Mentoring builds meaningful connections between children and adults, fostering love, acceptance, and encouragement that positively impact school, home, and community life. Research links student mentoring to improved academic, social, and economic outcomes. Friends of Westchase unites schools, churches, businesses, and individuals to strengthen the community through relationships. School mentors spend about 30 minutes with elementary or middle school students, offering consistent support to those facing academic, behavioral, or home challenges. Training is provided with activities, talking points, and games to build connection.

Currently, we have an urgent need for six mentors to help at Emerson Elementary this fall! Information is below, or contact Kristy Elmore soon!

Mentoring will begin in early October. Training and campus orientation are offered in September and January. Please consider joining our mentoring program this fall at one of our three partner schools:

Paul Revere Middle School (10502 Briar Forest Drive, Houston, TX 77042)
One-on-One Mentoring for sixth grade and eighth grade students
Wednesdays or Thursdays
30 minutes during lunch
School Coordinator: Tammy Box 

Walnut Bend Elementary School (10602 Briar Forest Drive, Houston, TX 77042)
Group mentoring with a group of 3 or 4 fourth–fifth grade students
Tuesdays–Thursday
30 minutes during lunch
School Coordinator: Debbie Kaplan

Emerson Elementary School
9533 Skyline Drive, Houston, TX 77063
One-on-One Mentoring for third–fifth grade students
Monday–Friday
30 minutes during lunch
School Coordinator: Becky Sikes 

Steps to mentoring:

Step 1: Apply to mentor or request more information by contacting Kristy Elmore.

Step 2: Complete background check, safety training, and the HISD Volunteer Application

We will guide you from there! 

October 25: Helping Hands for Our Grace Family

Do you have a small project around the house or yard that could use an extra pair of hands? Maybe some light repairs, technology help, moving boxes, or yardwork? Our Saturday Serve team is coming together this October to support covenant partners who may need an extra hand around the house! We have a team eager to help with those "odd jobs" that can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially for our more senior Covenant Partners. Through this ministry, we hope to share Christ's love in practical ways, strengthen relationships across generations, and remind one another that no one in our Grace family is alone. Whether it's helping with lawn work or doing some painting, we are ready to lend a hand. If you have a need or want to help out, please contact Kristy Elmore. Our team will be coming out on Saturday, October 25. Let's come together as a church family to serve one another in love!

November 8: Open Door Mission

Please join us for a meaningful day of serving! We will meet at Grace and travel to Open Door Mission together (bus transportation is available) to serve, worship, and have fellowship with the men sheltering with Open Door Mission as they begin a new season of life and celebrate sobriety! Open Door Mission is a Christ-centered addiction recovery program and facility helping the homeless in Houston since 1954. They're dedicated to transforming the lives of the most severely addicted, destitute, homeless, and disabled men in our community for free. Please register before November 5 HERE.

February 14: Ronald McDonald House

Please make plans to join us for a special day of serving with the Ronald McDonald House Houston! On February 14, 2026, we will gather at Grace at 9 a.m. and travel together to the Ronald McDonald House to serve a special Valentine's Day Brunch to families with children receiving medical care in the Texas Medical Center and staying at the Ronald McDonald House. We hope to return around 1 pm. We will be preparing brunch and then staying to serve and fellowship with families! We have limited spaces, and due to health considerations, this project is open to anyone 18 and older. Please register HERE.

Please join us to Warm Up Westchase this month by sponsoring a brand new, warm, winter coat to support students to attend our local HISD schools. During the month of October, we invite you to stop by our table in the narthex on Sundays and sponsor a coat! HISD only provides transportation to students who live outside of a 2 mile radius, so that leaves many of our students walking to school in cold and rain during the winter months, and our hope is to get our students wrapped in warm coats and warm before the first cold front rolls through! We support 2600 students who attend Emerson Elementary, Walnut Bend Elementary and Paul Revere Middle School, and our goal is to provide as many warm coats as possible--the need is great.

You may also purchase jackets online HERE.

MENtorUP is a wonderful opportunity for Grace men to broaden the horizons of Westchase-area middle school (and some high school) young men. A dedicated group of caring adult men meets monthly with 15 teen boys, building meaningful relationships through mentorship. Together, they do things as simple as sharing lunch or a game of basketball; or spend a little more time with one another as they explore college campuses, visit museums, attend events, and even a camping retreat to Georgia. Engaging in these experiences inspire their dreams and shape their futures. To get involved, contact Kristy Elmore today.

As you may be aware, Grace has a Disaster Response Team that monitors events which may impact our Grace family. Here is how the process works:

If such an event occurs, we want to be prepared, as a Grace community, to come together and support one another. Once a disaster response is initiated, Grace deacons are responsible for contacting each Covenant Partner household to determine whether any members of the household have been impacted. The protocol is to establish contact with at least one adult in each household to ascertain their status and assess any potential needs. The information gathered is then communicated to the Disaster Response Team for triage and appropriate response.

If a deacon is unable to reach any adults in the household, the next step is to reach out to an emergency contact—an adult who does not live in the household but would likely know your status during an emergency. It would be a tremendous help to our deacons if you would provide an emergency contact for our database using the form found HERE. The information will only be shared with members of the Disaster Response Team.