Annual Appeal Helps CFCS Fulfill Its Mission

SERVING VETS  Diocesan Catholic Charities has been in the forefront in assisting U.S. military veterans who find themselves in need of social services. Pictured are Veterans and friends joining together for a 5k Run at Garret Mountain in Woodland Park last spring.

PATERSON  For the last few years, Diocesan Catholic Charities has been at the forefront in assisting U.S. military veterans who now find themselves in need of social services. Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS), an agency of Catholic Charities here, has been reaching out to veterans for whatever their needs might be — from helping them avoid becoming homeless to advocating for a new veterans’ clinic in a rural area of the Diocese.

Through the 2016 Bishop’s Annual Appeal, the faithful of the Paterson Diocese can assist those veterans who are seeking help from CFCS. Catholic Charities, which also includes Straight and Narrow in Paterson and Department for Persons with Disabilities, in Oak Ridge, is one of the recipients of Appeal donations. The Appeal also supports seminarian education, retired priests at Nazareth Village in Chester and the Catholic school students living in inner-city areas.

David Pearson, director of CFCS’ veterans programs, has assisted veterans since the program officially began. “When someone makes a difference in a veteran’s life, you are giving to someone who gave so freely to us,” he said. “The Bishop’s Annual Appeal helps our veterans and so many others in need.”

Currently, there are several programs sponsored by CFCS to help veterans and their families. In connection with the Supportive Services of Veterans’ Families (SSVF), which serves seven counties, CFCS works to prevent homelessness among veterans and to help veterans who are homeless. Pearson recalls, “I still remember my very first case at Diocesan Catholic Charities. It was helping a Vietnam vet who was homeless for many, many years.”

According to Pearson, many of the vets who are seeking help from Catholic Charities are younger ones who recently served their nation in Iraq and Afghanistan and have young families.

Catholic Charities also has Veteran Clothing Boutiques in three locations at the Father English Center here, the Kearny Veterans Clothing Closet and the Sussex County Clothing Boutique in Franklin. To date, through all the various programs, nearly 1,000 veterans and their families have received assistance in some way from CFCS.

Catholic Charities also co-hosts stake holder meetings in six of its SSVF counties. The group meets every six to eight weeks to discuss veterans’ services and gaps in services. According to Pearson, CFCS acts as a clearinghouse for veterans’ information and events by disseminating the information to other providers and stakeholder groups via email and social media. It also maintains a Facebook resource page that serves its stakeholders.

There are also advocacy groups — a veterans’ group to ensure that women receive benefits due them for their service and a second group that created a community-based outpatient clinic, which successfully advocated to get a veterans’ clinic in Sussex County. It is scheduled to be open in the next few weeks. Pearson told The Beacon that the opening of the Sussex County clinic is one of his greatest accomplishments he has had so far in his job and it made him realize that his work with veterans is his vocation.

CFCS also sponsors educational events for veteran resource education, such as understanding their benefits. Multiple veteran appreciation events have also be offered.

In addition to veterans, CFCS provides more than two dozen different programs between its different divisions, some of which include childcare centers, a group home for teenagers, immigration assistance, disaster relief, counseling, foster parent programs and English as a second language classes.

Christine Barton, director of CFCS, said, “At CFCS, we are the frontline providing a safety net for a community of people who simply have no means. Funds that CFCS receives from the Bishop’s Annual Appeal fill in gaps to help people who have nowhere else to go. Above and beyond our well-known basic needs ministries of food, clothing and housing resources, the Bishop’s Annual Appeal has helped support a single mother bury her child who had special needs; purchase new linens and supplies for families displaced by fire or other disasters; funded counseling and afterschool academic and sports activities for school-aged youth living in gang-involved areas of Paterson; helping to relocate individuals and families trying to get back on their feet after foreclosure, bankruptcy or eviction. It has also provided school uniforms for families who can’t afford them. There are countless examples of the fruits of this Appeal — all of them attached to real faces and names. In these cases, their needs could not be met through traditional government grants, and CFCS would not have been able to step into the gap to help them if it were not for the Annual. The Appeal helps CFCS do the work that we are called to do, fulfilling our mission of ministering to the poor and needy.”

To make a donation or pledge online to the 2016 Bishop’s Annual Appeal, visit www.2016appeal.org or call (973) 777-8818, ext. 218 for information.