Blog
NMI Spotlight: Good Neighbor Settlement House
by Catey Miller
Good Neighbor Settlement House is a multi-service National Mission Institution in Brownsville, Texas, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. GNSH was founded in the 1950s by the local First United Methodist Church, and though its reach and scope have grown significantly since then, its vision and purpose remain the same: to “help people help themselves, with dignity and compassion.” GNSH executes this vision by providing meals, basic needs, outreach, and support services to its community — a community that increasingly includes migrants.
United Women in Faith Funding
In 2024, United Women in Faith funding helped GNSH distribute more than 225,000 meals and snacks and more than 75,000 hygiene kits through its Welcome Center. United Women in Faith also enabled GNSH to employ a full-time staff person dedicated to supporting migrant children and families. This staff position has been invaluable to GNSH’s recent work; in 2024, thousands of migrants received services from the Welcome Center while applying for employment authorization permits. Executive Director Astrid Dominguez writes, “Thanks to [United Women in Faith] funding, GNSH had the staff and resources to serve the families arriving at the Welcome Center and provide them snacks, tote bags with toiletries, PPE supplies, envelopes to protect their documents, sanitary pads, diapers, baby wipes, powdered milk, bottles, blankets, clothing for kids, crayons and activities, as well as toys.”
Shifting Federal Policies
GNSH welcomes prayers from United Women in Faith members as it works through how to execute its mission amid shifting federal policies concerning the migrant population it has served so faithfully. GNSH anticipates a drop of 70 percent or more in meals served through its soup kitchen due to a combination of fewer migrants able to take advantage of the meal program and reduced funding for the program. Additionally, because of cuts to federal grants that support GNSH’s meal program as well as delays in reimbursements, GNSH has been forced to significantly downsize its staff.
Hope Close to Home
Amid these struggles and uncertainties, Dominguez is finding hope close to home — in her almost 7-year-old daughter, who asks her every day after school how many people she fed and how many houses she found for people. For Dominguez, these questions are a symbol of the curiosity and empathy that will push future generations to continue the good work being done at GNSH and elsewhere.
We invite United Women in Faith members to support the work of our National Mission Institutions by giving online here or by writing a check to your local treasurer with the memo “National Missions #3001152.” To hear more from Astrid Dominguez, watch our recent Voices From the Field webinar, “Turning Uncertainty into Hope: How National Mission Institutions Rise to Meet Federal Policy Impacts.” To learn more about National Mission Institutions, contact NMI@uwfaith.org.
Catey Miller is a communications consultant with National Mission Institutions at United Women in Faith.
