By LORETTA SWORD

Catholic Charities of Pueblo has won $100,000 in matching funds for a new children’s program.

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program is a partnership between the Colorado Parent & Child Foundation and various nonprofit service agencies statewide.

“Catholic Charities is thrilled to bring this outstanding program to Pueblo and Crowley Counties. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and early childhood education is where it all starts,” said Catholic Charities Director Joe Mahoney.

Program director Ida Rhodes will oversee the program, which will require $100,000 in matching local contributions.

“A tremendous amount of growth and change takes place between birth and age 5, and that development provides an indelible blueprint for youth and adult outcomes. Children provided with early educational opportunities in whole-family, quality programs such as HIPPY are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college,” Rhodes said.

HIPPY is a nationally proven school-readiness program that relies on parent involvement to prepare youngsters ages 3-5 for success in school and beyond. The program empowers parents as the primary educators in the home and fosters parental involvement in school and community life.

The HIPPY model was designed to remove barriers to participation in early childhood programs related to poverty, lack of education or social isolation. Additionally, the model’s approach to recruitment of home visitors and parents is designed to engage parents with children who are at greater risk of school failure because of poverty, parents’ lower levels of education, and other risk factors.

The program, if local matching funding is found, will be the newest in services offered by Catholic Charities to at-risk families with very young children. The organization also offers the Parents as Teachers program.

The Colorado Parent & Child Foundation provides the network of nearly 40 HIPPY and Parents as Teachers programs throughout the state with advocacy, leadership, training, and guidance to implement both programs. The new program will allow the agency to reach an additional 120 families.

Come help support the work we do at Catholic Charities to help the poor and vulnerable and to foster a more just society, while enjoying one of the year’s best parties! We work to ensure children have the tools they need to start a lifelong education process and that parents have the skills they need to encourage this. We also provide immigration outreach and help for those facing poverty or homelessness. We can’t do any of this without your support.

While raising important funds to further our mission, this also is a chance to support area artists and their divinely inspired creative process. I am excited to live in a community that supports the arts and this is an opportunity to show that support.

On a personal note, I look forward to Espiritu! because it is a great time. We share food and drink with one another and celebrate all of these good things that Pueblo offers.

I hope to see you on April 28th at Olde Towne Carriage House on the Riverwalk. Tickets are available at $50 for the show or $75 for a pre-show reception with Bishop Isern and the artists as well as an opportunity to win Bishop Tafoya’s featured painting. The evening includes a hosted bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres. For ticket information contact Catholic Charities at 719-586-8601.

Recognizing the positive impact that non-profit organizations have in empowering communities, this 2011 inaugural award celebrates a non-profit organization that has provided individual empowerment for the residents of Pueblo, Colorado. Catholic Charities was selected in particular this year because of their leadership in empowering entrepreneurs by helping kick-start a new business incubator program that will launch this year in Pueblo.

“We are extremely excited to present the inaugural non-profit award to Catholic Charities of Pueblo, an organization that does so much for our community,” says Sandy Gutierrez, Executive Director the Pueblo Latino Chamber of Commerce.

“The Latino Chamber is a proud participant in the research of creating yet another empowering program through Catholic Charities of Pueblo,” says Gutierrez, “for those interested in becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs. We are an organization that recognized the need to foster that next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Recognizing the need for life skills for one’s success, the incubator will engage participants in learning business skills necessary to start and sustain a business. This includes everything from market analysis and budgeting to applying for a loan.

The Latino Chamber is a proud participant in the research of creating yet another empowering program through Catholic Charities of Pueblo for those interested in becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Congratulations to Joe Mahoney, your Board of Directors and staff for your commitment to empowering others!

The Parent Educator began working with the Grandmother to improve the child’s development, which was behind. In fact, he was non-verbal. Each visit consists of child development activities including reading a book. The activity materials and the book are left in the home to practice and engage with the child until the next visit.

During the first few visits, the child showed little to no interest in the child books. However, the Parent Educator continued to encourage the boy’s Grandmother to keep opening the books and keep reading even for five-minute increments.

During a recent visit with this child, who had just turned three years old, his Grandmother was very excited when the Parent Educator arrived. She said, “We have something amazing to show you!” Then she asked the child to go and get his book.

He ran to his room and came back with the “Fun Bugs” book. He sat with his Grandmother and opened the book. She asked, “What does that say?” and he read out loud, “Bugs are fun.” These were the first words the Parent Educator had ever heard spoken by the child. He proceeded and spoke words such as “grasshopper” and “caterpillar,” identified two colors and counted to ten.

The Parent Educator checked off ten developmental milestones that the child achieved during the visit; she left the visit feeling as if she were walking on clouds.

Part of our fund-raising efforts includes seeking funds to purchase children’s books which we can leave in the homes of children like this child who would otherwise have no books. Of course, there was more to his incredible breakthrough than simply being given a book, but it may not have been possible without this small but critical gesture. Support the Strong Families program’s efforts to ensure all children have books in their home by clicking here and offering your support.

Adrianna Fernandez-Ruffer, CCDP’s Immigration Services Office Program Coordinator, realized that one of the biggest barriers to reconciliation on both sides of the immigration debate is a lack of reliable information. Such ignorance leads to fear and deeper division. But four events held in Pueblo, Rocky Ford and La Junta worked to overcome such barriers.

