A Message from the President of the Board
Dear Friends of Catholic Charities,
As we celebrate our Risen Christ, Catholic Charities joyfully thanks you for your support and engagement of our mission! Lent has reminded us of waiting and how to fill it with hope, just as our services bring hope to those in need.
Loneliness, despair, mental health issues, and even displacement into a new society a world away from birth are some of the struggles the marginalized of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese face daily. Because of your gifts of both time and treasure, Catholic Charities has brought hope into the lives of so many. Last year, the agency assisted nearly 20,000 people in the 14 counties we serve.
John Fallon, President of the Board
We help those here in our diocese just as our Church has taught us: without regard to status, history, mistakes, religion, or life circumstances. We concentrate on the service areas of Stability, Counseling, Migration, and Pro-Life. Annually we are blessed to provide over 47,000 services, however we continue to see significant growth in need. In the first two quarters of our fiscal year, we have seen a 40% increase in requests for services. This reflects both pandemic-related income loss for clients and marked inflation. With SNAP benefits ending in March, we expect another influx of need.
As we continue to grow, our Board always remains thankful for the generosity given to Catholic Charities and continuously endeavors to be a faithful steward of those gifts. This year, we retained StrategyWorx, a well-regarded consulting firm who frequently works with Catholic organizations, to do a comprehensive strategic review. Our goal is to streamline our organization, especially with respect to the distribution of our services, to most efficiently widen our impact at all levels. This review deeply involves each member of our entire Board, our CEO, and the full management team. It takes dozens of hours receiving input from all stakeholders and organizing and prioritizing ideas. This will result in clear strategic direction going forward.
In addition, we are revitalizing and expanding our West Region. We have added new board members from that area and hired Kellie Porter as Vice President to provide leadership over our services for the most vulnerable in St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, and Kosciusko counties. Kellie comes to us with a history of success in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the South Bend area, including the University of Notre Dame and the Beacon Health system.
Thank you all again as we continue to move Catholic Charities forward!
John Fallon, MD, MBA