Pomona Hope

First Presbyterian Church of Pomona has been ministering in the city of Pomona for more than 100 years.  God is continuing His work in Pomona, and in each of us.  With His hope, we walk alongside our neighbors through community organizing efforts, youth outreach, and a community center. We currently have two worship services where we celebrate His goodness together: a contemporary English Service and a Spanish language service.  Both of these services are part of our larger mission: To Respond with Hope in the city as a cross-class, multi-cultural, multi-generational church.

As a close northern neighbor to the challenged community of Pomona, La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church has responded to the need at its doorstep through the Pomona Hope Missions Group.

The mission of the Pomona Hope Ministry Group is to coordinate our church’s involvement in the work of Pomona Hope. This is done by involving church members in the work of community education through the Pomona Hope Community Center, through building relationships between the people of the community and church members, by working with ONE L.A. in Pomona, and by sharing the gospel. Our members tutor children, teach computer skills to all ages, play sports and do arts and crafts with the children, spend time with families, and teach adults how to speak and read English.

The Asian Youth Center (AYC) is a non-profit, community-based organization serving the social services needs of youth and families, with a focus on Asian immigrants. Our programs enable those we serve to adapt and contribute to a multi-cultural society.

AYC began in 1989 as a project of the United Way after its Asian Task Force found a critical lack of services for Asian youth. In the last ten years, AYC has expanded its scope to serve non-Asian youth and families as well, with culturally appropriate services in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish and English.

Servant Partners grew out of a renewal movement that spread across American college campuses in the 1980’s and 1990’s. John Perkins and Viv Grigg, Christian leaders with hearts for justice, influenced this movement profoundly through their prophetic biblical teaching and example. Inspired by God’s Spirit, hundreds of graduating university students relocated into American inner city neighborhoods to serve as ministers of racial and economic reconciliation.

Though Servant Partners began with a call to global mission among the poor, we focused our early efforts on inner city communities in the US.  Over the years, Servant Partner teams in four Los Angeles area neighborhoods strengthened or planted new churches, and helped create separate non-profits for increased ministry impact in their communities. In the late 1990’s, God led us to expand our ministry into the cities of the developing world. Today we have ten teams planting churches, training leaders, and organizing communities across the globe.

ONE L.A. – IAF is a broad-based organization of churches, schools, congregations and community groups throughout Los Angeles County and the L.A. metropolitan areas of Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange Counties. It is affiliated with the international organizing network, the Industrial Areas Foundation that has been working on organizing people to address their collective problems since 1941. ONE L.A. consists of over ninety congregations and thirty other organizations. Pomona Hope has been a member of ONE L.A. since its founding in 2004.

The primary purpose of ONE L.A. is to enable its member organizations to effectively deal with the issues that affect their people, as they seek to be a force for good in the twenty first century. ONE L.A. member institutions work together to improve the quality of life for families, congregations and communities in southern California. It accomplishes this by building relationships between its institutions and their people, by acting together on commonly identified issues that affect our families and communities, and by building leaders.

The center street garden was initiated by members of Pomona Presbyterian, across the street from the Pomona Hope community center.

Vineyard Community Church of Pomona-Claremont began its informal partnership with Pomona Hope in January 2011 when it “sent” its former assistant pastor to serve at Pomona Hope as Executive Director. In addition to providing a generous gift to support outreach work in south Pomona, this north Pomona church continues to partner in unique ways. This year the VCC children’s ministry program, “KidsPlace”, adopted Pomona Hope Kids as its local outreach initiative. Over the summer, “KidsPlace” at VCC raised over $300 during its week-long VBS program. This fall, at the “Harvesting Hope” fall banquet, KidsPlace submitted another donation to Pomona Hope for “kid-size” and other tools for the Center Street Community Garden. Program Director Kelly Brock and her team of parents continue to find ways to encourage children to serve their communities as part of what it means to grow as a follower of Jesus. Vineyard Community Church of Pomona-Claremont holds three services on Sunday mornings at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:30 AM. Pastor Alan Stretch and the Vineyard community extend a heart welcome to all who might visit.