Lutheran Women's Missionary League Awards Grant to
Lutheran Social Services and Concordia University Texas

AUSTIN, Texas - The Lutheran Women's Missionary League has awarded an $80,000 grant to Lutheran Social Services of the South and Concordia University Texas for an internship program for students gaining experience in the social services field.

"We are very excited that through this grant, we will be able to create opportunities for our students who have a passion for working in child welfare," says Ann Schwartz, associate professor of sociology at Concordia.

"We are pleased to work with Concordia University Texas to ensure that these interns gain relevant knowledge and experience by participating in adoption and foster care home studies, serving as surrogate parents for school-based meetings, attending court hearings, observing treatment planning meetings, assisting with foster parent recruitment and training, and more," said Charlene Hoobler, LSS senior vice president of child and family services.

LSS cares for over 1,800 children on any given day in foster care, including its three treatment centers and one emergency shelter. In the Austin area alone, LSS services more than 70 children in foster care and another 60 at New Life Treatment Center at Canyon Lake.

For more information on foster care, please visit www.LSSS.org/children.htm or call 800) 396-4611.

LWML awarded over $1 million to various ministries at their last national convention. The grant awarded to Concordia and LSS is for The Isaiah 49 Program: Preparing for Service in Child Welfare. Isaiah 49 is designed to serve advanced level behavioral science students from Concordia in gaining real world experience in the field. Also, the grant funds summer seminars for students from the Concordia University system nationwide on child welfare to be held at Concordia in Austin.

The purpose of the LWML is to develop a greater mission consciousness among women and to gather funds for mission projects for which no adequate provision was made.

Concordia University Texas is a privately-held, accredited, liberal arts university owned by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It is a member of the highly respected Concordia University System in which more than 19,000 students are enrolled nationwide.

LSS is the social service arm of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. LSS affiliated ministries serve more than 35,000 children, elderly and poor in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender or age. Its ministries include children's therapeutic foster care, residential treatment centers, adoption, disaster response, emergency assistance, senior health care, retirement communities and adult day care