Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Cleveland is the largest and most comprehensive system of health and human services in Northeast Ohio.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Cleveland, organized in 1912, continues to set local and national standards for quality in the delivery of health and human services.
Catholic Charities excels because it has never lost sight of its mission: serving those in need. It has become the largest, most comprehensive health and human services system in Northeast Ohio, helping nearly 600,000 people annually. These services are provided in all eight counties of the Diocese: Ashland, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit, and Wayne. Clients are served regardless of religion, race, or gender.
Catholic Charities is an $83 million system organized into three major components: service delivery, facilities, and fund raising/fund management. Specialized corporate structures have been created to deal with each.
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Catholic Charities: An Overview
Services
Facilities
Fund Raising and Fund Management
Children and Family Services
Behavioral Health Services
Family Center Services
Emergency and Transitional Services
Older Adults
Community-based Services
Residential Services
Services for People with Disabilities
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Services
The Catholic Charities Services Corporation is responsible for delivering services . It operates a vast network of health and human service programs throughout Northeast Ohio, broken into four areas of service delivery: children and families, people with disabilities, older adults, and emergency services such as hunger and shelter programs. These services are funded by contributions to Catholic Charities which are augmented by private grants and reimbursements from government and insurers.
Catholic Charities clients have access to a seamless system of services -- a system that remains flexible and responsive to society’s changing needs. There are currently 73 different programs and sites. This is important because clients often have multiple needs. At Catholic Charities, a client may come in seeking help with one problem and be referred to several other services that address core issues. The comprehensive nature of the Catholic Charities System fosters a holistic approach to helping people enabling the person to heal, rather than simply responding to one immediate problem.
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Facilities
The Catholic Charities Facilities Corporation builds and maintains the buildings which house the programs. In keeping with the high standards of quality of Catholic Charities, these are some of the finest health and human services facilities in Northeast Ohio.
In all, the Facilities Corporation owns and operates 22 properties comprised of 1.5 million square feet of space and valued in excess of $100 million.
Attention to environment, safety, cleanliness, and handicapped accessibility is critical to the well-being of those served. By taking responsibility for these matters on a daily basis, the Facilities Corporation allows social workers and other staff to focus their time and talents on delivering services.
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Fund Raising and Fund Management
As the array of services provided by Catholic Charities has grown more sophisticated over the years, the methods of raising and managing money to provide these services have also grown more sophisticated. The Catholic Charities Corporation specializes in raising and managing funds for the System. It also provides marketing and public relations assistance to make the public aware of these programs and services.
In 1997, the Catholic Charities Corporation raised a record total of $13.75 million. These funds provide the base level of support for programs and services. They allow the Catholic Charities System to leverage an additional $69.8 million in fees for service, insurance reimbursements, private grants, and local, state and federal funds. Thus the dedication of some 3,000 volunteers and 105,000 contributors enables Catholic Charities to provide an estimated $83 million in services.
The Catholic Charities Corporation staff, its 101-member lay Board of Trustees, and its newly formed Associate Board for young people, helped raise these funds through the Annual Parish Appeal and other fund development activities, including programs for planned giving, major gifts, and special gifts.
Eighty cents of each dollar raised goes directly to health and human services. This far exceeds the Better Business Bureau's standard, which calls for spending 65 cents per dollar raised on services.
The Catholic Charities Corporation also operates the Catholic Charities Foundation, which manages the investment of an endowment of roughly $30 million.
Over the last 30 years, Catholic Charities volunteers and staff have helped raise more than $110 million for services through the Annual Appeal. This remarkable show of stewardship is the main reason why Catholic Charities has remained in the vanguard of health and human service delivery.
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Children and Family Services
Catholic Charities takes a holistic approach to serving families.
Services for Children and Families offered by Catholic Charities build on the natural assets of the family. It is a flexible system that is responsive to the ever changing needs of the community, based on one simple value: families are important.
Catholic Charities comprehensive system of services for children and families are divided into two basic service delivery systems: Behavioral Health Services and Family Center Services.
