Catholic Charities Northern - Weld County
MISSION STATEMENT:
As the charitable arm of the Archdiocese of Denver,
and inspired by God's love and compassion, Catholic Charities extends the healing ministry of Jesus Christ
to the poor and those in need.
Brief history of organization:
Catholic Charities has worked on behalf of individuals, families and communities to provide help and create hope since 1927. The agency’s early focus was to aid those suffering under the Depression, and eventually those displaced by WWII and the physically disabled. We grew to include child welfare services, including foster care and adoption, and now serve many underserved- populations, including the isolated elderly, low-income Hispanics, immigrants, and migrant farm workers. Today, Catholic Charities continues to serve people of all faiths, origins, cultures and economics, with no distinction. A division of the Archdiocese of Denver, Catholic Charities is an independent nonprofit corporation with an 18 member Board of Directors.
The Weld County Regional Office began in 1962 in order to address community needs specific to this region. Our purpose was to conduct Migrant Outreach to farmers and to provide services to low-income senior citizens. In 1992, the off was incorporated into Catholic Charities and Community Services of the Archdiocese of Denver, Inc. Today the Weld County Regional Office continues to provide services to seniors, family services such as case management and parenting classes, emergency assistance and shelter through the Guadalupe Shelter, and seasonal housing.
How many total clients are served annually:
These are the programs we have in Weld County. We use our Empty Stocking Funds in our Emergency Assistant Program to help with rental/mortgage, utilities and birth certificates.
Guadalupe Shelter:
We provided overnight emergency shelter to 523 unduplicated guests at our Guadalupe Shelter who stayed for 7,085 nights. 14,170 meals were provided to the guest at the shelter.
Emergency Assistance:
We served 859 households in Emergency Assistance. We were able to help 35 households with the Empty Stocking Funds.
Family Services:
Promoting Safe and Stable Family Program; and Champions Program: We served 164 families in our PSSF program and 69 families in our Champions Program.
Senior Services:
Elderly Outreach; and Rural & Hispanic Senior Outreach: We served 319 seniors in our Elderly Outreach Programs.
What are the demographics of the population
that is being served:
Guadalupe Shelter
(Race/Ethnicity):
White 219, Hispanic 270, Black/African American 16, Asian 3, American Indian 10 and Black/African American and White 5.
Emergency Assistance Program
(Race/Ethnicity):
White 252, Hispanic 592, African American 4, Other 11
Ages:
19-30 years 323, 31-54 years 408, 55-74 years 117, and 75+ years 11
Current major initiatives:
A recent survey conducted by a senior Practicum in Family Studies at UNC, highlighted the growing need for emergency assistance. Sixteen agencies in Weld County surveyed provided emergency services to 15,000 individual in 2008(duplicated). Catholic Charities of Weld County is re-structuring our emergency services program to provide help to as many in need as possible and as quickly as possible, though the use of trained volunteers under the supervision of a program manager.
We know that our current shelter with it foundation built in 1890 and it inaccessibility to services is not meeting the need for the long term poor or the new families thrown into poverty by lack of employment. As solutions, we are focusing our efforts in two directions: a capital campaign to build and raise funds to sustain a new shelter and an aggressive grant research and application effort for homeless prevention and rapid re-housing programs. We have also expanded our Emergency Assistance to now provide relief for victims of crime with direct assistance and case management. Our focus with all our initiatives will be providing hope, support and direction to change a life for the better one person at a time.
What is the greatest challenge you foresee for your organization in the next year:
The down turn of the economy and dwindling resources for cities has meant a decrease in the support we would normally receive. For example: Last year we received from the City of Greeley $12,000 and this year we received $6,000.
Increase needs will challenge are ability to meet the volume of request for individuals and families desperate to meet even basic needs. We receive 30-40
phone calls a day for rental and utility assistance.
How are Empty Stocking funds expended to
benefit your clients:
The Empty Stocking funds were used in the Emergency Assistance Program to help clients with utility bills, rental/mortgage bills, and birth certificates. While we have grants that pay for utility assistance and rental/mortgage assistance they usually only allow us to pay one month, with the Empty Stocking funds we were able to pay more than one month. In 2007, we helped 25 households with utilities, 12 households with rent and 2 clients with birth certificates.
With the current focus and awareness of the critical for homeless prevention, we are dedicating the resources of Empty Stocking toward avoiding foreclosure for at least twenty-five families. The average relief will be $600.00 per household. The loss of ones home leads to disintegrating abilities to copy with life and meet individual and family needs. Families are coming to us who have never before dealt with this prospect. The Empty Stocking fund along with case management and support services, will serve as a significant form of client intervention where the down word spiral to total individual and family dysfunction can be avoided.
What is the true, lasting impact of the Empty
Stocking Fund on your organization/clients:
J. was chronically homeless with mental health and dependency issues and living in our shelter. With the help of the case managers, she was given a housing voucher to help put her into an apartment. In order for her to remain in housing she had to pay an Xcel utility bill that was past due from previous years. She came in crying and upset because she thought that she would lose her housing once again. Emergency Assistance was able to pay her bill and bring her to a zero balance. Since then, she has been able to even get ahead on her bill and remain in housing. She has been clean now for 8 months and even gets visits with her children whom she hadn’t seen in 5 years.