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Catholic Charities CEO: ‘Faith in action’ continues
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April 1, 2020By Sr. Marjorie Hebert, M.S.C., Guest columnist
Photo courtesy of Catholic Charities Facebook
While New Orleans is not a stranger to hardships and resilience is a bone-deep quality of our community, this pandemic and the deprivations we have to face to contain it are new and different. What is not different is the determination of Catholic Charities to reach out with a full heart of compassion and mercy to serve our thousands of clients and those who are reaching out to us for assistance.
Our mission and purpose is the same. We seek out the most creative ways to meet today’s needs, and we will put our faith in action!
Our leadership first discussed the COVID-19 outbreak on Feb. 10 as news reports of a new strain of virus began to circulate. We took note and we prepared. As the virus became more present in the metropolitan area, we followed the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin social distancing, but we faced a conundrum: How could we leave in the lurch the thousands of individuals who rely on Catholic Charities and make ourselves available to any new clients who would face emergency situations brought about by the loss of jobs, daycare and the closures of their children’s schools?
On March 16, we decided to continue operating as many of our 30 programs as possible while limiting face-to-face interaction:
Our five Head Start centers closed, but we continued to feed meals to more than 500 students using drive-through to ensure that they didn’t lose those hot meals.
The Disaster Case Management response team assisted those who were impacted by business closures and loss of employment. Since March 17, we have taken 68 calls for case management.
Our Counseling Services director, Dr. Mark Taliancich, made media appearances to speak about the need for mental health support during stressful times. We were prepared on March 30 to take new clients into the program via teleconferencing.
Our Food for Seniors program continues to pack and deliver food to seniors struggling with food insecurity.
Our Immigration and Refugee Services has used all technology at its disposal to ensure that ESL, citizenship and family literacy classes continue via remote learning.
Our ACCESS Maternity services continue to provide support to anyone needing pregnancy counseling and continue to distribute diapers for infants and toddlers.
These are just a few examples of our continuing commitment to serve our community.
Marianite Sister Marjorie Hebert is president-CEO of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. She can be reached at [email protected].