Volunteers are essential in ensuring that GRACE can provide quality services to our local community. These committed community members go above and beyond to help everyone they interact with experience a piece of GRACE. To start the process of partnering with GRACE on this level, those interested are asked to sign up for a new volunteer orientation session. These sessions are usually held in person and cover all things GRACE. However, with the current state of the world GRACE is making adjustments to stay ahead of the times and still offer quality service and support to our community. Accordingly, GRACE’s Volunteer Manager, Alicia Fike, started to coordinate volunteer orientations via Zoom. During the first GRACE Zoom Volunteer Orientation, Alicia was joined by eleven excited individuals who were extremely appreciative that this was an option. Over the call, prospective volunteers learn about the GRACE mission and history as well as covering all services

We are happy to announce that the GRACE Donation Station, located at 112 N Scribner in Grapevine, will be opening for business on Monday, May 11 with our regular operating hours of Monday-Saturday 8:00am-6:00pm! With everyone eagerly awaiting its reopening, Donation Station is ready to serve the public once again. We know that many people have used this time to catch up on some Spring cleaning, organization, and projects. GRACE is so thankful to be the recipient of your generous donations. To help ensure the continued safety of staff and donors, we are asking for the following protocols upon your arrival at Donation Station: Please stay in your vehicle when dropping items off. Our staff will happily unload your donations for you. To minimize contact, customers can email DonationStation@GRACEGrapevine.org for donation receipts. Due to county restrictions regarding capacity, we are working with limited staff and volunteers. Please be patient and kind to our staff and other donors as we may be expecting longer wait times than usual. For additional questions,

The 2020 tax season for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) has been a very interesting one with some highs and lows. This year marks VITA’s 10th anniversary of providing free tax preparation in Tarrant County.  GRACE has been a VITA site for almost every year since it began and is proud to be able to offer families a place to get their tax returns completed free of charge right here in northeast Tarrant County.  This year, volunteers began completing tax returns on January 28th.  When the Covid-19 mandates were put in place in March, VITA sites were closed to ensure the safety of volunteers and clients.  Currently, the VITA sites are expected to open again on or around June 1st.  In the meantime, however, VITA is still finding ways to assist those that qualify for services. Currently, VITA is offering Taxes on the Go!  With Taxes to Go, VITA has opened free

[wpvideo riDOJ2fa] This past Tuesday, we were astonished to see the continued support of our community!  North Texas Giving Day is an 18–hour online giving event created as a way to help spread awareness and support of local nonprofits. This event that usually takes place in the fall provides individuals an easy-to-use platform to donate.   With the spread of coronavirus, these past couple of months have been challenging for our community and the world. More individuals have found themselves in need of assistance than ever before. This means that nonprofits’ services are on the rise as these organizations are on the frontline assisting those in need.  However, with some normal funding streams, being postponed, canceled, redirected, or closed, these agencies are feeling stressed. GRACE has been no stranger to the challenge of meeting the growing need of the community during this time.   The decision to hold a special edition of North Texas

Over these past couple of weeks, we have seen people be extremely creative in the ways they are giving back. With more time on their hands, people are utilizing old skills and discovering new ones.  People are starting to realize that they can help make a difference in more ways outside of reaching into their pockets.   GRACE is extremely grateful to be on the receiving end of people’s creative giving!   Must Love Fabric is a store specializing in the needs of quilters, located in Grapevine, TX.  As with many other businesses, owner Phyllis Lively temporarily closed her brick and mortar store and shifted her focus to selling online. However, after hearing from customers that medical staff and others on the frontlines needed masks, she adjusted once again to help. Phyllis assembled a group of volunteer quilters to help with her new mission. Together with her team of quilters, she started to distribute masks to first responders

During these peculiar times, we at GRACE want to bring some encouragement to our local community as well as raise awareness of how we are responding to the effects of COVID 19 and how others can get involved. With GRACE Gabs, our CEO Shonda Schaefer will be interviewing prominent local individuals who have seen our communities pull closer together as we navigate this new normal. Listen in as Food Pantry Manager Keith Hill talks about our community’s generosity to help feed GRACE clients during the coronavirus pandemic. [wpvideo HYf5bfxf] We had a great time talking to Keith, Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels, and Representative Giovanni Capriglione, just to name a few. Make sure to follow us on Youtube and Facebook for daylily updates as we build up to North Texas Giving Day Now on May 4.

If I’ve learned one thing over these past several weeks it is that even “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry!” These past eight weeks have taught us a lot about being proactive, flexible, and logical in the ways we adjust programming to meet the current environment. We at GRACE have had to rethink everything we do, why we do it, and how we can modify processes in order to continue meeting our standards of excellence, stewardship, and service. I am proud of our team and the creative and ingenious ways they have stepped up to meet this unprecedented crisis. As a community, we are now all being challenged to imagine what this new reality will look like. We are beginning to plan for the future, knowing that it is still very uncertain. I’d like to share with you how GRACE is planning specifically for the

While the stay at home order still remains in effect, GRACE programs have found new and creative ways to still serve the community and those who need help. Different policies and procedures have been implemented to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of our clients, volunteers, and staff. However, the core of who we are and those that partner with GRACE has not changed. This has been shown time after time again during these past weeks.    Earlier this week we hosted our very first virtual Home Blessing to welcome our newest resident home. The GRACE Transitional Housing program normally celebrates participants’ start of their new journey by bringing together community members, board of directors, volunteers, and staff to show unified support. As CEO Shonda Schaefer explained to our new participant “There is a whole community that is a part of your family now. We are here to help support and cheer you on.”   Each home and its contents are specifically arranged for the

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is… What are you doing for others?” – Martin Luther King Jr.   GRACE Volunteers have been boldly answering this question for years with the work and support that they provide. We at GRACE don’t see them just as volunteers but as family.    Over the past year, our additional Team GRACE has provided over 23,000 services to clients. This includes distribution of 3,500 packets of clothing, serving 3,655 patients in our clinic, and providing food to an average of 500 people per month from our pantry.   Even during these strange times, Team GRACE has been stepping up to ensure that not only are our clients well taken care of but also the GRACE staff. Words cannot express how grateful we are to those that go out of their way to be a blessing to others.   As pillars of our organization, we wouldn’t be able to serve our community in the many ways that we do without you.  Happy National