Your gift helps across Southeast Texas
By ETC Staff
When the Catholic Charities of Southeast Texas staff was planning its 2008-09 year in early 2008, the leaders of the different ministries looked at the calendar and chose dates they thought would be best. But no one knew that Hurricane Ike would strike the upper Texas coast Sept. 13 causing many planned events to be postponed.
One of those planned items for Catholic Charities was its annual collection taken up in all Catholic churches in the Diocese of Beaumont. Now, instead of the collection at its usual time of October 2008, it had to be postponed and is now rescheduled for June 6 and 7.
“Proceeds from the collection are part of the annual budget of Catholic Charities,” said Dean Terrebonne, president and CEO of Catholic Charities. “We plan to provide services based on that budget.”
The services the collection helps fund include Counseling, Disaster Recovery, Elijah’s Place, Hospitality Center, Immigration Services, Parish Social Ministry, Child Care Contractor Services and Asset Building Case Management.
Then after Ike made its unplanned visit, Catholic Charities responded in a greater capacity than after Hurricane Rita three years earlier, Terrebonne said.
Now, after reaching out to help others, Catholic Charities is asking for help.
“Many funding sources are refocusing their efforts, having less funds to distribute to social service agencies,” Terre-bonne said. “With the generosity and support of the faithful in Southeast Texas, Catholic Charities will continue to provide help and create hope through providing services to the vulnerable and those in need.”
Proceeds from the collection help the following:
The Counseling Services program provides professional counseling services to all age groups. Individual, family and group sessions are available. Counselors can also provide workshops, lectures and seminar presentations. The professional counseling staff provided 1,063 counseling sessions and served 356 clients during the 2008 calendar year.
Disaster Recovery/Special Initiatives continues its active role in the development of emergency response and disaster recovery systems for the community. As part of the agency strategy to help provide lasting solutions for low-income households, a new Asset Building Case Management project is currently in development. More than 3,000 individuals and families were provided with assistance during 2008.
Elijah’s Place provides ongoing grief support services to children and their families who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling. Parents/guardians also participate in a separate group that offers support and assistance related to the loss and parenting a grieving child. A special six-week group session for children grieving the loss of a grandparent is available periodically. Elijah’s Place assisted 150 individuals and families during 2008.
The Hospitality Center, Port Arthur, provides a clean, safe, and dignified environment where the elderly on fixed incomes, temporarily needy, disabled, working poor, and homeless persons are served a meal every day of the year. The Center served 30,444 nutritious meals during the fiscal year. More than 3,000 clients were served a meal during 2008.
Immigration Services’ trained staffs assist individuals with immigration and naturalization issues including Family Unity Applications, Family Visa Petitions, Naturalization Applications, and VAWA Self-Petitions for battered immigrants. Catholic Charities is the only non-profit in Southeast Texas recognized by the Board of Immigration Appeals to provide legal immigration services. Immigration Services’ helped 644 individuals and families during 2008.
Parish Social Ministry offers resources to empower parish groups and civic organizations to respond to the needs of our community through service, action, education and advocacy. Each parish group designs their own local ministry in keeping with the needs of their parish members and community. PSM assists the Third Age Task Force in planning diocesan-wide activities for parish based groups aged 55 and up, especially the Annual Third Age Day Convocation. PSM also coordinates Catholic Campaign for Human Development efforts in the Diocese. Parish Social Ministry touched more than 760 individuals and families in 2008.
Child Care Contractor Services administers financial assistance for childcare expenses to low-income families in Hardin, Jefferson and Orange Counties. Operated under a contract with Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas, this program serves children, daycare providers and parents. Child Care Contractor Services helped the most during 2008 by assisting 3,426 clients.
Asset Building Case Management provides comprehensive case management services that assist low- and moderate-income families achieve self-sufficiency and housing security goals including buyer education, money management classes, and individual development accounts for those who qualify. More than 650 clients were assisted by Asset Building Case Management in 2008.
Thanks to the generous support of the Catholic faithful of Southeast Texas, Catholic Charities served 12,102 individuals and families during 2008.
