Love INC of Jackson County

Love INC was founded in 1977 as a way to encourage churches to become more engaged with people with needs in their community. It was designed to inspire a greater number of Christians to put their faith into action. Love INC's founder, Dr. Virgil Gulker, was a social worker and outreach director in Holland, Michigan, in the late 1970s. Deeply committed to helping people who found themselves in nee

d and lacking resources or a support network, he was certain God had called Christian churches to the same mission. In early 2011, Love INC completely restructured its operations going to a "virtual" (on-line) office model, significantly reducing its operating costs while providing more timely resources and improving networking among the operating affiliates. Currently 157 Love INC affiliates in 30 states represent a network of more than 8,600 churches, 9,200 community-based organizations and 100,000 volunteers meeting more than 1,680,000 needs last year. The Jackson Affiliate started in 1987 under the direction of Warren and Doris Dolsen. Mary Martin was the first salaried director in 1997. Sometime later the affiliate was under the direction of Verla Custer. The current director Shaunta M Patton took office in 2010. Over the years the Jackson affiliate started the diaper ministry through First Presbyterian Church, Care Circles, and most recently JPCM through Westminster Presbyterian Church. Over the years our Love INC network helped 1000’s of clients in Jackson County.