CCD Parish Update – May 2021

Lacy de la Garza | Email: ldelagarza@ccdallas.org | Phone: 469-801-8134

Hello! Welcome back to our May edition of the parish updates from Catholic Charities. This month is very important to us because it’s our “Time for Giving”! The actual second collection happens this coming weekend, the 15th and 16th, but the whole month is dedicated to improved awareness of our programs serving the whole diocese. Thanks for your help in making this possible. A digital copy of the toolkit is available now on our parish resources webpage.

And now, our updates:

• Disaster Relief: Our Disaster Services team is still offering assistance for both the Ice Storm relief and for COVID-19 relief. There are applications available on our website as well as flyers you can use to promote applications in your digital and print media work. Please encourage your parishioners who may need financial assistance to apply and see if they are eligible.
• Immigration Citizenship Workshops: Our Immigration Legal Services team has now resumed in-person citizenship workshops at our Mockingbird location. Flyers with this information in English and Spanish are available for you to use now. We are also resuming outreach efforts which means we are seeking parish partners that are willing to host us for a regular or a mega citizenship workshop sometime in the next six months. Please contact me for more information.
• Together We Read: Our Educational Services team is fighting the summer-slide and COVID-slide in our young clients over at Cardinal Farrell Community Center. But to do this well, we need more help. We’re seeking volunteers for our new Together We Read program that begins in June. We’re looking for retired educators, empty nesters, high school students, and college students who might be willing to commit to 3-6 weeks of reading to kids a few hours each weekday.

Finally, this month’s program highlight is our Hunger Services team.

Our hunger team has worked tirelessly over the past year to improve access to our food by expanding the geographical footprint of our trucks. In fact, you’re now more likely than ever to see our trucks driving down your highways or even distributing food at your parishes! We’re over 70 drops a month now, and searching for a few more sites in all counties to ensure that those who are hungry end up fed.

Our strong partnership with North Texas Food Bank and with you, our parish partners, enables us to offer these services so broadly and deeply. We’ve crossed the 6 million mark in meals provided to the community since the beginning of COVID-19 in March of 2020. There is so much more you can learn about our food program! Click to see our recent documented ride-along with Jeremy on our marketing team and Connally, one of our awesome drivers.

Thank you for your continued support of our mission to serve those in need across our diocese. Our efforts are stronger because of your help.

See you next month! Until then, take care, and God bless!