Serve in Austin
Covenant is located in a big city with diverse needs. Discover how you can use your gifts to serve our community.
View the
Mission Guide
Explore Covenant’s mission work through stories, photos, and clear next steps for connecting with our mission partners. Pick up a Mission Guidebook in the Sanctuary Narthex or the FEB lobby, or view it online at the link below.
Homelessness
and Housing
Community First! Village
Community First! Village is a master-planned neighborhood that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness.
Covenant has had the privilege to build five microhomes and has been approved to build a sixth in 2026! Our Core Team is building an interest list of anyone who would like to help with this build. It will start in January and we will build through March. No previous experience required! Email our contact below to learn more and to sign up to participate in this next build! We are excited to expand this opportunity to the entire congregation!
To learn more, contact Brian Millington.
Community Guest Ministries
Twice a month, members of the community can make an appointment to come to Covenant and meet with our Director of Mission in order to receive rent assistance or grocery assistance. This ministry seeks to provide a bridge for those facing urgent needs. We also provide community resources and offer prayer and encouragement. If you would like to volunteer to help with this ministry, please reach out to Whitney Bell at . If you know someone who needs assistance, please have them email to request an appointment.
Foundation Communities
Foundation Communities creates housing where individuals and families succeed. It provides affordable, stable, and nurturing homes within communities that foster opportunities for growth and self-sufficiency.
It has 27 properties that house low-income residents locally and in North Texas. Their Children’s Housing Initiative supports families with wrap-around services and community.
To learn more, contact Whitney Bell.
Foundation for the Homeless
Foundation for the Homeless provides families experiencing homelessness hope, opportunity, and solutions while also promoting the dignity of individuals who experience homelessness. It does this by providing hot meals two days a week, helping families with rapid rehousing, and doing preventive work so families can remain housed. To learn more, contact Bryan Case.
Helping our Neighbors
Helping Our Neighbors (HON) is a ministry serving our local homeless population in West Austin. HON is looking for mentors to meet with homeless neighbors once per month for friendship and companionship. It is also looking for helpers to distribute food and supplies to homeless neighbors each weekend. If you are interested in serving in this way, contact Jo Ibsen.
Learn more about HON and read our story about Jo.
Movin’ and Groovin’
Movin’ and Groovin’ is a ministry of Covenant that has transformed over the past few years and currently is providing new beds to families emerging from homelessness and newly arrived refugee families.
Randy Jonkers took over the role of coordinator and could always use more volunteers to help deliver beds to those who may not be able to come get them from our storage facility.
To learn more, contact Randy Jonkers.
Street Youth Ministry
The mission of Street Youth Ministry (SYMin) is to serve homeless youth between the ages of 18 and 28. SYMin offers food, friendship, social services, counseling, clothing, and mentorship. It faithfully cares for the homeless youth in the heart of Austin.
Covenant is proud that the founder and director of SYMin, Terry Cole, is a member of the church, and he continues to inspire our congregation as he pursues his call. SYMin is looking for volunteers available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
For more information and ways to volunteer, please contact Garrett Hall.
Texas Reach Out
Texas Reach Out Ministries (TROM) provides Christian men and women leaving the criminal justice system with safe transitional housing, Spirit-led guidance, and employment assistance.
It currently owns ten homes, nine for men and one for women. Through its services, it prepares formerly incarcerated men and women to live as productive citizens walking in the fullness of life with Christ.
TROM seeks volunteers to lead weekly Bible studies or serve as mentors for its participants. It is also looking for individuals willing to provide pro bono services in key areas like counseling, nutrition, web design, and database creation.
For more information and how to get involved, please contact Nelson Mann.
Families and Education
Austin Voices for Education and Youth
Austin Voices for Education and Youth (AVEY), a ministry working throughout East Austin, is a community collaboration that aims to strengthen families, support kids, and improve schools. AVEY trains and encourages parents to be leaders, connects families with resources, and helps to build safe and thriving communities.
Click here to sign up to serve with AVEY. For more information and how to get involved, contact Lynn Bell.
East Austin Young Life
East Austin Young Life is a ministry that introduces students to Jesus and helps them grow in their faith. Our team of volunteer leaders go to where students are, form life-long relationships with them, and share the gospel. We serve students at four local East Austin schools: LBJ, LASA, Navarro, and Northeast High School.
We also offer a Young Lives ministry that serves teen moms. Young Lives offer one-on-one mentorship for teen moms and their babies. Leaders care for teen moms throughout their pregnancy and continue walking alongside them as they grow as young mothers and in their faith. Young Lives is currently well established with the childcare centers at Travis High School and Navarro High School.
East Austin is one of the most under-served and under-resourced communities, yet still remains one of the most vibrant, diverse, loving communities in Austin. We seek to reach every student and teen mom with the opportunity to hear the gospel, meet Jesus, and grow in their faith with a community of leaders who love and care for them.
To volunteer, contact Will Withers.
Hope Austin
HopeAustin is a non profit that is creating opportunities for the youngest members of our community through food security. They do this by providing weekend meals to students who lose their subsidized meals offered during the school week. HopeAustin ensures the brightest future for our children and the broader community by ensuring children have every opportunity to learn and thrive without hunger. HopeAustin also provides snacks during the school day so that hunger does not diminish a student’s ability to learn.
HopeAustin needs volunteer drivers to pick up meal kits and deliver them to their partner schools. They also have wonderful volunteer opportunities to pack weekend meal kits. To find out how to get involved, reach out to Megan Poore.
