Collaborating for the Good

For more than a century, individuals and families across America have turned to Catholic Charities for help. Today, 167 Catholic Charities agencies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories minister to those in need at more than 3,900 network sites. Together, they break cycles of poverty, lift communities and put the teachings and compassion of Jesus Christ into action in the modern world.   

“They showed me a lot of things that I didn’t know… and could do better. Nobody cares about us like that anywhere.” 

— Jennifer, new mother, resident of Marisol Homes, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Denver

In 2022, nearly all Catholic Charities agencies provided pregnancy and parenting services in communities across the U.S. — from distributing baby supplies, clothes and car seats to offering parenting classes and early childhood education. The services can also be more comprehensive, including full medical care, behavioral health counseling and doula accompaniment.  

Lifting Communities
in Need

A community’s need for assistance can be longstanding — such as entrenched, multigenerational poverty — or the result of a single event, such as a natural disaster or social upheaval. Some communities within communities — seniors, veterans, young families — are at-risk, struggling to afford food and shelter. In collaboration with parishes, other nonprofits and local governments, Catholic Charities strives to address these needs in systematic and compassionate ways. 

Delivering water — and hope — to a community in crisis
Disruptions of municipal water delivery reached crisis levels for Jackson, Mississippi, in late summer. CCUSA responded by sending thousands of bottles of water as well as cases of gallon water jugs, faucet water filters, canned and boxed food that requires no water to prepare, disinfectant and mops, personal hygiene items and financial support. Thousands of people received these necessities to get them through the prolonged crisis. 

Welcoming Ukrainian neighbors
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the United States granted parole, a type of immigration relief, to Ukrainians fleeing their homeland. Catholic Charities agencies sprang into action, adding native Ukrainian and Russian speakers to their staffs and coordinating efforts to find housing, jobs/workforce development services, schooling for children, language classes and medical services, including treatment for trauma. Agencies from Anchorage to New York and in between are providing thousands of Ukrainians with hope amidst the uncertainty of war. 

Helping parishes recognize and respond to trauma
CCUSA launched Whole Hearted, a parish-based trauma-awareness resource that equips parish communities and individuals to better identify signs of trauma among parishioners. While not intended to be used in place of clinical therapy with licensed professionals, Whole Hearted informs participants of trauma’s impact and how to begin to move forward from it, both mentally and spiritually. The participant and facilitator guides are available in English and Spanish. A young adult version is also available. 

Expanding Our Reach

Working — and innovating — together
Part of CCUSA’s mandate is to recognize innovative programs and opportunities and help to share these strategies for success within the network of Catholic Charities agencies. In doing so, we multiply not only the number of individuals and families Catholic Charities agencies serve but also the effectiveness of that service. 

Game-changing collaborations 
Catholic Charities’ housing counseling program is a time-tested case management system targeting at-risk families that would benefit from one-time emergency assistance. It has played a crucial role in helping Americans facing evictions and in preventing new instances of homelessness during challenging economic times. To amplify its impact, CCUSA teamed up with Gerstner Philanthropies to grant Helping Hands funds to 15 Catholic Charities agencies. This support helped keep families out of shelters, particularly in markets where the affordable housing crisis is most acute.

A collaboration with the Markle Foundation aims to help clients attain not just employment but a sustainable career pathway that leads to a living wage. Through an online program, local Catholic Charities workforce development staff will become further equipped as case managers to build connections with local businesses and national corporations to create life-changing employment opportunities for their clients.     

Thanks to an annual grant from the Walmart Foundation, 52 Catholic Charities agencies around the country promote awareness of and enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These efforts focus specifically on hard-to-reach individuals and families who otherwise might not be aware of or able to access critical SNAP benefits to put food on their tables.

Meanwhile, CCUSA’s second Innovation Challenge has inspired agencies across the country to devise new workforce development programs that could serve as models for the network. The winning agencies will share $2.5 million in prize money when they are announced in October.    

And as CCUSA continues to serve as the domestic relief agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation will greatly enhance our response capabilities. Over the next 30 months, CCUSA will hold eight disaster response academies in geographically diverse, high-risk regions around the country to train a cadre of 400 disaster case managers.

Tech Addresses Enduring Challenges

Since 1910, Catholic Charities staff and volunteers have sought to address some of the most significant challenges in the United States, from food insecurity and homelessness to affordable health care and workforce development. Today, Catholic Charities agencies continue to tackle these issues and others using cutting-edge technologies.  

