Community Impact

Gateway Gaston served 3500 families in 2020. This is up 43% from 2019. 

Gateway Gaston Director / Chaplain fills approximately 25 local church pulpits annually providing special focus services on topics such as hospitality, human service and scripture, intentional interim pastoral care, outreach, and other consultative needs. Below is a list of some local houses of worship that have been served by the Gateway.

St. Paul’s Lutheran

St. Mark’s Episcopal

First United Methodist

Common Ground Stanley

Gateway Gaston hosts biannual Gateway Gatherings of key faith, nonprofit, business, and civic leaders. These gatherings are designed to foster relationships and connect for the common good. 

Someone Listened – The Gateway’s Pandemic mental health relief program served 165 community members with mental health services all within 90 minutes of their requests being submitted to the Gateway portal. 100 percent of designated funding was used for direct client service. Marketing funding was provided by The Pointe Church.  Administrative costs were provided in-kind by the Gateway Gaston’s volunteer team.

The unique, relational, virtual components of this initiative were featured on several regional media outlets. 

View Spectrum News coverage here.

The Gateway’s COVID CARES initiative served 74 local families with over $18,000 for rent and utilities.  None of these families were eligible for pandemic-related IRS stipends.

Gateway Gaston spearheaded partnerships with 8 local churches to provide over 2000 Meals on Wheels meal supplements during the first months of the Covid pandemic.

Gateway Gaston has matched 3 local churches to partner and share space to reduce overhead and increase ministry in their communities. 

January 1, 2020, the Gateway moved from the YMCA and began to stand on its own after a fantastic incubation partnership with the Y. This transition enabled the Gateway to:  

• Reduce overhead by over $65,000 per year.
• Form our own board of directors for the Gateway’s 501c3.
• Respond to community challenges and garner real-time collaboration as needed. 

Gateway Gaston has hosted 10 collegiate interns to provide over 160 hours of volunteer service to Gaston County citizens.  These include:

• Belmont Abbey College
• Gaston College
• Carson Newman College (Bonner Scholarship Program)
• University of North Carolina – Charlotte

Gateway Gaston coordinated the collection, staging, and distribution of hygiene, food, and informational packets to homeless encampments during the Covid related Stay-at-Home order

Gateway Gaston collected and helped distribute over 6,000 PPE masks