Bishop’s Annual Appeal

PATERSON  All throughout the city of Pater­son, diocesan Catholic Charities offers preschool-age children in low-income families an opportunity to receive an early childhood education at five locations. Collabora­ting with the Paterson Public School District, these schools strive for their students to have the best possible foundation for successful life-long learning.

Three of the five centers are run by Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS). They are El Mundo De Colores, El Mundo De Nino, both located at the Father English Center and Friendship Corner 2, located near Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Paterson. Straight and Narrow runs two of the centers — La Vida II on Jackson Street and La Vida III on Carroll Street. All five centers have the same mission: providing a high quality education in a safe environment for children in pre-k3 and pre-k4.

The five centers, as part of agencies of diocesan Catholic Charities, are recipients of funds from the 2019 Bishop’s Annual Appeal (BAA) which is currently underway to help the many ministries of the Paterson Diocese. Last year, more than $4.376 million was raised in pledges for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal and of that amount, $1.239 million supported the work of diocesan Catholic Charities. This year, because of a massive fire that destroyed the halfway house at Straight and Narrow (SN), 10 percent of funds raised for the 2019 BAA will be used toward the rebuilding efforts.

Joseph Murray, director of the early learning programs of CFCS, said, “We have an excellent and dedicated teaching staff that helps in the social and emotional development of children in these early years. This time in early childhood is critical to their success and we build upon the foundation established by their parents to provide a strong education.”

Every day, more than 800 students walk through the doors of CFCS’ and SN’s early learning programs. Many of these children may face different challenges in their daily lives due to living in some tough neighborhoods in the city of Paterson. Some may witness crime with drug dealers or gangs within their neighborhoods.

“Parents feel happy and know that they’re children are safe here. Many keep coming back bringing younger siblings to our programs because they see how their older siblings are now succeeding in school,” Murray said.

The early learning centers provide a great amount of community support for families. Murray said many of the students’ families use the food pantry at the Father English Center or need other assistance from CFCS’ services such as the veterans department or immigration department.

That community support was especially shown last Christmas for a four-year-old preschool student at El Mundo De Colores. It was the first Christmas he would not be sharing with his mother, who passed away before the holiday following a long battle with breast cancer. He and his three siblings and his father received gift certificates to family-friendly restaurants and activities that Christmas to spend family time together during that difficult time.

The early learning centers are just one way diocesan Catholic Charities helps children in need. In fact, 60 percent of the people helped at CFCS are children and youth. The other departments include its Youth at Risk programs and early childhood assessment and intervention program. In 2018, CFCS served 15,000 youths and their families.

One area that received helped through the BAA is the Child Nutrition Program, which is an important complement to the Early Learning Programs. This program provides meal service to all children enrolled in CFCS’ early learning centers and school age childcare programs. The primary goal of the Child Nutrition Program is to provide nutritious well-balanced meals that foster healthy eating habits that enable children to improve their overall health and nutrition. Nearly 169,500 meals were served to nearly 700 unduplicated students who participated in the program last year.

Laura Zarife, director of El Mundo de Colores, said, “With BAA donations, we were able to do a complete remodel and renovation to the kitchen at the Father English Center. This kitchen is a small kitchen but the staff does a great job and we are able to serve three great meals to children. We estimate that 2.5 million meals have been served from that kitchen.”

To learn more about the work of Catholic Charities, pastors are invited to have a representative from one of the agencies speak at weekend Masses on behalf of the BAA. This personal visit provides parishioners with insight into all the work of Catholic Charities and shows them why their support of the Appeal is so important. Speakers are available in both English and Spanish.

In addition to diocesan Catholic Charities, the BAA will support seminarian education; urban elementary school support; priest’s healthcare needs and Nazareth Village, the priests’ retirement residence in Chester. Parishes can also benefit with the opportunity to receive a parish rebate. Half of the amount received over the parish goal is returned to the parish for its own needs. Almost $650,000 was returned to parishes from last year’s Bishop’s Annual Appeal and more than $2.9 million has been returned to parishes in five years.

Funds raised through the Bishop’s Annual Appeal are used only for these goals. The funds raised in the Paterson Diocese stay in the Paterson Diocese.

During the In-Pew Commitment Week­end to be held Oct. 19-20 during weekend Masses, parishioners will have an opportunity to receive a pledge envelope and make a donation.

Zarife said, “We’re very lucky that so many parishes go above and beyond and give our clients a show of love. It’s amazing and we’re so grateful that so many are thinking about the children. We feel privileged to do this work and see others be so generous.”