A nurse at the tip of your finger
CCUSA is leveraging Nurse Disrupted, a one-click tablet technology designed to virtually connect registered nurses to homeless and vulnerable populations, remove barriers to accessing quality health care and connect underserved populations to the services they need. Nurse Disrupted, which was featured on the Today Show in November, has been piloted at three agencies with another handful scheduled to adopt it in the coming months.

Hope can help
For many people, especially those in rural communities, the pandemic served to heighten isolation and the difficulty of receiving necessary behavioral health care. Enter Hope Chatbot. In a four-agency pilot program (soon expanding to 14 agencies) sponsored by CCUSA, Hope Chatbot helps clients manage everyday stress and anxiety and promotes self-care practices. Since deployment, more than 900 crises (mentions of suicide) have been reported, with a live crisis counselor reaching out immediately in each case. 

Everywhere all at once 
The Border Is Everywhere pilot project implements a trauma-informed case management and service navigation system that supports asylum-seekers as they find stability in their new communities and comply with immigration legal requirements while they seek U.S. citizenship. Thanks to the generosity of the Joseph & Gene Swedish Family Foundation, this data-driven program links asylum-seekers who stayed at a Catholic Charities border respite center with case management services at interior agencies, improving immigration outcomes and creating a “warm hand-off” between the border and the interior.

Strengthening the Network

Catholic social and moral teaching shapes what Catholic Charities does and how we do it. Seeking to ground agencies and their work in these principles, CCUSA offers opportunities throughout the year for agency directors, senior staff and other professionals to grow their leadership skills within this context.  

Aiming for excellence in leadership 
Geared toward enhancing the management capabilities of agency senior leaders, the 18-week Professional Certificate in Nonprofit Executive Management recently graduated its first cohort. Two concurrent cohorts are now in process. Offered virtually through the University of San Diego and funded by the Healey Family Foundation, this program offers a custom curriculum designed with Catholic Charities in mind and closes with an in-person capstone experience.

Supporting staff and program growth
Catholic Charities agency leaders benefit — and by extension, benefit those served — from CCUSA’s O’Grady Advanced Leadership Institute, thanks to the generosity of the late Sisters Vincentia Joseph and Ann Patrick Conrad. Participants dive deeply into the Catholic teachings that undergird Catholic Charities services and shape strategic planning within an ethnically diverse and religiously pluralistic culture. The O’Grady Leadership Institute offers agency professionals a foundational understanding of the essential knowledge and skills to effectively lead Catholic Charities.     

Spreading an innovative approach
CCUSA recently hosted a two-day community agriculture conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The gathering, which was attended by staff from 19 member agencies as well as four representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, highlighted program models, planning processes, partnerships, land acquisition, entrepreneurial opportunities and other key topics. Agriculture programs have proved an excellent way to supplement agency food pantry programs as well as to support refugees in building new lives in new communities. 

Serving and Loving Our Neighbors

In communities all around the United States, Catholic Charities agencies provide relief and hope to vulnerable individuals and families, regardless of their faith. These are the neighbors Catholic Charities serves.

Welcome Home

All across the country, Catholic Charities agencies provide one of our nation’s scarcest and most vital resources: affordable housing units. With a shortage of 7 million affordable units nationwide, the Catholic Charities network strives to close this gap through a variety of approaches to safe, quality, affordable housing. Because everyone deserves a place to call home.  

Queens, New York
The Bishop Rene Valero Senior Residence, a new six-story facility in Astoria, Queens, is a project of Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens. Its on-site supportive services include daily hot meals, educational forums, fitness classes, case management and referral services. 

Santa Rosa, California 
Caritas Village is a first-of-its-kind approach to homelessness from Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. It includes 128 affordable homes and wraparound services that help participants in their journey to permanent housing.   

Portland, Oregon 
Chiles House, an environmentally conscious 27-unit facility for housing-insecure individuals and families, is next door to Catholic Charities of Oregon’s headquarters, providing convenient access for residents to a wide range of programs and services. The agency is one of five participants in the Healthy Housing Initiative, CCUSA’s five-year pilot program that seeks to address chronic homelessness through permanent supportive housing and social services in collaboration with Catholic health care.

Tampa, Florida
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Petersburg added 100 newly built cottages that serve as transitional housing for individuals experiencing homelessness in its Tampa Hope project. Hope Cottages expands Tampa Hope’s capacity and provides a unique sheltering option for clients while they receive services.