OUTREACH AT ST. STEPHEN'S
URGENT TIME-SENSITIVE REQUEST!
Dear Friends of Breakthrough ESS,
We are asking for your help advocating for increased support for Accredited Clubhouse programs and Mental Health Crisis Centers in the upcoming FY 2026–2027 Kansas budget.
Below is the communication we are encouraging supporters to share with their state legislators. You can contact your elected officials by email, letter, or phone—any method is effective, and personal messages are especially impactful.
How You Can Help
Thank you for your consideration.
Grace and Peace,
Andy Houltberg + CEO
Breakthrough | Episcopal Social Services
1010 N. Main, Wichita, KS 67203 |(316) 269-4160
[email protected] | www.breakthroughwichita.org
We are asking for your help advocating for increased support for Accredited Clubhouse programs and Mental Health Crisis Centers in the upcoming FY 2026–2027 Kansas budget.
Below is the communication we are encouraging supporters to share with their state legislators. You can contact your elected officials by email, letter, or phone—any method is effective, and personal messages are especially impactful.
How You Can Help
- Identify your Kansas State Representative and Senator
You can find them at: https://www.kslegislature.gov - Contact them by email, letter, or phone
Email is easiest but calls and mailed letters are meaningful as well. - Use or adapt the message below
Feel free to personalize it with why mental health access, faith, or community care matters to you.
Thank you for your consideration.
Grace and Peace,
Andy Houltberg + CEO
Breakthrough | Episcopal Social Services
1010 N. Main, Wichita, KS 67203 |(316) 269-4160
[email protected] | www.breakthroughwichita.org
|
|
Dear [Representative/Senator Last Name],
I am writing as a constituent and a person of faith to respectfully request your support for Accredited Clubhouse programs in the FY 2026–2027 Kansas budget.
More than 111,000 Kansans live with serious mental illness (SMI). Without long-term, recovery-oriented support, SMI is often associated with reduced life expectancy, high unemployment, repeated hospitalization, incarceration, and homelessness. With the right supports in place, people living with SMI can and do live productive, meaningful lives.
Kansas Clubhouses provide a proven, evidence-based, community-centered approach to recovery at an estimated cost of just $3,100 per member per year, far less than the cost of one week of long-term hospitalization. Clubhouses are recovery-oriented communities where people are members, not clients, and where dignity, purpose, and relationships are central to healing.
Core services include:
Kansas Clubhouses also demonstrate strong local commitment, having collectively raised additional support beyond state funding. When the state invests responsibly, communities respond.
As people of faith committed to dignity, justice, and care for our neighbors, I respectfully urge you to support increasing the Lottery funding cap to $16 million.
Thank you for your service to Kansas and for your thoughtful consideration.
I am writing as a constituent and a person of faith to respectfully request your support for Accredited Clubhouse programs in the FY 2026–2027 Kansas budget.
More than 111,000 Kansans live with serious mental illness (SMI). Without long-term, recovery-oriented support, SMI is often associated with reduced life expectancy, high unemployment, repeated hospitalization, incarceration, and homelessness. With the right supports in place, people living with SMI can and do live productive, meaningful lives.
Kansas Clubhouses provide a proven, evidence-based, community-centered approach to recovery at an estimated cost of just $3,100 per member per year, far less than the cost of one week of long-term hospitalization. Clubhouses are recovery-oriented communities where people are members, not clients, and where dignity, purpose, and relationships are central to healing.
Core services include:
- A meaningful, work-ordered day
- Employment Pathways (Transitional, Supported, and Independent Employment)
- Education support and skill-building
- Peer connection and relationship-building
- Safe, stigma-free community spaces
- Advocacy and community reintegration
- Long-term, voluntary support without time limits.
Kansas Clubhouses also demonstrate strong local commitment, having collectively raised additional support beyond state funding. When the state invests responsibly, communities respond.
As people of faith committed to dignity, justice, and care for our neighbors, I respectfully urge you to support increasing the Lottery funding cap to $16 million.
Thank you for your service to Kansas and for your thoughtful consideration.
EMERGENCY REQUEST!
We have received an emergency request for non-perishable food. The free pantry at Breakthrough-ESS is nearly empty. With SNAP and WIC food benefits on hold, the requests for food are at some of the highest levels seen by ESS.
Please look in your own cupboard and see if you can bring one or two non-perishable items to church this Sunday. Things like peanut butter and canned proteins are always good, but anything that can be eaten cold or cooked on a hotplate is helpful. Cans with "pop tops" are ideal or bring a can-opener to donate as well that can be sent home with folks who don't have one. Thank you for all the ways you give and serve!
