A Bridge to a More Abundant Life for Challenged People Creating a Faith-Based Representative Payee Organization

The purpose of this dissertation is to outline both the “how and why” one might choose to organize a ministry for some of the challenged people of a community by using the vehicle of becoming a Representative Payee Organization through the SSA. The SSA distributes payments each month to over 7,500,000 people in the United States who are declared sufficiently disabled to be unable to support themselves. Twenty percent are unable to responsibly use their payments because of mental illness, homelessness, addictions or other disabilities. They need a representative payee.

This dissertation explores and clearly explains how one ministry, Senior Serve, seeks to build a bridge of hope out of hopelessness and bring stability to individuals by being a faith-based Representative Payee Organization. Topics include 1) a survey of the historical background for this current ministry opportunity, the legal development, and the transformational outcome that is possible; 2) an explanation of the SSA and how it arrived at today’s systems of aid for the poor and challenged is profiled: 3) a contextualized look at the theological and biblical base for a payee organization; 4) the qualities of leadership and motivation needed for the success of this endeavor; 5) the matter of a faith-based organization accepting federal funds. The accompanying media material provides a procedure manual for creating this opportunity as a bridge of hope.