Dover Friends Meeting is excited to report that we have received a $50,000 matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places, a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
This funding will support safety upgrades to our meetinghouse required for us to continue our Sanctuary Ministry. Dover Friends continue to have a strong leading to offer refuge and mercy to immigrants under threat of deportation as our top priority. When/if that is not needed, we may host people for whom lodging is a condition for release from detention or in other cases to further their search for safety, asylum, and justice.
The renovations will include: a sprinkler system for the first-floor apartment area, a second egress from the meeting room, and fire-proofing of the walls and ceiling on the first floor. To receive the matching grant and complete the renovations, Dover Friends will need to raise about $150,000. We invite Friends in New England and beyond to join us as we work to build the Beloved Community.
Dover Friends Meeting is one of 16 organizations to receive a total of over $2 million in grant funding that provides training, planning grants, technical assistance, capacity-building support, and capital grants to congregations of all faiths.
Now in its seventh year, the National Fund has awarded or pledged over $18 million to 97 community-serving congregations representing 24 faith traditions in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. So far, this grantmaking has resulted in over $3 leveraged for every grant dollar invested in participating congregations. To learn more about this program and this year’s grant recipients, visit fundforsacredplaces.org.
A lovely backstory to the grant award is the way Friends from around NEYM provided technical, financial, and spiritual support to Dover Friends as we worked to complete the competitive application process. Photographer Jean Schnell (Framingham) generously allowed us to use photographs from her meetinghouse project. She even came to Dover for a special day-long photo shoot to complete the list of required professional quality photos. AFSC also shared photos from an event at the meetinghouse. Architect Allan and Janice Sifferlen (Lawrence) made an extensive assessment of the condition of the meetinghouse for submission with our application. Jane Griswold Radocchia (Bennington), preservation architect, is advising on renovations to our 1768 meetinghouse. Jnana Hodson (Cobscook), formerly of Dover, shared his research from his newly released book, Quaking Dover: How a Counterculture Took Root and Flourished in Colonial New Hampshire as we worked to demonstrate the historical and cultural importance of Dover Friends Meeting. Fritz Weiss (Portland) and Craig Jensen (Monadnock) powerfully affirmed our leading as our Legacy Grant Fund representatives. Dover Friends are most grateful for the support of the Legacy Fund, the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund, Hanover and Weare Meetings, and Dover Quarter in our project’s initial phases. We are grateful for a generous contribution from the Jonathan E. Rhoads Trust, as well.
For more information, contact Jeremiah Dickinson, presiding clerk of Dover Friends Meeting, at [email protected].