by Lauren Solidum
Catholic Charities has been actively putting the final touches on the agency’s next strategic plan. I am grateful for the thoughtful responses from our clients, community partners, parishes and financial supporters that helped shaped the new plan. We are eager to do more good!
Our major priorities for the agency include:
Food. We will expand our reach within our rural counties and increase fresh food volume, retail partnerships and food programming volunteers. We will evaluate the effectiveness of our Resource Bus service locations and are considering new family support center locations beyond our eight offices.
Housing. We are focused on eviction prevention through increasing our direct financial assistance for housing and adding more transitional housing sites. We are looking for development partners to expand our current transitional housing properties.
Big housing news! In collaboration with the archdiocesan pro-life office, Catholic Charities will open up our very first maternity home! Our Lady’s Sanctuary of Grace will host five families and residents will participate in the employment and education programming that you’ve come to know from Catholic Charities to raise their families free from material poverty. And, guess what? If you are a financial supporter of this new ministry of $1,000 or more, you are eligible for a 70% tax credit in the state of Kansas! That’s right: a 70% tax credit! Go online to: catholiccharitiesks.org/kansas-pregnancy-tax-credits to donate and learn more.
Mental health. We will offer more trainings of Mental Health 101 and the Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE), a simulation exercise designed to elevate understanding around the systemic issues of poverty. We hope to be able to arm our parishes and partners with knowledge to direct those in need of mental health services appropriately. Our focus is on reducing stigmas and building awareness and programming to respond before tragedy strikes.
Social enterprise. TurnStyles is not only a great place to volunteer, shop, donate and care for the environment by keeping items out of landfills AND employ the unemployed. Now, TurnStyles is a place for fighting food insecurity by placing nonperishable food bins for your food donations. And that is not all — our team is actively working on opening a fourth TurnStyles location off 119th and Metcalf in the summer 2026. We are so excited to expand the brand and the resources back to the mission!
None of our work would be possible without the physical and financial support from our community. Thank you for generosity! If you are interested in learning more about our plans, project statuses, volunteering or making a financial donation, please visit our website at: www.catholiccharitiesks.org.
