Ministries: Housing and Homelessness, Poverty
Results
Charity and Justice at St. Francis Xavier Parish (Kansas City , MO)
Christmas Basket Project
Participate in this short-term volunteer opportunity in December. Assist with food and gift gathering, sorting, bagging, delivering to homebound, and helping give out baskets the day folks pick them up. Hours will be days, evenings, or weekends. Sign-up opportunities will be available in November and December.
Food Pantry Ministry
Work in our emergency assistance food pantry through various opportunities. Daytime hours, Monday through Friday. Volunteers will be contacted as needed.
Pantry Worker - fill orders on a weekly/monthly basis (1-2 hours), help keep pantry clean and orderly, sort food donations.
Homebound Food Delivery - take food orders to clients who are unable to pick them up.
Pantry Stocking Crew - assist in monthly pick-ups, deliveries, and/or shopping trips to keep our pantry stocked.
Holy Family Catholic Worker House
Prepare and serve a meal at Holy Family Catholic Worker House. A crew of SFX parishioners volunteers together the 1st Thursday of every month from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m. The crew helps prepare and serve a meal for 150—200 individuals.
Sister Parish Committee
Responsible for facilitating St. Francis Xavier's commitment to the Sister Parish Covenant with St. Martin de Porres in Belize City, Belize. Initiate and/or coordinate activities within our parish that will foster faith sharing, community building, and cultural understanding with our sister parish.
St. Francis Xavier—Visitation Social Concerns Committee
Working together to increase our commitment to Catholic social teachings. This committee plans yearly activities, which includes the annual Hunger Banquet, JustFaith, Habitat for Humanity, Christmas in October, and other events dedicated to the Church's social teachings. This is a one-year commitment, starting in August, with monthly meetings.
St. James Soup Kitchen
Serve a meal at St. James Place. A crew of SFX parishioners volunteers together the 4th Tuesday of every month from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. Duties include set-up, serving of food, and clean-up.
Sustainability Committee
Responsible for guiding the parish to live in harmony with God's creation as inspired by Scripture and Church teaching. Provide educational opportunities to the parish through films, discussion groups, seminars and other activities that illuminate ways to lighten our footprint on the planet. Provide concrete examples and opportunities for action to reduce our impact on Earth as individuals and as a parish.
Advent Mitten Tree and Haiti Children’s Tree (Milwaukee, WI)
Each Advent, Gesu "plants" a Christmas tree near the east altars and invites parishioners to trim this Advent Mitten Tree. The first Sunday of Advent marks the start of our annual-sharing project for the home with gifts of warmth: new mittens, caps, scarves and gloves for homeless children and adults of several shelters for Milwaukee’s homeless and victims of domestic violence. Since 2002, we have also planted a Haiti Children’s Tree, which parishioners decorate with bars of soap, toothpaste and brushes, underwear, shoes and socks, and hair clips and ribbons for the children of St. Jude, our twin parish in Haiti.
Allen AME Pantry (Tacoma, WA)
St. Rita Parish collects and delivers groceries to the pantry on the fourth weekend of each month.
Bellarmine Habitat Team - Habitat for Humanity "Shalom" Coalition (Cincinnati, OH)
Parish volunteers partner with interfaith congregations to construct quality affordable housing with lower-income new homeowners who contribute 500 “sweat equity” hours while learning homeowner/repair skills.
Cathedral Center Shelter Ministry (Milwaukee, WI)
Since 1997, Gesu has ministered to Milwaukee area homeless women and children, in order to alleviate the suffering of being homeless. Gesu's Cathedral Center Ministers are volunteers, coordinated by a parishioner, who are scheduled to serve in teams, 6:30-9:00 p.m., for two weeks every other month. Shelter ministers provide hospitality, conversation and compassion.
Catholic Parish Outreach CPO (Raleigh, NC)
Catholic Parish Charities Outreach, CPO is a food pantry and supplier of children's clothes.
We provide emergency food assistance and, when possible, small children's clothing and baby items, such as formula and diapers.
Christian Outreach to Appalachian People (Wilmette, IL)
This program conducts community based construction and repair projects in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.
Community Assistance Ministry (Sacramento, CA)
The St. Ignatius Community Assistance Ministry helps families with rental, utility, and furniture assistance. We
have a furniture locker on site. Donations are appreciated (and strong bodies to pick up and deliver the furniture). We provide food baskets and hygiene items at Christmas and Easter for 250 families through our Feed-A-Family Program. We also provide snack bags for the hungry (an individual can receive two per week). We need you! Many hands make light work!
Community Development Fund (Baltimore, MD)
The CDF is a 5,000,000 fund for investment in affordable housing and other community development efforts, within the province and internationally. The province typically invests its funds in communities through local credit unions, community-based revolving loan funds, or local community development corporations focused on urban reinvestment in affordable housing. job-creation for low-income people, etc.
Community Outreach at St. Therese Catholic Church (Mooresville, NC)
Christmas Giving Program – a team identifies local families in crisis and their needs, then provides our parish family with an opportunity to provide food and Christmas presents for these families.
English as a Second Language (ESL) Instructor – teach English as a second language. Most teachers have only 1-3 students and meet weekly on the St. Therese campus for about 1 hour. Schedules are matched between students and teachers. All supplies and teaching materials are provided.
