Come!  Join Us!

Our Mission
To bring our vision to reality, we actively seek opportunities to foster empowering relationships through partnerships, friendships, mentoring, and teaching.

Our focus is community development through meaningful relationships. We learn and grow together typically in a classroom setting that is relaxed and fun. We encourage one another and rejoice at the growth we all experience.

Praise:  All of the kids who returned their parental consent form received a basketball…they were excited.  It was a fun way to get the forms turned in!

 Praise:  Thanks to the generosity of the Upper Room class at CFC we now have enough Financial Peace workbooks for all the enrollees for the class which begins in March.

 Praise:  One of our long term volunteers, Keith, who has served in many capacities here, offered to take over some of the weekly custodian duties.  It was such a blessing to come in to a clean building on Monday.  (We usually wreck it during the Saturday youth activities.)

 Praise:  Dan Sullivan and Andi have been doing a great job of updating our website!

 Praise:  The Tuesday Night Bible Study started off great; several board members and past graduates of the LTC attended the first night.

 Pray:  For the Saturday youth program.  We’re having a great time and are eager for the word to get out to even more kids.

 Pray:  For responses to our recent mailing to our donors and for the planning of the Golf Outing.

 Pray:  For the completion of our large classroom.  We’re almost finished—just in time for the daytime classes which begin in March!

 Pray:  For positive responses to our grant applications.

 Pray:  For the hearts of the folks God has selected to attend the new financial management course (Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace).

9 people spent their Monday and Wednesday evenings last fall transforming their lives!

They completed the following courses:

Holistic Hardware (Life Skills)
Career Success
Personal Giftedness
Family Communication
Goal Setting
Healthy Living
Peacemakers
Relationship Choices

Help us to congratulate these students!

Learn to:

Love Like Jesus
Be More Like Jesus

The goal of the Future Business Leaders of Evansville (FBLE) summer training camp at IMPACT Ministries is to help local high school students develop a script of his or her future that includes completing high school, graduation from college, and pursuit of a career in Evansville.

According to Mary Terzlan, Ph.D, MSW, in “Effective and Promising Summer Learning Programs and Approaches for Economically-Disadvantaged Children and Youth,” preliminary evidence suggests “good summer learning programs can improve the educational and career development outcomes of economically disadvantaged students.”

Business professionals and community leaders can guide students through meaningful discussions of business, family, faith and ethical issues.  Exposure to these successful adults can be an encouragement to high school students and serve as a strong models for developing their own plans for the future.

The FBLE intense two-week summer training camp consists of two primary components.  The learning and connecting component includes sixteen presentations by local business professionals who discuss the choices they made to achieve their personal and professional success.  The students have lunch with these men and women and are encouraged to ask questions and develop relationships.  The project component involves making the business decisions and engaging in the required business activities to complete a student-led project for the community.  Past projects have included a car show and fund-raiser, opening a fitness facility for women, and hosting a neighborhood summer social event.

The intense camp format was implemented in 2008 and has been held each year since then.  Several students have participated in both their junior and senior years—many have returned to lead discussions.  Over 80% of the students who remain in the area stay in contact with IMPACT, affording us the opportunity to encourage further academic achievement.

Although there is no cost to the student, the cost to IMPACT to provide this course is $22 per student per session which provides all materials, meals, snacks, project supplies, and graduation awards.  We currently schedule one two-week summer camp per year with an enrollment limit of up to 24 students.  The overall cost per year is $12,500.  The lessons learned and connections made can have a tremendous effect on the future story of each student.

IMPACT Ministries provides tools for people seeking to leave generational poverty and achieve their full potential.  The capability to obtain and ability maintain employment are the essential tools necessary to propel an individual toward self-sufficiency.

Sociologists argue, “Many individuals in poverty have a very limited support system – and particularly missing is a role model who demonstrates the ability to be proactive:  setting goals, planning ahead and finishing tasks.”   Without job skills, any upward mobility is severely compromised.  For anyone wishing to escape generational poverty, learning to succeed in a career is an essential step.  Instruction and encouragement in a personal relationship-oriented setting have proven effective in aiding this first step.

Career Success is comprised of lectures, group discussions, and personalized counseling and covers the basics of acceptable job performance.  Caring professionals present topics including skills assessment, investigation of career options, principles of goal-setting, effective planning, and applying determination to job search and execution efforts.  The course not only provides the instruction required in the much-needed skills areas, but provides support, encouragement, and connections within the community.

Pre- and post-testing measure each individual’s comprehension of the subject matter of the course as well as the degree of support each student feels they receive in their quest for employment.   Self-reporting helps us track successes in actual job attainment and performance.  The preliminary launch of this program, entitled Employment Readiness, resulted in 100% placement and 80% job retention throughout a two year period.

The cost to IMPACT to provide this program for up to 20 adults is $10,150.  The cost per student per session is $25; the average cost per student for the complete course is $508. The course covers 3-6 weeks and consists of at least 6 two-hour sessions.  Although there is great benefit to the community for someone joining the workforce, there is also an incredibly deep personal benefit to the individual.

The goal of IMPACT Ministries is to assist these individuals overcome the barriers to their success and reach their potential in all areas of life.  We accomplish this through the process of personal Life Coaching as well as the empowering relationships formed throughout the 9 prerequisite courses to the Life Coaching program.

In the May 2005 issue of Family Resource Practices for Families Living in Poverty, Trudy W. Smith and Karen DeBord, Ph.D. write, “Individuals can break the poverty cycle for one of several reasons. These may include having a driving goal, vision, or aspiration; …someone who takes a special interest in them and sponsors them, modeling a different way; or a gift such as a specific talent or ability that provides an opportunity for them to excel” (Payne 2001).

Educators must realize that relationships with families living in poverty undergird and catalyze change. This can be viewed in terms of a balancing act. Stephen Covey (1989) lists seven deposits made to the individual to counterbalance seven withdrawals made from the individual in poverty. For example, assisting a family with goal-setting becomes a deposit that is replaced with the old expert model of prescribing goals for the individual. This sort of empowerment proves highly valuable and motivating to families.”

The American Association of Christian Counseling has identified Life Coaching as, “the new helping profession, an active partnership.” A life coach helps individuals maximize their potential by building their strengths and skills.  In a 2003 study on the impact of Life Coaching, it was found, “A life coaching program can facilitate goal attainment, improved mental health and enhance quality of life.” (Social Behavior and Personality, 2003, 31 (3) 253-264. Anthony Grant, University of Sydney,NSW, Australia).

The Life Coach Program at IMPACT focuses on clarification of goals developed in earlier Goal Setting Sessions. Each individual then meets with their life coach weekly for individual and group sessions. These sessions are to provide the accountability and encouragement needed to help the individual craft a strategic plan to help them accomplish a new high level of personal development.

The program began in 2010 with six students.  Each student completed an action plan to accomplish their goals and stated they felt empowered and were encouraged to follow the plan.  Two of the students will be helping out with the 2011 sessions.  Short term follow-ups show significant progress in goal attainment for 5 of the 6 students.

The cost to IMPACT to host this course which empowers adults through life transformation is approximately $26 per student per session.  Enrollment is limited to 20 people per 6-week session.  The total session cost is $10,200.  The benefit to the graduate is invaluable.