Manos De Cristo
The mission of Manos de Cristo is to empower low-income individuals with a loving hand of assistance and without regard to age, gender, race, or religious preference. Manos de Cristo promotes dignity and self-reliance by meeting basic needs with food and clothing, providing essential oral care, and furthering educational development.
The Manos de Cristo Dental Center expanded its four-chair clinic into a state-of-the-art 11-chair facility in 2013. Treatment plans are one-third the price of private practice dental procedures. Its professional dentists provide low-cost, quality care and allow individuals to invest in their own healthcare. Manos serves whomever comes to its doors seeking assistance: more than 30,000 individuals annually. Its clients/patients/students include immigrants, seniors, the working poor, and the unhoused.
Covenant members are welcome to drop off requested donations for the Manos food pantry at Covenant. For an up to date list on current needs, please visit covenant.org/manos or email Melissa Matthews.
Mentor a 4th Grader at Padron Elementary
The 2025–2026 school year will be Covenant’s third year to partner with Padron Elementary and Academy 4. The program focuses on 4th grade students at under-served and under-resourced schools. Each 4th grader is assigned a mentor. Mentoring happens one Friday a month from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Academy 4 staff members equip mentors before each session with curriculum and questions during their mentor time. Mentor opportunities are always available, even mid-year.
Contact Med Luckett for more information and to sign up to volunteer.
Presbyterian Children’s Home and Services
Covenant has been in partnership with Presbyterian Children’s Home and Services (PCHAS) since 1999. PCHAS provides Christ-centered care and support for children and families in need throughout Texas, Missouri and Louisiana. PCHAS helps children heal from trauma so they can build healthy relationships, succeed in education, and discover their own world of opportunities and possibilities.
In 2023, PCHAS expanded its Child and Family program here in the Austin area to help families through crisis by counseling, parenting classes, behavioral support, and financial assistance. PCHAS needs ongoing support through prayer partners, volunteering, or their annual Back to School and Angel Tree initiatives.
To learn more information and how you can get involved, email James Lavendar or Susie Boyd.
Vulnerable Populations
DAS-ATX exists to ensure that the isolated and older (60+) population stays meaningfully connected through a variety of services:
- Providing free transportation for health care appointments, spousal visits at memory care facilities, and trips to counseling or support groups, grocery stores, hairdressers, churches and other destinations
- Checking in on our clients with friendly phone calls
- Creating opportunities for clients to interact and connect with others at game days, fun outing trips, and other social events
- Offering in-home handyman services and small repairs as well as help with technology, meal transportation, links to other senior services, and senior sidekicks
For many years DAS-ATX has worked to keep seniors in their own homes, while enabling them to be connected with – not isolated from – the rest of the world.
For more information and how to get involved, please contact Shelly Frost.
International Justice Ministry
International Justice Mission (IJM) is a global organization seeking to end slavery around the world. It partners with local authorities at 33 program offices in 18 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children and police abuse of power against people who are poor.
Covenant has a partnership with the IJM field office in Ghana and seeks to
pray and offer support for the team working tirelessly there to advocate for those enslaved. A small team from Covenant was able to visit in 2025 and learn about the incredible work taking place in Ghana. We are grateful to continue to partner with IJM and grow our partnership in Ghana.
For more info and how you can get involved with IJM, please contact Kelly Dwyer or Doug Kilday.
Samaritan Counseling Center
Samaritan Counseling Center empowers individuals, families, and communities and provides a safe space for growth and healing through holistic counseling, integrative medicine, peer support,
and education.
They serve children ages five and up, as well as adults of all ages, with evidence-based, spiritually-integrated care that is trauma-informed. They address entire family systems, breaking cycles of generational trauma. They believe everyone deserves access to high quality mental health treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. Services are offered on a sliding scale, and some families qualify for free services.
Their biggest program, Hope for Heroes, serves Veterans, their spouses and dependent children, as well as first responders.
Vision statement: We envision a healthy and supportive society where every individual achieves mental, physical, spiritual and social well-being.
To learn more, contact Josie Geck.
Welcoming the Stranger
ESL (Manos)
Covenant, in partnership with Manos de Cristo, hosts ESL classes on our campus during each academic year. The classes serve populations from all over the world who come to the United States with a common goal: to flourish in their community.
Daytime classes offer childcare. ESL is in need of a few more volunteers to help teach classes and to help with childcare.
For more information about how to get involved, contact Jane Harris.
Margin Institute
In 2021, Covenant’s Love Letter Fund gave its first grant to the Margin Institute, a non-profit that was created by Covenant members Dan Michel, Dan Pucci, and Matt McMichen. Margin Institute serves Texas communities that have limited options from the traditional financial system, by enabling individuals and entrepreneurs to take charge of their financial lives. They do this by providing low interest loans to those looking to start or expand a business who could not obtain a loan from another source. Margin is now a mission partner of Covenant with many opportunities to serve. They currently need volunteers to provide business coaching and support to their clients.
To learn more, contact Dan Michel.
Vecina
Vecina seeks to empower immigrant justice advocates by mentoring attorneys, educating communities, and mobilizing volunteers. Vecina identified needs for training and mentorship of volunteer attorneys who want to help with immigration and asylum advocacy but who do not possess the expertise to take cases on their own.
It fills the gap by providing this service and often partners with other nonprofits that can identify cases of asylum seekers, refugees, and unaccompanied children who would benefit the most from representation. It is always looking for volunteer attorneys as well as other volunteers to help with administrative needs.
To learn more, contact Michael Knisely.
Meet Whitney
Need help finding more information about Covenant’s Mission Ministry? Contact Whitney Bell, Covenant’s Director of Mission.