Food Pantry Ministry – this group provides emergency food to parishioners and community members struggling in these difficult economic times
Mooresville Christian Mission – coordinates teams of volunteers to help with office or clerical works or in the store or the pantry on a regular basis; other tasks may be assigned as needed; also collect non-perishable foods and coats for MCM
Mooresville Soup Kitchen – coordinates teams of volunteers from St. Therese to serve hot meals to anyone in need and provide encouragement and fellowship
Peru Ministry – opportunities include sponsoring children or the elderly, writing letters, or making a donation to Father Alex’s mission in Alto Cayma, Peru.
Pregnancy Center/Walk for Life – raises money for the Mooresville Pregnancy Center with an annual Baby Bottle Boomerang fund drive; participates in the Mooresville Pregnancy Center annual Walk for Life
Prison Ministry – minister to those in prison who have been punished under man’s laws. We offer hope spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically to those who are in prison.
Relay for Life – St. Therese is represented with a team who participates in The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. It is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate cancer survivorship.
Respect Life Committee – promote that all life is sacred from conception to natural death. Participate in annual Life Chain, March for Life, and other Pro-Life events.
Creighton University Project Homeless Connect (Omaha, NE)
Since 2007, Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event held at Creighton that serves as a "one-stop shop", connecting homeless individuals to needed services, including: housing, healthcare, legal resources, Social Security, food-stamp benefits, and employment. Creighton University President Fr. John Schlegel who has served as chair and host of the event noted in 2010: 330 individuals were provided housing information, 80 moved into housing, more than 100 have received new dentures, and 540 received some form of health care-related service and of those 80 percent receiving follow-up treatment.
Detroit Collaborative Design Center (Detroit, MI)
The Detroit Collaborative Design Center is a center for applied research in architectural design and neighborhood development. The Center is committed to design as a means for uplifting and dignifying the human person. Located in the School of Architecture, the Design Center is a unique, multi-disciplinary, non-profit organization which is dedicated to renewing the city by revitalizing its neighborhoods. The Design Center seeks to promote collaboration among community organizations, local governments and private developers to confront the social, economic and political realities which have for years contributed to the physical deterioration of urban Detroit.The Design Center works with students, local design professionals and community-based development organizations to enhance local leadership capacity and to promote quality design. Utilizing broad-based community participation in conjunction with advanced design technologies, the Design Center produces excellent projects that respond to local concerns. The center’s work has won numerous awards for design excellence and has been published in several publications.
Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice (Bronx, NY)
The Center for Service and Justice (CSJ) offers a variety of opportunities for students to learn from, engage in and reflect on service and social justice.
Volunteer Opportunities- CSJ works with community partners near the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses to place students in a variety of service environments:
Volunteer Opportunities -Rose Hill
Volunteer Opportunities - Lincoln Center
Service Learning- CSJ helps students connect academics to volunteers experiences in the community through the Service Learning Program.
Service Learning Program
Internship Opportunities- Students can obtain paid and unpaid internship opportunities through CSJ, working in a variety of social service environments.
Internship Opportunities
Post-Graduate Vocational Discernment- CSJ helps connect students to long-term volunteer opportunities after graduation, as well as nonprofit careers in the New York area.
Post Graduate Opportunities
Integrated Service-learning Community- CSJ has developed an Integrated Serivce-Learning Community located in the Belmont neighborhood in the Bronx where students committ to ongoing volunteering during the year and participate in weekly reflection and community building activities.
Integrated Service-Learning Community
Gesu Parish Food Sharing (Milwaukee, WI)
Parishioners share non-perishable food items and disposable diapers which are collected each Sunday in baskets in the Upper Church. These donated items are brought to Frieden's Community Ministries food pantry about every three weeks.
Guadalupe Homeless Project (GHP) (Los Angeles, CA)
GHP was on December 12, 1988. The shelter opened its doors to address an issue that was most neglected in the community: emergency shelter for the homeless. For more than 20 years it has been providing 90-day temporary shelter and meals to homeless men. The Guadalupe Homeless Project is the only men’s shelter in East Los Angeles and responds to the needs of a particularly vulnerable segment of society. A majority of GHP clients are immigrants who come to the United States looking for work, opportunity, and a way out of poverty.
Habitat for Humanity (Cincinnati, OH)
In an effort to alleviate poverty housing in our city, Xavier Habitat for Humanity builds and sponsors simple decent housing in Cincinnati. Two local houses have been completed by XU's Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity (Omaha, NE)
Creighton Prep students, parents, faculty, and alumni help to build TWO Habitat for Humanity homes on Fridays and Saturdays each summer:
Habitat for Humanity (Worcester, MA)
Holy Cross Habitat for Humanity is a student-run chapter of Habitat for Humanity International. HC Habitat sends students away on the Collegiate Challenge Alternative Spring Break Program and builds right in Worcester with its local affiliate, Greater Worcester Habitat for Humanity. Through the Collegiate Challenge Alternative Spring Break Program, students work with the local affiliates on "blitz builds." Students perform various tasks from laying the foundation to raising the walls, working on the roofs, or painting the interiors. Students work right along the Habitat families many times and are invited to community pot luck dinners at the end of the week. Housed in community centers or churches, students gain a hands-on experience of what life is like in the deep South.
Completely student-run, HC Habitat strives to be “men and women for others” through the works of Habitat for Humanity International.
Habitat for Humanity Service Learning (St. Paul, MN)
A project at St. Luke's in which parishioners volunteer for a day to work on a habitat home and spend time in reflection and discussion about the root causes of poverty that push individuals and families to requires assistance to meet their basic needs