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Behavioral Health Services
Catholic Charities Behavioral Health Services -- clinical services for mental illnesses and substance abuse -- cover the eight counties of the Diocese of Cleveland. The services range from prevention and early intervention to crisis care.
The issues addressed affect families of all races, creeds, and socioeconomic status; they include gang involvement, shoplifting, experimenting with drugs, suspensions from school and serious emotional disturbances that effect one's ability to function in the community.
Catholic Charities counselors and therapists seek to treat the child's immediate needs and explore the possibility of core family problems that often trigger this behavior. Few children have problems outside the family context. Sometimes the family dynamics are contributing to the problem. The family is always closely involved in the development and implementation of the solution. Often, when core issues are addressed, the whole family begins to heal.
Catholic Charities provides some of the finest clinical services available in Northeast Ohio and beyond. Some services are provided in an office setting on an out-patient basis. Others require that a family member receive specialized residential treatment, yet other times, services are provided right in the home.
Because of Catholic Charities' comprehensive system of services, counselors can provide an integrated approach to serving clients' individual needs, linking them with the many other services available in the Catholic Charities system. Parmadale, for example, is one of Catholic Charities oldest agencies and a leader in providing integrated services to serve children and their families in a holistic way.
Through proper assessment and professional treatment, Catholic Charities slowly helps rebuild the natural family support network, replacing fear with hope.
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Family Center Services
Some families just need a little extra support and for these families there are numerous resources available through Catholic Charities Family Center Services. These services build on the assets of the family and capture the positive aspects of a communities' spirit. In short, they provide resources that empower community members to help themselves and each other.
Family centers like St. Martin de Porres Center in the Glenville Community and the Fatima Center in the Hough Community, both in Cleveland, exemplify this spirit. They are centers for people of all ages, where a day care center may be in one room and a breakfast club for older adults is in the other. They are centers where teens are welcomed after school for safe recreational activities, peer groups, and mentoring. They are family centers where people can just come in and meet friends.
Neighborhood foster care is a good example of the community-based philosophy of these services. Through neighborhood foster care, a child whose parent is temporarily unable to care for him or her can join a foster family right in their neighborhood. This way, the least disruption to the child's day-to-day routine occurs. The child can continue going to the same school, playing with his or her friends, and attending the same church. In the meantime, Catholic Charities works with the parents to resolve core issues -- all with the goal of safely reuniting the family as soon as possible.
Catholic Charities Family Center Services also include parenting classes, homemaking preparation classes, job training, and high school equivalency classes. When new community needs emerge, social workers are out in the community to identify them and respond. For example, if it were discovered that several women in the community were recently widowed, a grief support group might emerge through the services of the family center. This creates an opportunity for a natural support network to form and possibly for lasting friendships to develop.
Catholic Charities Children and Family Services provides community members with the resources to help them leverage their own strengths and assets. This delivery system of service excels at one of the Gospels' most important messages: being a good neighbor.
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Emergency and Transitional Services
Catholic Charities provides emergency food and shelter, as well as programs that address the root causes of poverty.
Catholic Charities in Northeast Ohio provides more than four million meals and 68,000 nights of shelter annually. These services are provided to people who are effected by poverty at all levels -- from the working poor to the homeless.
The Catholic Hunger & Shelter Network (CHSN) consists of 66 hunger and shelter programs throughout the eight counties of the Diocese of Cleveland, it is the infrastructure for the delivery of these services.
The goal of Catholic Charities' Emergency and Transitional Services is to help people achieve self-sufficiency. To that end, the services span a continuum of care, all provided with a commitment to ensuring the basic human right to eat and have shelter. The population of the CHSN is a diverse one, not only in race and gender, but in age and socio-ecomonic backgrounds. The people served are young and old, of all nationalities and races, male and female, from all areas -- rural, urban and suburban. They are people with faces -- with whom we live and work.
Many people rely on Catholic Charities as a supplement: the working poor, mothers and children receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and older adults on fixed incomes. These people turn to Catholic Charities from time to time to help make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck.
