Start your holiday planning early! This event will make a unique gift for family members and friends or could even be this year’s office Christmas party.
It’s time for the ACA! As of October 24, Archbishop’s Community Appeal (ACA) volunteers have raised $572,968, or 33% of our $1.75 million goal! Founded by Archbishop Philip M. Hannan in 1966, the ACA raises undesignated funds for the 47 programs and two affiliated ministries of Catholic Charities. These funds are especially crucial to us in this time of economic recession and uncertainty.
We’re still accepting donations for historic pews from the St. John Bosco Chapel – pews are available from $600-$800 or please inquire about custom sizes.
Pew donations received prior to the event will receive 2 complimentary tickets. The event features food from local restaurants, beer and wine, and music by Some Like It Hot.
PACE Greater New Orleans is an affiliated ministry of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The children at our Incarnate Word Head Start Center and 2011 ACA Chairman David Andignac are here to remind you that it’s time for the Archbishop’s Community Appeal (ACA). The ACA, founded by Archbishop Philip M. Hannan in 1965, funds the work of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Catholic Charities celebrates the life and legacy of Archbishop Philip M. Hannan, whose visionary leadership created a new way to provide help to those in need in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Archbishop Hannan founded and secured funding for many programs of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans beginning in the earliest days of his assignment in New Orleans. During a walk through the Desire Housing Project in late 1965, Archbishop Hannan was inspired to create the first Summer Witness camp, which ran for ten weeks during the summer of 1966.
He is pictured here in 2008 with Summer Witness campers from Washington Parish.
Our affiliated ministry Cafe Hope will hold its second Celebrity Chef Dinner of the season on October 4. This time, we’re featuring Tommy Cvitanovich of Drago’s Seafood Restaurant.
The 5-course menu, which includes Cvitanovich’s famous chargrilled oysters, is $100 per person. All of the proceeds will benefit Cafe Hope.
Operation Helping Hands is a ministry developed by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the our area, leaving 80 percent of the homes in New Orleans filled with flood water that lingered for weeks.
The program, which uses volunteers and skilled workers to gut, repair, rebuild and repaint the homes of the elderly and disabled, has been tremendously successful.
We are grateful and humbled to have been able to serve so many homeowners and eternally thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside the 29, 076 volunteers who came to our Archdiocese to assist us in the rebuilding effort, including rebuilding 195 homes and gutting 1,983 homes.
After Katrina, Catholic Charities was a sponsor of the Catholic housing initiative Providence Community Housing, which is progressing steadily with the rebuilding of the Lafitte Housing Development and the surrounding Treme neighborhood. In the six years since the flood, Catholic Charities has partnered with many rebuilding groups, some of which did this type of work before Katrina and will continue to do the same. Operation Helping Hands by design was a time-limited initiative.
Over the next year, we will be winding down the Operation Helping Hands program and will continue to work with Providence Community Housing and others in rebuilding our community.
Today, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) announced that a Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans-led collaborative would receive $15 million for ongoing oil spill relief in coastal Louisiana communities. Catholic Charities and collaborators will provide case management services, including job training, English as a Second Language classes, financial education and counseling to families that have yet to return to sustainable fishing or have yet to receive their claims payments from BP.
From left are Baton Rouge Area Foundation Chairman Matt McKay, Executive Director of System Advancement for the Louisiana Community & Technical College System Leah Goss, Audubon Nature Institute President Ron Forman, Louisiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster President Margaret Trahan and Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans President Gordon Wadge.
Yesterday, our Padua Pediatric Program for severely developmentally delayed children welcomed Cane II, the canine mascot of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and her owner Gwen Graves for a visit. Cane II is a certified pet therapy dog and regularly visits area hopsitals. Pictured here is Cane II and Gwen visiting with Jeremiah, a young boy served by Padua.
The United States estimates that 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last 90 days. Extreme hunger is rapidly becoming a harsh daily reality for more than 11 million people in East Africa because of what many are calling the worst drought in decades. This severe lack of rainfall has resulted in failed crops and critical shortages in food and water.
Further compounding this natural disaster are drastic increases in food prices and an influx of refugees from Somalia, who have fled to Kenya to seek food. Working with Church partners throughout the region, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been able to get some aid into the stricken areas of Somalia.
But for families unable to access aid there, survival means walking across a harsh desert to camps like the one in Dadaab, in a region of Kenya that is also suffering drought conditions.
Catholic Relief Services is working around the clock to respond to this unfolding crisis by distributing food, clean water and other emergency supplies. One thing is clear: The situation is dire and lives are at stake.
Last week, our Operation Helping Hands program celebrated 3 milestones: 200 homes rebuilt, 450 homes painted and 30,000 volunteers since Hurricane Katrina. Pictured are some of our volunteers visiting from across the country at the home of the Roberts family in New Orleans East.
Registration for our fall English as a Second Language (ESL) and Citizenship classes begins August 15. Classes begin September 6 and will be held at various locations across the metro area and have been lined up to accommodate varied schedules. Please check out our ESL flyer in English or Spanish for more information.
Yesterday, 136 5 year-olds from our Head Start Centers celebrated their transition from Head Start to kindergarten. The students from El Yo Yo, Louise, Incarnate Word and St. John the Baptist Head Start Centers performed songs, poems, prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance in front of a huge crowd of family and friends.
We wish these students and their families the best as they begin kindergarten this fall. Check out our Facebook page for more photos from the transition ceremony.
