Adopt a Family and Christmas Toy Drive

It’s that time of year again to prepare for Project Interdependence’s annual Christmas events! 

There are two different ways in which you can participate.  You can participate in our Adopt-a-Family for Christmas program or donate toward our Annual Christmas Toy Giveaway. 

1. Adopt-a-Family and shop directly from a child’s wish list and deliver the gifts directly to their home.  You may also have the option to deliver the gifts to Associated Ministries and staff will deliver the presents to the family’s home.  Each year we receive numerous applications from families living all across Pierce County. Thus you can choose a family you’d like to adopt based on the family size and location. 

Volunteer Tax Preparers are Needed

Assist low-income families in preparing their taxes

• No Experience Needed
• Free Tax Training
• No Risk to Tax Preparer (IRS approved)
• Flexible Hours: Weeknights and Weekends
• Convenient Locations throughout Pierce County

Click Here to complete a volunteer application!

Why Volunteer

Help lift people out of poverty. You can help low-income families keep the heat on during the cold months of tax season, put food on the table, buy school supplies, and send family members to visit the doctor for the first time.

Pierce County Statistics:

• An estimated 46,000 Pierce County Communitty members qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), are living in poverty, and need your help.
• As many as 11,000 hard working families in Pierce County qualify for the EITC, but are not receiving it.
• EITC is one of the largest antipoverty programs. Each year 6.6 million people, half of them children, are lifted out of poverty each year due to EITC.
• The IRS estimates that 20%-25% of qualifying workers miss out on thousands of dollars every year, because they fail to claim the EITC.

How the Program Works

FREE training on tax law and tax software will be provided on the weekends in December and January. Certification in Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced tax law will be offered. All training materials will be provided.

After completion of training and volunteering at least 40 hours throughout tax season the, you will receive a Certificate and Letter of Acknowledgement from the IRS.

A trained site coordinator will always be present at the volunteer site to answer questions and assist you in preparing tax returns for clients.

At Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites, we provide a comfortable, knowledgeable, understanding, safe and inviting environment for clients to have their tax returns prepared and be educated on tax law and other vital community services.

Click here to fill out the volunteer application!

For more information please contact: Blake Marzloff

Pierce County Asset Building Coalition Director
253-383-3056 ext 116 or blakem@associatedministries.org

Unleashing the Collective Power of Faith

By Reverend Heidi Calhoun, Associated Ministries

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.  But, if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together”.  Lill Watson, Aboriginal activist.

I read these words for the first time about 12 years ago and it altered my theological understanding of social justice forever.

Healing & Hope: Paths to Unity

People all over the country found many ways to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this past month.  Expressing our unity and exploring the profound meaning of healing, hope and forgiveness was the theme for those who gathered at St. Mark’s Lutheran by the Narrows on Sunday evening September 11th, 2011.

The prayer service was planned by an interfaith group of Pierce County religious leaders.  Attendees came from as far as Shoreline, Kirkland, Olympia and Auburn as well as from Tacoma.  In all, about 150 people were in attendance.   Host Pastor, Rev. Jan Ruud of St. Marks described the experience as “a strong affirmation of the unity we share that is at the heart of all our faith.”