Other families turn to Catholic Charities for temporary help, such as those who have experienced a medical catastrophe and have no insurance or those who have been laid off from their jobs. In these cases a family may rely on Catholic Charities for assistance for a few months, until they get back on their feet.
At the most acute end of the continuum, homeless people who are mentally ill, addicted to drugs and alcohol, or both, also are served by Catholic Charities. But even in these cases, there is hope.
Personal successes among the poorest of the poor happen routinely through Catholic Charities' growing number of programs that address the root causes of poverty. The Bishop William M. Cosgrove Center in Cleveland, for example, is one of the largest and most successful emergency hunger centers in Northeast Ohio. Self-help programs such as job training and placement, life skills courses, mental illness counseling, substance abuse groups, and a medical clinic are all offered under one roof. People commonly come in to the Cosgrove Center for a free meal and leave with much more.
The Cosgrove Center is one of several programs in the Catholic Hunger and Shelter Network which provides the means to help achieve self-sufficiency. Because of the high priority on work requirements for welfare recipients, these are services that will be in great demand.
By combining charity with real-world solutions to poverty, Catholic Charities continues to bring hope to those in need.
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Older Adults
Catholic Charities provides a comprehensive system of services for the growing older adult population.
By the year 2030 there will be about 70 million older persons living in the United States. more than twice the size of their population in 1990. This growth is caused by aging baby boomers' and by the simple fact that the older population itself is getting older. In 1994, the 65-74 age group was eight times larger than in 1900, the 75-84 age group was 14 times larger, and the 85 plus group was 28 times larger. And life expectancies are likely to continue increasing.
Bishop Anthony M. Pilla and the leaders of Catholic Charities recognize these trends, and they have made strong commitment to meeting the needs of this important population. In fact, services for older adults is already the largest of Catholic Charities four systems of services, with $40 million in public and private funding annually. Catholic Charities provides a comprehensive range of services for the growing and diverse needs of the older adults in Northeast Ohio and their families. They range from home community-based case management services and adult day care to a variety of residential services, including independent and assisted living, as well as specialized skilled nursing care. The services are funded from a wide variety of public and private sources and are available to older adults of all income levels.
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Community-based Services
Catholic Charities funds or operates four adult day-care programs located in Akron, Wickliffe, Lorain, and Cleveland. These programs provide safe activities for older adults who require supervision and some assistance in their daily living needs. Clients commonly have Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia or have suffered a stroke or other illness that cause physical and/or mental disabilities. Clients of Catholic Charities adult day-care programs enjoy nutritional meals, nursing supervision, and appropriate exercise along with companionship and a sense of belonging. These programs also are open to developmentally disabled adults.
Adult day care enables older adults to continue living in their own homes where they feel most comfortable -- often with their loved ones. It also provides a respite to care givers usually spouses or adult children to go to work, go shopping. or find a necessary reprieve.
Catholic Charities also funds or operates four meal sites for older adults. These are offered at the St. Martin de Porres Center, the Hispanic Senior Center, the Broadway Golden Age Center, and the Mt. Carmel - West Rose Center. These centers provide a nutritious daily meal. Many of these facilities also deliver meals to the homebound. These programs also provide an important opportunity for seniors to socialize. which reduces the isolation experienced by many older adults.
Providing services to persons in the least restrictive environment is an integral part of the Catholic Charities Philosophy. Case management in Cuyahoga Geauga, Lorain, and Medina counties addresses this philosophy. These services include home visits to older adults to assess their needs and refer them to the appropriate services. These services may include counseling to the older adult and his or her family, referral to medical services, or assistance with medical forms and other important paperwork. In some cases, transportation to accomplish these ends may be provided.
Catholic Charities also recognizes the parish community as an ideal forum to identify needs and meet them. Catholic Charities' volunteers and staff are being trained to identify older adults in their own parish communities who may need services and to help match them with the resources available to help them. This parish-based approach is proving to be both low cost and highly effective.
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Residential Services
Catholic Charities' residential services for older adults are long-standing and familiar names to most Catholic Charities supporters and residents of Northeast Ohio - St. Augustine, Jennings Hall and the Village at St. Edward.
