A YEAR OF SERVICE
THROUGH ENCOUNTER

Inflation has brought new challenges to those already living on the margins. Higher grocery and transportation costs have left more people in need of supplemental food and nutrition services. We are grateful for the generosity of our donors in supporting our food service programs during these difficult times. 

CCUSA supported more than 60 Catholic Charities agencies in assisting 30,000 households with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program) benefits, including those in rural areas who can be harder to reach. 

Catholic Charities agencies have been part of a national trend in adding client-choice pantries, where guests make their own selections, as they would in any other market, which upholds their dignity and limits waste of unwanted food. 

As clients shop, free of charge, Catholic Charities staff and volunteers assess for other service needs, such as health care and job assistance.

A combination of complex loan terms, rising demand for housing, a shortage of construction workers, building material price spikes and supply chain issues has exacerbated the existing affordable housing crisis. Catholic Charities agencies responded with urgency. 

CCUSA, in collaboration with Northern Trust, established an  Affordable Housing Gap Loan Fund to help member agencies close housing project funding gaps and better meet the needs of residents in the communities they serve. 

CCUSA supports member agencies in preserving and growing their affordable housing project portfolios. From converting a vacant school into low-income senior housing, to developing permanent supportive housing on land made available by a congregation of women religious or a diocese, member agencies continue to creatively advance the supply of affordable housing across the country.

Catholic Charities agencies prevented more than 4,500 people from being evicted with grants from the Francis Fund, which was made possible through the generosity of multiple donors.

The five-year, five-city pilot program Healthy Housing Initiative has now housed 231 formerly chronically homeless persons in permanent, supportive housing. In its third year, the project is a person-centered, comprehensive approach to address chronic homelessness through “wraparound” services in the form of emotional, social and physical support.

The past year saw wildfires, floods, hurricanes, landslides, mudslides, severe winter storms and tornadoes ravage the United States. Through the generous support of our donors, CCUSA provided 75 emergency disaster grants to its member agencies, a 25% increase over the past year. 

Catholic Charities agencies sprang into action to provide relief after Hurricane Ida struck. Teams of disaster case managers — from Sioux City, Brooklyn-Queens, Central and Northern Missouri, St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville and Venice, Fla. — relieved local Catholic Charities caseworkers, while other member agencies’ staff developed and implemented recovery programming.

In Kentucky, after an evening of deadly tornadoes, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Owensboro provided disaster relief to community members who had lost their homes. CCUSA provided $1.9 million for relief efforts to help rebuild 350 homes in the next few years. 

The innovative Virtual Agency Staff Assistance Program (V-ASAP) allows experienced disaster case management staff to provide timely support to local member agencies without physically traveling to the site.

During a time of great upheaval in the economy and the job market, Catholic Charities’ workforce development programs offer strategies to improve an individual’s potential in the workplace and their career pathway.

Six member agencies are collaborating on a best practices program in building trades services to rebuild homes and repair lives. This includes pre-apprenticeship programs (Washington, D.C., and Buffalo.), roofer’s apprenticeship certification programs and a heavy machinery and CDL simulator program (Santa Fe), a C-tech program (Buffalo), the Handy Helpers Home Repair program (Evansville, Ind.) and the Purpose Home Repairs program (Southern Missouri).

Leisure and hospitality is projected to be among the fastest-growing job sectors in the next decade. Seventeen member agencies that currently operate production kitchens are exploring the establishment of culinary training programs.

Nine member agencies are collaborating on interpretation and translation services best practices, ensuring language access in agency services; establishing entrepreneurial programs; and training bilingual clients as professional interpreters with significant earning potential.

CCUSA has assembled technology and nonprofit experts to create modernized client intake and case management software. 

This will result in one of the largest, most accurate datasets on human conditions and challenges in America, streamlining and modernizing client intake and case management. 

The strain of the pandemic continued to reverberate across the country this past year, stretching medical and mental health systems to their breaking points. Individuals with the fewest resources are often left with even fewer options for care.  

CCUSA provides support to 37 member agencies collaborating with Catholic hospitals and health systems to promote better preventive care and reduce ER visits. A study of nine Catholic Charities agencies found an 88% decrease in ER usage after just six months of a client’s enrollment — amounting to a $7.8 million savings for healthcare providers and insurers and, equally important, better health outcomes for patients.

“Whole Hearted” is a program that seeks to create trauma-aware parish communities by training leaders and volunteers to understand and process the impacts of trauma. CCUSA is providing user and facilitator guides, both in English and Spanish, to be shared in participating parishes. 

Catholic Charities agencies provide care to the least of our sisters and brothers, regardless of where they come from or how they come to us. Our ministry to vulnerable people on the move is a cornerstone of our Catholic identity.     

The Border Is Everywhere pilot program provides “warm-handoff” referrals from Catholic Charities agencies on the southern U.S. border to interior member agencies, connecting asylum seekers to case management and other services at their destination locations.

CCUSA assisted in the resettlement of thousands of Afghan arrivals, part of the largest U.S. resettlement operation since 1975. Agencies have also begun receiving Ukrainian refugees. Resettlement assistance includes helping with finding housing, employment, health care and schooling for children. 

Catholic Charities’ work with migrants was lauded by former President George W. Bush in his book, “Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants.” Five migrants whose portraits were included received assistance from Catholic Charities.

CCUSA provided infant and toddler formula, diapers, wipes and clothing to several dozen seriously injured Afghan children, victims of the Kabul airport blast. 

All were receiving care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The clothier, Eileen Fisher, donated clothing for the children’s mothers.

CCUSA serves people of all faiths, not because they are Catholic, but because we are. We ground our leaders and volunteers in Catholic social and moral teaching so that member agencies deliver services consistent with our mission. 

CCUSA launched a Certificate in Nonprofit Executive Management in partnership with the University of San Diego. Funded by the Healey Family Foundation, the program emphasizes leadership and management skills unique to the needs of Catholic Charities agency directors.

CCUSA’s O’Grady Leadership Institutes offer weeklong opportunities for Catholic Charities leaders to explore essential topics, such as ethical decision-making, racism and poverty, Catholic Social Teaching, and service within a pluralistic society. The Foundational Leadership Institute (1.0) for emerging leaders is conducted virtually; the Advanced Leadership Institute (2.0) is offered in-person for senior leaders.

With the support of CCUSA and the Catholic Theological Union, agency directors may pursue an MA in Pastoral Studies. This partnership between CCUSA and CTU aims to strengthen agency directors as Catholic leaders and assist them in promoting Catholic identity within Catholic Charities agencies.

Major Corporate Collaborators 

CCUSA thanks our corporate collaborators that have helped bring our programs to fruition this past year. Their belief in the mission of Catholic Charities helped our agencies assist those most in need — the hungry, the unsheltered, survivors of natural disasters — and moved us closer to our goal of reducing poverty in America.   

Airbnb 
Amazon
Bank of America
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Eileen Fisher 
Google 
Microsoft 
Northern Trust
The Home Depot 
Walmart