Affordable Housing - Catholic Community Services

elationships to serve. The poor and
the poor in spirit need and deserve
the resources parishes and CCS can
provide together. Often faced with
overwhelming hardships, these men,
women and children deserve the
synergy, creativity, and hope that our
partnerships provide.
PSM volunteers provided Deanna
with meals, groceries and emotional
support. Still, Deanna called our
volunteer coordinator one day
sobbing so hard she couldn’t catch
her breath, saying she hadn’t slept
because the baby had been up all
night. Deanna was afraid to take her
pain medication because she was
concerned she wouldn’t hear the
baby and was at her wit’s end. The
coordinator called a parish volunteer
who went over immediately, held
the baby while Deanna took her first
shower in days, and then just talked
with her, quietly assuring her that
she wasn’t in this alone. Deanna told
the volunteer, “I didn’t know people
could care for a stranger like this.”
Fifteen families have been cared for
and nurtured by PSM. It has been a
tremendously successful partnership
and is ready to be replicated in other
parishes. As a client said to a friend
who had been offered services, “Girl,
just use them. They’re good and
there’s no strings attached. They just
want to help!”
PSM is just one of several
partnerships that CCS and AHA
have with St. James Cathedral,
including Volunteer Chore Services
and the Solanus Casey Center. Father
Michael G. Ryan, the pastor of St.
James Cathedral Parish, states, “CCS
has supported parish programs for
many years. It has been a very fruitful
relationship.”
On Seattle’s waterfront, some 250
men file in from the streets every
night of the year for a good meal;
212 of them will have a warm, dry,
safe place to sleep. The “turnaways,”
between 30 and 50 men, will be taken
back to the streets after dinner due to
a lack of shelter beds.
St. Martin de Porres Shelter could
not begin to provide for these basic
human needs without its parish
partnerships. Bob Goetschius,
program director at the shelter, states,
“The volunteers do much more than
serve a meal. Homelessness is its
own subculture. The guys here get a
touch of mainstream culture through
the volunteers. A spiritual thing
happens. I can see the experience
feeding the volunteers, also.”
Longtime volunteer Barb Ascanio
from St. Brendan Parish in Bothell
agrees. “I started volunteering for the
homeless through my parish and I
loved it! When I began at St. Martin’s,
I was coming home super-high every
night. A few months into it, my
husband, Tony, said he was going
to go with me and see what was so
special about this place. That was 22
years ago.”
Hundreds of parish partnerships
with CCS and AHA exist throughout
Western Washington. In Bellingham,
Assumption Parish and the CCS
Whatcom Family Center together
provide emergency services to
hundreds of people each year through
Hope House. Holy Rosary Parish
in Edmonds supports several AHA
shelters with funding, volunteers,
and in-kind donations. St. Theresa
Parish in Federal Way will host a
series of information sessions for
seniors, one featuring Catholic
Community Services’ Long Term
Care Services.
The Kitsap Family Center in
Bremerton is partnering with
several Olympic Deanery parishes
and congregations to provide meals
and housing for homeless men. In
Aberdeen, the Grays Harbor Family
Center shares space with St. Mary
Parish volunteers serve meals at the St. Martin
de Porres Shelter in Seattle, and assist the
program in other ways.
Parish and, along with volunteers
and support from other parishes and
churches in the area, provides meals
to dozens of people each day through
their Feed the Hungry program.
CCS has more than 200
partnerships with parishes. Some
are longstanding, others are brief,
and they vary widely. All are created
in response to unmet needs in our
communities. All take time, talent,
and treasure. All begin with a desire
to serve.
In what way are you called to serve
those most in need How can you
help What parish, congregation, or
group do you belong to How might
you partner with CCS and AHA to
serve those most vulnerable and in
need As another longtime volunteer
at St. Martin’s, Dorothy Murphy, said
in a most straightforward and loving
tone, “The ability to reach out to
other people is what we are called to
do. If an opportunity walks into your
life, you gotta grab it.”
As Director of Parish Services
Development, my job is to work
with parishes to bring our resources
together to best serve those in need. I
would like to discuss the possibilities
of partnering with CCS and AHA.
You can reach me at 206-328-5648
or annetteq@ccsww.org. Let’s grab
those opportunities together!
–Annette Quayle
Annette Quayle is the CCSWW Director of
Parish Services Development.
w w w.ccsw w.org
Catholic Communit y Ser vices of Western Washington
19