Patsy’s Place shares hope thanks to Pantex grant
Sharing Hope Ministry received $10,000 in 2020 from the Pantex Community Investment Fund to support its mission to assist at risk and incarcerated women in changing their story by sharing hope through Christ’s love.
“We do this by sending the Life Recovery Bible and Bible studies to women in prisons and rehabs across the country,” Stevi Larson, special events coordinator at Sharing Hope Ministry said.
Locally, Sharing Hope also has Patsy’s Place Transitional Home which is a 12 month Christ-based home that mentors women as they are released from prison or jail in hopes of setting them on a more positive journey. The grant funds from the Pantex Fund went specifically to Patsy’s Place Transitional Home.
“The funding has been instrumental in our program’s ability to provide materials for classes, medical, mental and dental assistance, events, GED books and supplies, food, hygiene items and assistance with housing, transportation and medical expenses for post-offending women in Amarillo,” Larson said.
Sharing Hope Ministry began locally in 1999 and operates locally to this day.
“A group of women at a local church had been praying for an outreach project when they received a request from a woman in one of our local jails asking for Life Recovery Bible,” Larson said. “They granted her request and as she shared where she got the Bible, it became clear that this was the outreach that God had intended for them.
In 1999, Sharing Hope gave out 2 Bibles, but by the end of 2000 they had given out over 2,000 Life Recovery Bibles.
“The church we were originally associated with saw the importance in the work that we were doing and told us to become a separate non-profit organization,” Larson said. “We gained non-profit status in 2001, and since our beginning we have sent out over 165,000 Life Recovery Bibles.”
Grants through the Community Investment Fund are awarded by an employee-led committee, and Larson said she’d like to share a big thank you to those who were part of the committee.
“I know that the people on this committee do it voluntarily and that it can be a hard task to listen to all of the non-profits and make a decision on who gets funding,” she said. “I know that they take being a part of the committee very seriously and I just am very grateful for each and every one of them. And thank you Pantex for caring enough about our community to make this amazing opportunity available!”
Consolidated Nuclear Security established the Pantex Community Investment Fund and has been helping local organizations since its inception in 2016. The Pantex Fund is a partnership with the Amarillo Area Foundation, which assists in the distribution of funds. In 2020, 16 nonprofits in the Texas Panhandle received grants equaling over $121,000 from the fund during a virtual ceremony.
From the beginning, Pantex created an employee advisory committee to determine distribution of the grants that target charities and non‑profit organizations that offer assistance with basic needs, children, youth, families, community development, education, financial literacy, as well as health and wellness.
