Providing Hope and Creating Help for our Neighbors in Need

Catholic Charities Bloomington

CCB was recently awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County to re-establish a partnership with New Hope for Families. This grant will establish a multifaceted program within New Hope's new early learning center and family shelter. CCB partnered with New Hope in 2019-2020 providing onsite parenting groups for the families of their early learning childcare center. This new program will provide the following:

-bridge funding to hire a full-time therapist at CCB to work at New Hope and other partner agencies

-funding to purchase play therapy and theraplay supplies for CCB's dedicated play therapy and theraplay space at the learning center

-training for both New Hope Staff and the parents/families of their learning center and shelter

-food during learning sessions and New Hope staff to provide childcare

CCB Clinical Director Michael Stribling, MSW, LCSW says, “New Hope for Families is a powerhouse non-profit in Bloomington and this opportunity to expand our services into their service model will have significant impact on supporting families with not only their mental health needs but also increasing the chance of families remaining homed as we focus on engaging these families in ways that can stabilize their entire family system.”

Becky's Place

A Becky’s Place staff member found Miss Brenda sitting on a busy road outside a Steak N Shake in September 2021. She was in her wheelchair with a couple of bags at her feet and an umbrella for shade. When asked if she needed help, Brenda indicated she was going to see her sister when the plans fell through, and she was stuck in Bedford. She had lost her photo ID and didn’t know what to do. Someone had put her up in a hotel, but she had run out of time and had nowhere to go.

When she arrived at Becky's Place, Miss Brenda was hesitant to trust others but quickly became everyone’s bonus grandma. She took care of others, and everyone took care of her. Miss Brenda applied for income-based housing and was placed on a waiting list. She eventually found housing at a little apartment complex and was beyond excited.

When the community found out that Miss Brenda had housing, she received gifts of furniture, household items, a TV, and money. Miss Brenda was unable to move her new furniture on her own, so a volunteer fire department and Becky’s Place staff helped her move into her new home. She stays in touch with Becky’s Place and her former housemates often visit and assist her with transportation, groceries, and support. Brenda is the happiest that she has been in a long time.

Catholic Charities Indianapolis

The Immigrant Legal Services team has undergone some recent expansion to better serve clients. Julie Wakolbinger, our new Citizenship Instructor, oversees the entire Citizenship Education program. She ensures our various classes have trained volunteer instructors, works to assess student learning, leads classes, and develops the curriculum to maximize student success. Mbarka Belkassim, the new Community Integration and Legal Specialist, works with our grant participants to help build connections in the community. Additionally, Mbarka evaluates the needs of those in our program, connects them with community partners to address concerns, and ensures they are enrolled in our Citizenship classes or naturalization services.

Two attorneys have joined the team to allow us to diversify our services. Haddy Rikabi is our Immigration Attorney and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise. He focuses on affirmative asylum cases but can provide any of our legal services and handles more complicated cases. Katie Bray is the new Immigration Junior Legal Counsel. Katie brings a unique legal experience as she served as the Legal Lead at Camp Atterbury when the Afghan evacuees arrived in 2021. Katie is working directly with Afghan parolees to provide legal orientation and assess their immigration options.

The new staff members join our two accredited Immigration Consultants, Flor Bickel and Haley Bastin. They have years of experience and provide high-quality, professional, and efficient legal services. The Immigration Legal Services team is excited about this growth which allows us to serve more immigrants in Indianapolis and the surrounding areas. To see how you can get involved with our Immigration Services program visit HelpCreateHope.org

St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities

For nearly thirty years St. Elizabeth's has been offering mother and baby items through the Marie's Community Distribution Program. Starting out small, this program had limited space and days each month that it operated. Over the years it has grown, offering additional days and hours each month and opening in a much larger building allowing the volunteers to accept a wider range of donations to pass on to the community.

Families in need can receive essential items free of charge by simply providing a form of identification and proof of a child. Items vary and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Items frequently distributed include baby and maternity clothing, strollers, car seats, cribs, household goods, furniture, and appliances. Baby food, formula, and diapers are also regularly available.

Marie's is open Tuesdays & Thursdays from10am - 2pm at 305 E 7th Street in

New Albany. Click the image below to watch a video and hear from both the

volunteers that work at Marie's and a few of the clients that they serve.

Catholic Charities Tell City

Catholic Charities Tell City recently held our Red, White and Boom Raffle. During the month of June, staff and volunteers sold tickets for a prize drawing. We would love to give a Thank You to the Nobles IGA of Tell City for allowing us to sell chances there on numerous occasions. The drawing was held on July 13th. There were six cash prizes with a top prize of $500. An additional $400, $200 and 3 $100 winners were drawn. We are blessed by all those who sold and purchased tickets. Over $4,000 was raised to help support our programs with more funds coming in. It is because of our generous supporters that we can continue to serve the people of Perry County!

