Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa

The power to make Experience

a difference

The 2007 Annual Report of Catholic Charities of the

Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa

“Guided by the teachings of the Catholic Church,

we serve all people in need with

compassion and competence, advocate for justice

and encourage all people of

good will to share in these efforts.”

The Mission of Catholic Charities

We are happy to provide you with this annual report of Catholic Charities. We hope you find the information and statistics about our programs and the work we do to be encouraging. The real story behind

Catholic Charities is that of the families who have been touched by the kindness of our volunteers and staff members. Without support from our generous donors, our programs would not be able to touch the many lives they do in such a positive way.

As a friend of Catholic Charities, you have demonstrated that you have a big heart for the neediest among us.

Your donations have provided hope for the people we serve and support for our staff and volunteers. Through your acts of generosity, we are reminded each day that the work of Catholic Charities is work you care about and work that must be done. Each year, nearly 20,000 individuals come to Catholic Charities for services. Your gifts help determine how much we can accomplish over the next year. Thank you for partnering with us as we as we provide services to God’s people.

Together, we make a difference in our community!

Sincerely,

Nancy GaleazziExecutive Director

The Power toExperience

Make a Difference

Thoughts from our Board President & Executive Director

Dear Friends, At Catholic Charities, we believe it is our responsibility to be bold on behalf of the poor and vulnerable in our community. There are so many people in our world for whom society can’t find room - the poor, the homeless, immigrants, the mentally ill, the abused and those seeking refuge. On your behalf, we have done so much to make room in southwest Iowa for these people in need. Please accept my gratitude for your past support. Thanks to the generosity of our friends, Catholic

Charities continues to serve the people of Southwest Iowa.

Hundreds of you have volunteered your time and talent in partnership with our outstanding staff to help our friends and neighbors in need. For all your efforts, I am very grateful. May the Lord bless you for caring for your brothers and sisters and supporting your Catholic Charities. Wishing you many blessings, I am,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Rev. Msgr. Stephen L. OrrAdministrator, Diocese of Des Moines

The Power toExperience

Serve those in need

Twelve-year-old Nick Bernabe began his quest to make a differ-ence by learning about the needs of those less fortunate. After visiting St. Joseph Emergency Family Shelter and talking to shel-ter staff about current needs, Nick began to brainstorm ideas on how he could help.

Nick began service projects in February 2007 and continues to do monthly projects for the shelter. He made breakfast cas-seroles for the guests and organized a collection in his neigh-borhood for cleaning supplies to be used at the shelter and for families to take when they leave the shelter. Nick came up with a plan to raise money to purchase calling cards and bus tokens for the shelter guests. He and his friends set up a stand and sold

lemonade and cookies for several hours, raising more than $100.

Most recently, Nick encouraged his baseball team to put on a baseball clinic for the kids at St. Joseph Shelter. The team played with the children, worked on some basic baseball skills and ended the day with grilled hot dogs.

“We see many youth interested in vol-unteering in various ways,” said Catholic Charities volunteer coordinator Trish Radke. “Young people are some of the most creative and resourceful volun-teers. They see things from a different angle and are able to give in ways that most of us don’t even think of. Nick has been a great example of what one determined young person can really ac-complish for those less fortunate.”

Youth ServiceNick’s project

Nick and a young guest at St. Joseph’s take a break from the baseball clinic. Nick riased money to purchase much needed supplies for the shelter.

Serve those in need

Rev. Bob Solberg, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, came to Catholic Charities in 2006 with an idea of how we might help 29 Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA) congregations in the Des Moines area fulfill their call to live the Gospel message of service.

Plans were made to bring “Home Together,” the name chosen to represent the ELCA project, to St. Joseph Emergency Family Shelter. The decision to focus on the issue of homelessness came quickly as the group researched community needs.

The idea of keeping families together brought the group to Catholic Charities because St. Joseph’s is the only shelter in Polk County that keeps the entire family unit together.

St. Joseph’s provides shelter, all meals, personal care items and case management for five homeless families at a time, often housing more than 70 families in a year.

Pastor Solberg is one of the volunteers making “Home Together” a success. “St. Joseph’s is a ministry and we are here to help,” Solberg said. “We know ministries and services for homeless families are ongoing, but we are helping those who need shelter at this time.”

“Home Together” volunteers updated the shelter and created a space that allows for the shelter caseworker to meet with families in a more private setting. All five guest bedrooms received new paint, as well as custom

built storage space, shelving and new carpet. New energy efficient appliances were purchased including a washing machine, two dryers, a refrigerator and a large freezer. The food pantry located in the basement of the shelter was completely refurbished as well.

“They came to us with amazing skills and resources that make the shelter cozier, more efficient and, best of all, they’ve forever touched the lives of the families that stay at the shelter,” said Pat Nestvedt, Catholic Charities Outreach Coordinator. “Their work here says ‘we truly care’.”

