COMMON GROUND MINISTRY began in 1985 after 4 suicides at Ft. Vancouver High School in one month. A local youth pastor and Chaplain, Mike Miller, was involved in counseling those families through this tragedy. He initiated a school assembly program, Dare to Live, to counter the growing threat to our youth and promote Christian discipleship among students.
Subsequently, Mike presented his school assembly in all 50 states to roughly 3 million students. Because secular schools prevented him from sharing the hope found in Jesus Christ, he developed an after-school all-school assembly program called The Fight of Your Life, where he could present this hope and give an altar call.
These programs ran through 2008. Unfortunately, local churches were reluctant to adopt and disciple students with no previous church experience. In 2016, Mike discovered his non-profit had been delisted due to an error in reporting. A group of Christians, burdened to see local youth in Clark County not only refuse suicide but also come to know Jesus as their savior, re-formulated the non-profit under the name Common Ground Church, a church without walls. Members of our church continued to serve in their various local churches while adding this youth ministry to our community service efforts.
In 2018, we designed and began Hopeline, a suicide prevention hotline with a local 360-prefix, linked to community resources in Clark County. All volunteers underwent 32 hours of training in necessary subjects to assist distraught callers. We offered “mental health first aid” rather than ongoing counseling. To extend beyond mental health first aid, we developed the counseling program Common Ground Counseling. Partnering with Multnomah University, we provided master’s-level counseling students the opportunity to counsel our Hopeline callers, helping them achieve the required 70 hours of supervised counseling for their Master’s Degree.
Carpenter’s Garage offered low-cost or no-cost auto repair services to the community and gave back over $5 million in provided services.
We adopted an existing non-profit maternity home, New Beginnings Maternity Home, and designed Allie’s House as a communal home for 6 or 7 pregnant or recently birthed teens. We then partnered with a local couple, who felt called to run such a home, and transferred control of the non-profit. We sold an existing decrepit house in Vancouver to Heather’s House, which is now under construction.
