the Love INC office to receive a complete list of items being provided in layettes.

Love INC does not wish to compete with the wonderful faith-based ministry, Charlotte Pregnancy Care (CPC), which also has a Baby layette program. CPC provides Baby Layettes to mothers who complete a Parenting Course before the birth of their baby.

If a mother is referred to Love INC who has more than six weeks to go before the birth of her baby, we always refer that mother to CPC, so she can take their Parenting course and receive a baby layette from them for her newborn.

Charlotte Pregnancy Care's telephone number is (704) 372-5981.

If it is less than six weeks before the birth of the baby, however, Love INC will serve the mother, if she meets our other guidelines. Love INC will not usually provide more than one baby layette for a mother, however, even if she has a second child another year.

Wheelchair Ramp Ministry
Did you know that many disabled individuals who do not have a wheelchair ramp are unable to leave their home independently because they do not have a wheelchair ramp? This is not only inconvenient and frustrating for them.It could also be extremely dangerous in the case of a home fire.

Did you know that Love INC usually has dozens of wheelchair ramp requests for disabled individuals pending in our files because there are not enough people available to build these much-needed ramps?

Love INC has ramp supervisors who will assess what is needed, design the ramp, order the materials and help supervise your group of builders. If you have a group in your church who like to "sling hammers" and are willing to spend at least one day on a week-end making a real difference in someone's life, this might be the ministry for you to participate in.

Minor Home Repair
People on low or fixed incomes may be able to stretch their funds to make it until something goes wrong. A major home repair problem hits them or the plumbing goes bad, then they are in real trouble because they have no cushion to help pay for the repairs. If your church has a group or groups of individuals who want to use their carpentry and home repair skills to make a real difference for low-income individuals in need, then this is the area for you.

Samaritan Saturdays

Church groups (Sunday School classes, families, home groups) can do projects such as painting, yard work, house cleaning, that require more than one individual to complete.

Youth groups (high school) are welcome with adequate adult supervision. Love INC will provide the projects.
Requires sign-up at least one month in advance.