by Katie Patrick
One of the many things I love about Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska is that we fill a gap in the nonprofit community across all of southern Nebraska that others don’t. The programs that we offer include emergency cash assistance, food market and meal services, immigration legal services, refugee resettlement and employment services, and St. Gianna Women’s Homes for survivors of domestic violence and crisis pregnancy. They all offer something that no other agency—or very few agencies—do.
For example, in addition to cash assistance within the emergency services program, we offer diapers, baby wipes, formula, personal care items, home cleaning products, gas vouchers, supermarket gift cards, bus tickets, furniture and delivery, bottled water, winter essentials such as coats, gloves, hats, and thermal socks, waterproof boots and sleeping bags for the homeless, gift cards to any four of our Gift & Thrift Stores, and much more.
To accomplish all of this we have an incredible statewide emergency services and front desk team from Imperial to Auburn who communicate and collaborate weekly (and sometimes daily) to brainstorm solutions for helping our clients. They also work to make our services more effective and efficient and ultimately they come together to support and encourage one another. In fact, last month they traveled to Lincoln from Imperial, Hastings, and Auburn to connect in person. What a fun day that was!
Their collaboration impacts more than our team synergy—it’s increasing the total number of those we serve. Just last month we saw our reach more than double in Auburn and Imperial. We’re giving out more food from pantries and cash assistance to the rural community than we have in the past. And that is exactly what we’re striving for. We understand the obstacles and lack of resources available to those in need in small towns, and we want to be there to serve them as best we can. In her own words, April Boellstorff, our regional director in Auburn shares a story of one such family that we have been blessed to help:
Recently, St. Francis Gift & Thrift in Auburn, along with the services provided by our Catholic Social Services outreach office, was able to provide furniture and home goods to a recently rehomed woman and her teenage daughter with very limited resources. This family had struggled with homelessness for years. They hardly knew what a home was. I worked together with a diligent social worker from another local agency who had helped house this family in income-based apartments. This social worker knew we provided furniture and home goods to those in need. She explained that the only furniture in their apartment was a twin mattress, a folding table, and two fold-up chairs. She told the family we could help by giving them free items kindly donated to our thrift store, but they hardly knew what to ask for because they had not been used to having a home or “things.” They asked for a couch and clothing hangers. That’s it!
We clearly knew the importance of creating the feeling of a home for them. They had never really shopped. They had no car, and no friends or family to help them. They had “nothing” of material means. My heart was all in. I contacted our Lincoln delivery team to find out if St. Francis Gift & Thrift could provide the furniture, could they help transport. Auburn was in need of some other supplies from Lincoln anyway, so Jeremy quickly agreed that we could make this happen! I paced the store floor looking for the right items, admiring the clean set up and organization via our awesome SFGT team. We had several items that would be helpful! We certainly had more than a couch and hangers for them! I tagged items “SOLD” and prepared them for delivery. My excited fingers flew across my keyboard informing the family we could help—AND deliver since they had no vehicle.
The delivery went perfectly. They were delighted and loved everything picked out for them. I was informed that their social worker would be able to provide them a ride to our store to choose a few decorative items. Creating a HOME. Creating dignity. A little retail therapy and fun. I was able to provide a gift card to the store, and the social worker was able to provide the transportation. The first thing they spotted and fell in love with was a nativity set. God, you are so cool!
Thank you all for your prayers and support for Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska. Please know that your prayers and monetary gifts allow us to serve the poor and vulnerable in so many ways. Thank you for your time and your generosity and most importantly, thank you for your faith in Christ.