Volunteers making a difference

Home Together volunteers Al Hopp and Bill Goebel work on the new office at St. Joseph’s. Left, Mary Ann Hopp preps walls to be painted.

Group ServiceHome Together project

The Power toExperience

Give back

Community leaders coming together for Catholic Charities.

Iowa Hospice lives up to its philosophy of “Love in Action” not only through their day to day work, but also by reaching out to the families at Catholic Charities’ St. Joseph Emergency Family Shel-ter. As a Charities Circle partner at St. Joseph’s, Iowa Hospice not only supports the shelter with financial donations, but the staff and administration also serve as essential volunteers.

Last Christmas, staff shared gifts with the families staying at the shelter bringing more than just smiles to the children’s faces— they also brought hope. Additionally, Iowa Hospice has served as the event sponsor of “No Room at the Inn” for the past two years, as well as a sponsor for the Bishop Charron Golf Classic.

“Love in Action” a term from Mother Teresa, is now a philosophy for Iowa Hospice about how to treat people with respect, dig-nity and kindness, all values which mirror the mission of Catholic Charities. Thanks to Iowa Hospice CEO Tom Moreland and their caring staff for your support of Catholic Charities.

“Charities Circle” is a new sponsorship pro-gram encouraging local businesses and their employees to get in-volved with Catholic Charities at a hands-on level. Catholic Charities

is proud to announce Mercy Medical Center and Iowa Hospice as inaugural members of Charities Circle.

Sponsors at this level are included in a variety of our special events and partner with one of our programs. Our hope is that through “Charities Circle,” local busi-nesses will have the opportunity to share their corpo-rate values with their staff and our clients.

There are numerous levels a company can become a member of Charities Circle. For more information, please call Laura Holms, associate director at (515) 237-5025 or e-mail at lholms@dmdiocese.org

Mercy Medical Center has been a partner with Catholic Charities since 2004 as a participant in the Bishop Charron Catholic Charities Golf Classic. In 2005, their financial

contribution, along with support from Mercy employees, made the first annual “Step Up to the Plate: Catholic Charities Night at the Iowa Cubs” a great success.

Mercy’s continued involvement and commitment to serving our community has provided resources essential to achieving the goals of Catholic Charities, but also provides a lasting impression

to the community that we share in the mission to provide for those in need with compassion and competence.

The value of our partnership far exceeds dollars and cents and Catholic Charities was excited to continue that partnership as Mercy Medical Center became a member of Charities Circle.

As a Charities Circle sponsor of St. Mary Family Center, Mercy employees have the opportunity to get involved and make a real difference in the community through health screenings and educational opportunities. Thanks to Mercy CEO Dave Vellinga, physicians and staff for your support of Catholic Charities!

CircleharitiesC

Catholic Charities presented the first annual Bishop Charron Caritas Award to the man for whom the award is named, newly retired Bishop Joseph L. Charron, at “Step Up to the Plate: Catholic Charities Night at the Iowa Cubs” on June 15, 2007. Catholic Charities will present The Bishop Charron Caritas Award annually to an individual or organization showing compassion to those in need, serving with humility and displaying love for all people, just as Bishop Charron does.

“We are blessed to have had such a strong leader,” said Nancy Galeazzi, executive director. “The support and example of helping those in need shown by Bishop Charron fuels us as we continue to make a difference in the lives of those we serve.”

Some of the highlights of Bishop’s 13 years with Catholic Charities include throwing out the first pitch at the inaugural “Step Up to the Plate: Catholic Charities Night at the Iowa Cubs,” reestablishing the Catholic Charities Golf Classic, leading the building of the Phoenix House Domestic Violence Shelter in Council Bluffs, moving St. Mary Family Center into its current location and being an advocate for all those who “need a little help along the way.”

CThe Bishop Charron Awardaritas

Presented to Bishop Joseph Charron, C.PP.S,

for his dedication and leadership to Catholic Charities

June 15, 2007

Compassion Service Love

Bishop Charron receives the Caritas Award at “Step Up to the Plate” in June from Catholic Charities’ Executive Director Nancy Galeazzi.

We are all called to share our time and talents and The In-teger Group has answered this call by generously donating their services to help Catholic Charities reach those in need of “a little help along the way”.

The Integer Group, Iowa’s largest integrated marketing ser-vices firm, provided services pro-bono to Catholic Charities for a variety of programs and special events.

Integer was involved in the development of the “A New Be-ginning” adoption initiative. These services totaled nearly $30,000 and included concept development, design services and project management for the adoption program name, logo, information packet, posters and Power Point tem-plate.

“In-kind donations like this have an immeasurable impact.

They enable us to reach more people in need and to spread awareness of the social issues that make it difficult for people to improve their lives,” said Trish Radke, Public Relations Coordinator for Catholic Charities.