These three campuses established in convenient locations across the Diocese carry on Catholic Charities tradition of quality care with the elderly. These facilities provide a state-of-the-art professional and medical services, while maintaining a sensitivity to the highest standards of personal care.
Older adults have different levels of abilities and needs, Catholic Charities residential services recognize these differences, and provide clients with the highest levels of independence in an effort to create the highest quality of life. To accomplish this, Catholic Charities has developed a variety of living options for older adults, ranging from independent and assisted living to specialized skilled nursing facilities.
St. Augustine Manor on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland offers specialized skilled nursing care; recently completed St. Augustine Towers offers 91 units of assisted living apartment suites. Jennings Hall, a skilled nursing facility. with a long Catholic tradition in Garfield Heights, was recently rebuilt. The new building is a state-of-the-art skilled nursing care facility and emphasizes the activities of daily living and each individual's needs.
The Village at St. Edward in Fairlawn, adjacent to the City of Akron, is Catholic Charities first complete residential campus for older adults. St. Edward offers on one campus independent and assisted living and skilled nursing.
The vision for the future of Catholic Charities' services for older adults is clearly evident. With the services that are already in place, Catholic Charities is meeting today's wide variety of needs and will be ready to continue serving and developing new services for the growing older adult population in the coming decades. Catholic Charities also will be looking toward opportunities to work closely with other providers to meet the extensive needs of older adults in our community. These providers would include organizations similar to Catholic Charities and those that provide health care services.
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Services for People with Disabilities
Catholic Charities fosters people's abilities not their disabilities.
Catholic Charities provides a wide range of services for people with disabilities, from residential living facilities to community outreach services; and from educational programs to summer camps and recreation. The population served includes people who are developmentally disabled (mr/dd) or are visually or hearing impaired.
Catholic Charities' many services for this diverse population share one common denominator, helping people realize the greatest potential within their individual abilities.
A variety of residential living options for children and adults with developmental disabilities are available through the Rose-Mary Center in Euclid. Children and adolescents who reside at the Rose-Mary Center gain basic living skills, as well as receive physical therapy, speech, and occupational therapy. In addition, the Rose-Mary Center manages and provides services for the residents of five group homes for adults with developmental disabilities.
Community services are also a priority for Catholic Charities. We do this through our Supported Living Program where trained professionals go directly into people's homes to help with a variety of needs. A number of community based services are delivered through and by our Catholic Charities disability services in Cleveland. Every month hundreds of people attend social and recreational activities through OLA-St. Joseph and at other sites.
OLA-St. Joseph Center is an accredited special educational day school for children and adolescents. Catholic Charities staff members also work within the Diocesan Office of Catholic Education to help develop special programs and curricula for children with disabilities who are enrolled in the parish elementary schools throughout the eight counties of the Diocese.
Catholic Charities also offers a one-of-a-kind educational program for adults with disabilities, a weekly Continuing Adult Education Program at OLA- St. Joseph Center. The program is geared to helping adults enhance their employment skills with the goal of securing a permanent job. It is the only educational opportunity beyond high school offered in the area for adults with disabilities. The program also focuses on retaining skills learned in high school and basic job and life skills.
Mixing education with recreation therapy, Catholic Charities offers numerous camps for children and adults with disabilities, with a continuum of activities to meet the needs of each individual. Some camps are offered exclusively for people with disabilities; others are inclusive of people with and without disabilities. Some are residential camps and others are day camps. Some are for children and some for adults. At the end of the summer, a Summer Olympics is held where people from all the camps can come together for fun and friendly competition.
Catholic Charities also provides a variety of interpretive services for people who are deaf or blind and helps people with mental illnesses, through LINKS West, a program held four days a week offering social and educational opportunities.
Catholic Charities supports the families of people with disabilities, as well. Many of the programs for people with disabilities are specifically designed to provide a respite for family members who are care givers.
By seeking to serve each individual's needs, Catholic Charities is helping people with all levels of abilities
live up to their greatest potential.