~Mother Laurie
Volunteer Opportunity
Breakthrough/ESS is seeking volunteers in our Payee Program during the week. If interested, contact Rachel Newell, Director of Development, (316) 665-8616, [email protected], for job descriptions and a brief interview. Volunteer applications are available by request at [email protected]. Thank you!
Payee volunteer shifts:
Monday & Wednesday AM Payee Shift, 9:00a -11:30a
Wednesday & Thursday PM Payee Shift 12:30p - 3:00p
Payee Reconciliation - shift flexibility
Payee volunteer shifts:
Monday & Wednesday AM Payee Shift, 9:00a -11:30a
Wednesday & Thursday PM Payee Shift 12:30p - 3:00p
Payee Reconciliation - shift flexibility
At St. Stephen’s we celebrate the mission of St. Francis Ministries, a Kansas-born outreach rooted in compassion and faith. Founded in 1945 by the Rev. Robert Mize Jr., St. Francis began as a small home for boys in Ellsworth and has grown into a ministry serving thousands of children and families across Kansas and beyond.
Their work embodies the values we hold dear: healing, dignity, and hope for the most vulnerable. Through foster care, adoption, family preservation, behavioral health, and residential programs, St. Francis Ministries helps restore lives and strengthen families. They also stand alongside survivors of trafficking, immigrants seeking safety, and parents striving to overcome addiction.
For us at St. Stephen’s, supporting St. Francis Ministries is more than charity—it is an extension of our baptismal call to seek and serve Christ in all persons. By lifting up their mission, we join in building communities of belonging where every child and family can flourish.
Together, we share in the vision of St. Francis Ministries: to bring light, hope, and love into places of struggle, and to remind all people that they are beloved children of God.
Their work embodies the values we hold dear: healing, dignity, and hope for the most vulnerable. Through foster care, adoption, family preservation, behavioral health, and residential programs, St. Francis Ministries helps restore lives and strengthen families. They also stand alongside survivors of trafficking, immigrants seeking safety, and parents striving to overcome addiction.
For us at St. Stephen’s, supporting St. Francis Ministries is more than charity—it is an extension of our baptismal call to seek and serve Christ in all persons. By lifting up their mission, we join in building communities of belonging where every child and family can flourish.
Together, we share in the vision of St. Francis Ministries: to bring light, hope, and love into places of struggle, and to remind all people that they are beloved children of God.
The Lord’s Diner is a ministry dedicated to feeding the hungry with dignity and compassion. We invite you to join us in this meaningful outreach. Whether you’re a seasoned volunteer or new to this ministry, your presence makes a difference. Volunteers help with meal prep, serving, and sharing a spirit of welcome with our neighbors in need.
📅 When: Every third Saturday
📍 Where: The Lord’s Diner, 520 N Broadway, Wichita, KS
🕔 Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00ish PM
To sign up or learn more, contact our parish office.
Come be the hands and heart of Christ in our city. Together, we serve not just food, but mercy and hope.
📅 When: Every third Saturday
📍 Where: The Lord’s Diner, 520 N Broadway, Wichita, KS
🕔 Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00ish PM
To sign up or learn more, contact our parish office.
Come be the hands and heart of Christ in our city. Together, we serve not just food, but mercy and hope.
St. Stephen's has joined Justice Together in 2025 as a Member Church. Justice Together is a network of more than 40 faith organizations who have come together to launch Sedgwick County’s first of its kind, multifaith justice organization. We look to scripture for inspiration in fulfilling God’s call to “do justice” and Nehemiah 5 shows us the power of a great assembly of people, united to do justice together!
|
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 |
Justice, Equality, and Compassion in Human Relations.
2nd Principle Unitarian Universalism |
SANDWICH SATURDAYS
Sandwich Saturdays is a Wichita Episcopal Minster food ministry that provides Sandwiches and other foods to the unhoused population and anyone else in need in downtown Wichita. Sandwiches are distributed every Saturday at St. John's Episcopal Church.
St. Stephen's volunteers prepare lunch bags and help pass them out once every quarter.
If you are interested in preparing and/or distributing sandwiches please contact the Parish Office.
St. Stephen's volunteers prepare lunch bags and help pass them out once every quarter.
- Our Saturday is the second Saturday in January, April, July, and October.
- Sandwiches are prepared the day before (Friday) in St. Stephen's kitchen and Parish Hall.
If you are interested in preparing and/or distributing sandwiches please contact the Parish Office.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. - Matthew 25:35
St. Stephen's has many volunteer opportunities to bring cheer to residents of Lincoln Care and Rehab especially in helping to celebrate holidays such as Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Contact the Parish Office if you would like to join in these joyous occasions!
I was sick and you visited me… Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. - Matthew 25:36, 40
I was sick and you visited me… Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. - Matthew 25:36, 40