Each free event drew dozens of attendees, eager to connect with, and hear from the distinguished speakers. Pueblo police chief Luiz Chief Velez talked about how the Pueblo Police Department works with undocumented people. He assured the audience that his office is open to comments, suggestions and advice from the public.

Sister Nancy Crafton also spoke on behalf of Centro De Los Pobres, the principal Center for immigrants in Pueblo. She serves as a witness for many deportation cases and as such, she understands their struggles well. Her primary message to participants focused on the consequences of deportation on any family left behind.

Julie Gonzalez from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Commission talked about how the Obama Administration is going about reviewing all 300,000 of the current deportation proceedings in the U.S. The aim of the review, she said, is to reduce deportations of “lower priority” immigrants, such as students participating in the DREAM Act, military families and those with significant ties to the U.S.

“I am very, very pleased,” says Mrs. Fernandez-Ruffer about the events. “My office gained fifteen new clients, some of whom were from other States. This is why we are here.”

Future events will be held in Grand Junction, Montrose, Gunnison, Durango, Cortez, La Junta, Rocky Ford, Manzanola, Avondale and Pueblo. Mrs. Fernandez-Ruffer also intends to coordinate future local community events with CSU-Pueblo, Pueblo Community College and local high schools.

For more information about the immigration services offered at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Pueblo, please call the Immigration Services Office at (719) 544-4233 or email Adrianna at afernandez@pueblocharities.org.

Each week, the White House opens its doors to community leaders from across the country to participate in a daylong briefing and dialogue. I was privileged to attend the Community Leader’s Briefing along with our Board member, Kathy Worthington, from Xcel Energy. The event focused on opportunities to work together to accomplish our mission of serving communities and reducing poverty.

During the morning session, senior officials shared the President’s priorities regarding economic opportunity and poverty alleviation. Rounding out a morning of other distinguished speakers, Chief of Staff Bill Daley facilitated a lively Q&A and discussion session.

In the afternoon, Agency staff and staff from Agency Centers for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships met in breakout sessions with the CCUSA leaders to focus on five specific issues: jobs and economic development, human services, housing, immigration and military families and veterans.

In the Jobs session, the Department of Labor Faith-based Center shared information with participants on Job Clubs and employment and skills training grants, and the SBA Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnership Office shared information about the role faith-based and community nonprofits can play as micro-loan intermediaries.

I came back inspired by some of the opportunities to work with the government, particularly with job creation and am exploring collaborative partnerships on that right now. I also enjoyed the opportunities to meet with fellow directors and discuss our programs and learn from them.

Sometimes it is very easy to forget we are all a part of a larger national network of Catholic Charities agencies. We have long-standing partnerships with the federal government on challenges ranging from housing to disaster response to child welfare and more. Just as Catholic Charities heard from us about new partnership opportunities, so we learned more about the innovative work of Catholic Charities agencies on the ground, every day, for over 100 years.

Start at the beginning.

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Pueblo offers classes for fathers to help do just that: learn the basics of how to parent. The program is facilitated by Patrick Hatchett and Ron Carroll, both AmeriCorps members.

The 12-Week sessions are designed to help men become aware of the many decisions they make throughout their lives and the effect those decisions have on their families. The first thing discussed in the class is how they were raised and
the influence the male figure had on them. They focus on the father they want to be.

The class also deals with tougher issues, like drugs, alcohol and domestic violence. At the request of the men participating in the class there is also a support group that meets on Wednesday nights.

“My family has had a very tough time recently,” says one class member. “I was surprised about how open and caring the group members are. My four children love to go to parenting class; they ask me about it every week.”

“This class has enriched my life in more ways than one,” says another participant. “(It) has allowed me to gain strength within to make changes. These changes have made my life better for me and my son.

“I’m a better dad now,” he says. “I’m more in control of my life.”

For more information about parenting classes and other services offered at Catholic Charities, CLICK HERE.

In Pueblo, there is a movement to address these mental health issues head-on. Check out the video below to see what’s happening here in our community:

Mental Health: A Positive Community Change from Christian Piatt on Vimeo.

It’s a natural response to feel a little paralyzed when we are faced with need that is so much greater than our capacity to address it. But at Catholic Charities, it inspires us to work that much harder. As Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” With your help, we will bring the number of people left without assistance down over time.

The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 also comes to mind. Imagine that many hungry people, faced with getting everyone what they needed with only handful of rations. Some folks probably felt hopeless. Maybe even a little bit of group panic set in.

But when we truly commit ourselves to caring for one another and sharing what we have, there is always enough.

The miraculous act of Jesus feeding the crowd began with the generosity of one child sharing what he had. Everyone was fed, with baskets of food left over. But it all started with someone who thought of others first and shared what they had.

If you’ve been fortunate enough not to worry about waking up to a dark house, without water or air conditioning, or if you’ve ever benefited from the generosity of others, count your blessings. Please consider passing that blessing on to others in great need. Make a gift through our website today. We’ll make sure it gets into the hands of those so desperate for support.

Thank you for being a part of this faithful act. As long as there is need in this community, Catholic Charities is here to help. We’re privileged to count you as a partner in this life-giving mission