Catholic Charities tries to see as ‘God sees’

Published 12:00 am Friday, December 26, 2003

The Catholic Charities Diocese of Winona was established to mirror (project the image of) God to the world as liberator of the oppressed and defender of the poor.

Striving to “see as God sees” and grow in the divine image of the creator, our task is to serve all people and make the conditions of the Minnesota heartland more fully human.

The CCDW calls people to minister to each other; shares resources with each individual and the total community; reaches out to the disabled, the marginalized, the alienated, and the stranger; and labors for the justice of which the gospel of Christ demands.

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The Catholic Charities Diocese provides clinical counseling, adoption and pregnancy/parenting counseling services by our staff in the Albert Lea office. We primarily serve families and couples and you do not have to be Catholic to participate in these programs. Bob Tereba, director of the CCDW, stresses that &uot;we serve all faiths…we’re here just to serve people in need.&uot; There is no charge for the pregnancy/parenting counseling services; for the clinical counseling and adoption services, participants are charged on a sliding fee scale which takes into account their household size and income.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2003, the United Way of Freeborn County allocated $6,950 towards these services. The donated money represented 52 percent of the total revenue of our Albert Lea office.

One hundred and seventy-five people benefited from the work of the CCDW in that fiscal year and the number of people who utilize these programs continues to increase.

United Way funds allow us to meet the ordinary and necessary expenses of our counseling, adoption and pregnancy/parenting counseling program.

The funds pay for personnel expenses, training, supplies, travel, communications, supplies, etc.&045;all the things needed to make a program possible. The CCDW wishes to &uot;make sure we can provide competent assistance and the United Way helps&uot; us do this, Tereba said.

To continue to assist the community, the organization has been looking into adding a new service called Senior Companions which involves seniors helping other seniors. It would involve a &uot;care-receiver&uot; and a trained &uot;senior companion&uot; who visits the &uot;care-receiver&uot; a couple times a week; they might run errands, help with chores, or chat over a cup of coffee.

The program has been very successful in Winona and Austin, &uot;we’d love to be able to bring this to Freeborn County&uot; Tereba said. He noted that the addition of the Senior Companions program is &uot;really conditioned on receiving allocation money and that’s not going to happen unless the campaign goal (of the United Way) is reached.&uot;

United Way funding is critical to the programming we offer from our Albert Lea office. Not only do they provide financial assistance, they allow us to become more a part of the community.

Tereba compares an association with the United Way to &uot;a Good Housekeeping seal of approval.&uot;

The United Way helps connect CCDW with other organizations, gives a sense of community and helps lend credibility to the program. Without the United Way, we would likely have to close our office and the Freeborn County residents we serve would likely not receive service, or would have to travel much farther to receive needed service.

The Albert Lea Catholic Charities Diocese is located at St. Theodores Catholic Church, 311 E. Clark St., 377-3664.

Contact the United Way if you are interested in making a donation, 373-8670 or write to: The United Way, 341 S. Broadway Ave., Albert Lea, MN 56007.