Catholic Charities Terre Haute

Recently, Ryves Youth Center has been going through some changes. After 40+ years as our Program Director, Mr. James Edwards retired. Jim was responsible for helping to build the program into what it is today — a safe haven for children in our community. A place where they are nourished, mind body and soul. Jim was an advocate for bringing the KidsCafe^©and BackPack^© Program to Ryves understanding fully well that these young minds can’t thrive with empty bellies. For those of us who have worked alongside Jim, his expertise and experience are not taken for granted. Our staff and volunteers have had a front row seat to learn how to demonstrate love even during extreme situations and to do it without conditions. Jim made the lives of children in our community better every sing day. We will be forever grateful to him, on behalf of all of us at Catholic Charities Terre Haute, we wish Jim the best in the future!

Replacing Jim is Mr. Jim Pinkstaff. No stranger to the Youth Center, Jim has been the Educational Coordinator for the last 13 years. Jim’s experience working with the children and their families at Ryves, along with his vision for the future of the program made him the right person to fill this incredibly important role. We are excited to watch the programs at Ryves Youth Center continue to thrive and grow.

Jim Edwards and wife, Diana, celebrate his retirement at a celebration held on May 25th.

Jim Pinkstaff, new Program Director of

Ryves Youth Center

As part of the kickoff event for the Eucharistic Revival on June 19, volunteers packed over 1,000 hygiene care packages for those in need. The care packages were split between Catholic Charities & St. Vincent de Paul for their programs to distribute. Through Pack Away Hunger, volunteers also packed 13,000 meals that will be shipped via the Convoy of Hope to Ukrainian refugees. Thank you to all those that came and volunteer their time.

Save the Date

St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities Give for Good Louisville

Date: Thursday, September 15th, 2022

Details: Annual day of giving hosted annually by the Community Foundation of Louisville.

Catholic Charities Bloomington Golf Scramble

Date: Friday, October 14th, 2022

Time: 1:00pm Shotgun Start

Location: Cascades Golf Course

3550 N Kinser Pike, Bloomington, IN 47404

Details: Registration will begin at 12pm. Teams will be playing a 9 hole best ball

scramble. Prizes will be awarded for lowest team score, longest putt, longest drive, &

closest to the pin. Green fees, carts, swag bag and heavy hors d’oeuvres included.

Click here of for more information about sponsorship opportunities and to register to golf.

St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities Reverse Raffle

Date: Saturday, November 12, 2022

Location: Plantation Hall at Huber's Orchard & Winery

Details: Mark your calendars to join us for our Annual Reverse Raffle.

Becky's Place Run for Hope 5k

Date: Thursday, November 24, 2022

Time: 9:00am

Location: The Depot- Downtown Bedford

Details: Our annual Thanksgiving 5k is back in person this year. Join us for a fun morning and support a good cause. We will be debuting a new course this year. More information and registration can be found here

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Why People Give to Religious Organizations

Charitable giving is central to Christian spirituality. We see everything we have, material and spiritual, as unmerited gifts from God. God entrusts us with everything we have because he is generous and wants to bless us.

Some interesting 2019 facts about charitable giving to religious organizations (according to studies by USCCB, U.S. Catholic, Sharefaith and Qgiv):

Overall charitable giving reached nearly $450 billion in 2019. Of those donations, approximately 1/3 of all charitable gifts benefited religious organizations
About 69% of all charitable donations come from individuals and 10% of these gifts come in the form of a bequest. Foundations and corporations contribute 17% and 5%, respectively.
Individuals who attend church regularly tend to donate more money to any cause, giving 81% of their donations to religious organizations with an average donation of $2,224. Americans who never attend religious services give less overall and tend to contribute more toward secular causes with an average secular donation of $593 and $111 for religious causes.
Not surprisingly, individuals donate more as their wealth increases. Christian households earning between $60-90,000 tend to donate at least $500 annually. Households earning $100,000+ donated $500+. However, younger-aged Christians earning less than $20,000 are eight times more likely to give church contributions than those making $75,000.

At the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF), our staff seeks to match donors’ stewardship and passions with the needs of the Archdiocese, parishes, schools and agencies. Please contact CCF at ccf@archindy.org or 317-236-1482 to see how we can assist you with your plan to give to Catholic Charities. Thank you!