The Integer Group has a history of helping Catholic Chari-ties visually convey messages and services. What began with designing a logo for the Charities golf outing has blossomed into a full fledged partnership, with Integer designing spe-cial event promotional materials for “Step up to the Plate: Catholic Charities Night at the Iowa Cubs” and creating a unique new look and strategies to effectively market A New Beginning: Catholic Charities Pregnancy Counseling & Adoption Program.

The Integer GroupHelping bring the work of Charities to the public

Iowa Hospice

The Programs ofExperience

Catholic Charities

Phoenix HouseLast year, the Phoenix House provided a safe place to call home for 178 women and children and nearly 400 individuals were as-sisted through the court advocacy program. Along with providing services to victims of abuse, the Phoenix House takes an active role in educating and bringing awareness to the community about ways they can make a stand against domestic violence.

This year, the Phoenix House organized the Victim’s Commemoration Ceremony as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. The event encouraged the community to participate in the effort to stop violence

and abuse. Survivors shared their stories of abuse and how they overcame the trauma and moved on to healing.

The Phoenix House held various events through the month of October in recogni-tion of Domestic Violence Awareness month. The 19th Annual Candlelight Vigil featured na-tional speaker Tanya Brown as well as numer-ous community and civic leaders and groups.

The Phoenix House staff and volunteers make a significant difference in the lives they touch and the lives they save through their efforts to advocate for victims of violence.

Counseling

St. Mary family CenterIn response to the growing need of affordable English class-es, St. Mary Family Center staff member Michelle Ligia Taylor and volunteer Earl Kueny, began teaching an English class last fall to Catholic Charities clients. After seeing how much a second language could enhance the services they provide, many food pantry volunteers at St. Mary’s asked about op-portunities to learn Spanish, so Taylor and Kueny began teaching Spanish classes this past spring.

“The English language classes give native Spanish speakers the tools needed to succeed in the workforce, to help their children with school, and basic communication that is need-

ed to help improve their lives,” Taylor said. “Our volunteers in the food pantry wanted to learn Spanish, not only as a way to communicate to our clients about their needs, but as a way to welcome them, too.”

St. Mary Family Center, Catholic Charities’ food pantry and free clothing closet serves more than 1,100 families each month. In addition to providing food and personal care items to many needy families, the center offers limited financial as-sistance. All services provided, including language classes, are free to those in need.

For the last nineteen years, Pat Curran has called Catholic Charities home. Curran, who was a volunteer at Catholic Charities before becoming a staff member, works with

clients and co-facilitates a group for sex offenders at the Pottawattamie County Correctional Facility. Curran, a licensed social worker, enjoys working with her clients.

“I enjoy seeing people grow and change before my eyes,” said Curran. “Seeing the goodness, hopes and dreams

of our clients makes working at Catholic Charities very rewarding.”

Curran is proud to work at Catholic Charities. She hopes the community knows what Catholic Charities is all about. “We serve people regardless of their ability to pay; people of all religions and beliefs and all races and ethnic origins,” said Curran. “This is a miracle thanks to the United Way and the Diocese of Des Moines.”

In addition to our services for those affected by abuse, our therapists serve families in need through individual, marital and family counseling.

The Power toExperience

Catholic Charities

Working to make a difference in

southwest Iowa

A group of proud volunteers, staff members and excited refugee families attended an open house to celebrate the new Refugee Community Center in February. Located at 3200 University Ave. in Des Moines, the Community Center serves as a place of welcome to both refugees and volun-teers for community building, learning and mentoring.

The Refugee Community Center was created through the cooperative efforts of Catholic Charities, Lutheran Services of Iowa, local contractors and volunteers. Catholic Charities

col laborates with Lutheran Services in Iowa to provide resettlement services to refugees who ar-rive in Iowa after fleeing their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group.

Catholic Charities worked with Lutheran Services in Iowa to resettle 207 refugees this year.

Refugee Resettlement Sieda Mohamad & her som Omar Morani celebrate the opening of the Refugee Community

Center .

Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Community Outreach Promotoro, Enrique Cruz Garcia, began teaching basic computer classes last fall.

Part of Garcia’s work is to identify community leaders and provide them resources and edu-cation on how to become active in their community. Garcia says that computer use is es-sential for effective communication.

“An important part of identifying and empowering com-munity leaders is educating them on how to effectively use computers, es-pecially e-mail.”

Hispanic Community Outreach

The American flag is a symbol of a

new life for two young

immigrants.

Adoption & PregnancyCounseling

Catholic Charities’ Adoption & Pregnancy Counseling Program is conducting a new mar-keting campaign this year. “A New Beginning,” the program’s new name, hopes to reflect the services offered in a more meaningful way.

