Community Care Ministries
Caring in Community. Serving with Purpose.
“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” -Matthew 5:16.
Simple, intentional acts of care can bring hope and healing
Community Care Ministries is more than a program: it's a tangible expression of The Salvation Army's mission to share the love of Christ through practical care, presence, and connection.
In a world marked by loneliness and growing need, CCM equips corps leaders and volunteers to build meaningful relationships and extend compassion to the wider community.
Four stages. One mission.
Four key stages
The toolkit is organized into four key stages that provide both inspiration and practical guidance for building a vibrant, people-centred CCM ministry.
Stage 1:
Just starting
Start with a clear sense of why you are doing this and who you are doing it for.
Stage 2:
Building your team
Find and support the people who care deeply and are ready to serve with presence.
Stage 3:
Running programs
Choose one expression of care: Gathering Together, Belonging Together, or Caring Together.
Stage 4:
Going deeper
Care for your team so the ministry stays spiritually rooted and sustainable.
Stage 1: Just starting
Just Starting
You don't need to have it all figured out
Most thriving CCM ministries started small: a hunch, a handful of volunteers, and a willingness to try. What you need first is a clear sense of why you're doing this and who you're doing it for.
If you're still discerning where to begin, start by listening. Community Compass will help you understand your community's needs and opportunities, while Faith in Community will help your leadership team reflect on how God is already at work in your neighbourhood and how your corps can faithfully join that work. Together, they provide an excellent starting point before launching Community Care Ministries.
Read
How to launch CCM at your corps
A step-by-step guide from leadership conversation to first program, written for the real world.
Guide · 10 minDo
Map your community's needs
If you have not yet, work through the Community Compass to better understand your community and its needs.
Community CompassReflect
Three questions to sit with
Who in our community is most isolated? What would it mean for our corps to be known for how we care? Are we willing to commit for six months?
Reflection questionsAll resources - Stage 1
Download all Stage 1 documents
Use this link to download the complete Stage 1 resource package as a ZIP file.
Stage 2: Building your team
Building Your Team
Start with two people who care deeply
You don't need a volunteer coordinator or a recruitment campaign. You need two people who always stay after service to check on others, and a direct, personal ask.
Read
How to find and recruit volunteers
Why a direct personal ask will always outperform a bulletin insert, and how to have that conversation.
Guide · 10 minDo
Onboard your first volunteer
A role description, safeguarding checklist, and one-afternoon onboarding guide, everything in one place.
Template packReflect
Three questions to sit with
Who in our congregation has a gift for presence? Are we caring for our volunteers as well as those they serve? What would make someone want to stay?
Reflection questionsAll resources - Stage 2
Download all Stage 2 documents
Use this link to download the complete Stage 2 resource package as a ZIP file.
Stage 3: Running programs
Running Programs
Pick one expression of care and do it well
Care takes many forms. A shared meal, a weekly group, a hand held in a hospital room; each one is different, but each one carries the same intention: to ensure that no one in our community walks alone.
Community Care Ministries is organized around three expressions of care. We call them the Three Togethers. They are not a hierarchy or a checklist. They are three distinct ways of answering the same call. A corps might begin with one and grow into all three. Or one expression might be exactly what a particular community needs, and it becomes the heartbeat of everything.
What matters is not which one you choose. What matters is that you choose, and that you begin.
Gathering Together
Opening the door
Some people need an invitation before they need anything else. Gathering Together is about creating moments where the door is open, the table is set, and everyone is welcome. A community lunch, a seasonal celebration, a sing-along at a care home. These gatherings lower the threshold, make room, and say to the people who walk through: you belong here.
Belonging Together
Building what lasts
A gathering can open a door. Belonging is built over time, through the kind of consistency that says: I will be here again next week, and the week after that. These are not programs to attend. They are communities to be part of.
Caring Together
Going to where people are
Some people cannot come to us. They are homebound, hospitalized, or too isolated to find their way through our doors. Caring Together goes to them through a visit, a conversation, and a presence that says: you matter.
All resources - Stage 3
Gathering Together
Belonging Together
Caring Together
Download all Stage 3 documents
Use this link to download the complete Stage 3 resource package as a ZIP file.
Share a program idea
Community Care Ministries continues to grow because ministry units learn from one another. If your corps has developed a meaningful activity, event, resource, or new way of caring for people, we would love to hear about it.
Your idea could inspire other ministry units across the territory and help shape future CCM resources, examples, and shared learning opportunities.
Tell us what worked
Share the activity, event, partnership, or simple idea your team would recommend.
Share why it matters
What need did it respond to, and how could another ministry unit adapt it?
Help others adapt it
Include simple steps, materials, or lessons learned that could help another corps try it.
Submit your idea
Stage 4: Going deeper
Going Deeper
A ministry that lasts is a team that is cared for
Sustainability in care ministry does not come from better systems. It comes from a team that is spiritually nourished, emotionally supported, and regularly reflecting on why they do what they do.
Read
Caring for your volunteers: preventing burnout
The signs to watch for, the conversations to have early, and how to build rhythms of rest into your ministry.
GuideDo
Annual ministry reflection
A guided worksheet to review what the past year taught you and set a clear, simple intention for the year ahead.
WorksheetReflect
Three questions to sit with
Are our volunteers growing through this ministry, or just sustaining it? What would it look like to truly flourish? What are we being called toward next?
Reflection questionsAll resources - Stage 4
Download all Stage 4 documents
Use this link to download the complete Stage 4 resource package as a ZIP file.
CCM toolkit resources