Christ Child Home was established in 1924 as the start of Catholic Charities. That program provided care for newborn babies and infants up to age five until they were placed for adop-tion. Since that time the program has evolved to provide pregnancy counseling services to women is crisis pregnancies and their families as well services for couples wishing to adopt. The program also offers adoption search resources.

“It is time to give the program a new and stron-ger identity in an effort to reach more women who are in need of our services,” said Nancy Galeazzi, executive director. “‘A New Beginning’ was a natural fit for the program because of the new life and hopefulness that is spread through the work of our program.”

The effectiveness of our programs 2006-2007St. Joseph Shelter served 70 families - 238 men, women & childrenSt. Mary Family Center handed out more than 10,168 food boxes

Des Moines Financial Assistance served 262 people - Council Bluffs Financial Assistance served 35 familiesCounseling - Des Moines 454 new families - Hispanic 108 new families - Counseling 144 new families

Adoption & Pregnancy Counseling served 225 familiesPhoenix House served 80 women & 78 children

Domestic Violence/Sexual Abuse Program served 1094 individualsRefugee Cooperative Services resettled 207 refugees

Financial Information

Expenses

Revenue

Contributions 28%

Diocesan Appeal 8%

Bequests & Misc 1%

Grants 29%

Fees 7%

United Way 20%

Investment & Endowment 7% Contributions $705,823

Annual Diocesan Appeal 198,000 Bequests & Misc 36,155 Grants 737,816 Fees 178,544 United Way 505,236 Investment & Endowment 169,318

Total $2,530,892

Counseling 18%

A New Beginning 5%

St. Joseph Shelter 12%

St. Mary’s 10%Immigrant/Refugee Services 12%

Domestic Violence/Phoenix House 23%

Development/Marketing 7%

Administration 11% Financial Assistance 2%

Counseling $416,332 A New Beginning 114,945 St. Joseph Emergency Family Shelter 286,495 St. Mary Family Center 236,429 Immigrant and Refugee Services 268,638 Domestic Violence 524,547 Development/Marketing 171,802 Administration 252,822 Financial Assistance 46,411

Total $2,318,422

Revenue by source/Expenses by program

The Power toExperience

Get involved

All of us at Catholic Charities are truly grateful for your past and ongoing support. Without your help, we could never carry out our mission of caring for those in need throughout our community.

If you would like to spend some time experiencing how our pro-grams make a real difference in the community, that opportunity is just a phone call away. Catholic Charities uses volunteers in many capacities, from our court watch volunteer as part of our Domestic Violence Program, to organizing a collection of personal care items to be distributed at St. Mary Family Center or serving a meal at St. Joseph Shelter, the work of Catholic Charities relies on the hands and hearts of so many dedicated volunteers. You can help us spread the word about the work of Catholic Charities by becoming an Ambas-sador to your parish or business, serving on one of our committees or volunteering at a special event.

Experience what it feels like to make a difference through the work of Catholic Charities. If you would like to discuss supporting Catholic Charities by volunteering or by making a donation, a trust arrangement, a gift of securities, a bequest through your will or a gift directed to a specific program, please contact Catholic Charities Associate Director Laura Holms at (515) 237-5025.

Brothers Cesar & Emilio Garcia and their family are clients of St. Mary Family Center

As I reflect on the mission of Catholic Charities I am proud to say this year we served more than 20,000 people. Catholic Charities sheltered homeless families, assisted victims of abuse, created new families though adoption and provided food and clothing to families in need. I realize these services would not be possible without our dedicated staff and volunteers. Equally important are the generous members of the community who have supported us financially over the years.

While the generosity of our community is overwhelming, so are its needs. Your generosity has made Catholic Charities a place where the hungry are fed, the stranger welcomed, the homeless protected and families strengthened – Catholic Charities touches lives where it matters the most.

As chairman of the Catholic Charities Board, I would like to thank our donors, volunteers and supporters for all you do. Together, as we live out the Gospel message to serve those in need, Catholic Charities is truly making a difference in our community.

Over the past six years of serving on the Board, I have seen amazing changes, not only in the impact we are able to make in our community, but also in the number of people who have joined me in supporting the important work we do. I thank each and every one of you for your unending support and generosity toward Catholic Charities.

With sincere gratitude, Alex OponskiChairman, Catholic Charities Board of Directors

Get involved

A New Beginning 5%

St. Joseph Shelter 12%

Catholic Charities601 Grand Ave. Des Moines, IA

50309515.244.3761

Phoenix House/ Council Bluffs Office

300 West Broadway Ste. 223 Council Bluffs, IA

51503712.328.3086

St. Mary Family Center1815 Hubbell Ave.

Des Moines, IA50317

515.262.7290

St. Joseph Emergency family Shelter1535 11th Street Des Moines, IA

50314515.282.1235