FY 2022 MINISTRY TRUST GRANT MEMBER INITIATIVES The Congregation Grants Committee of the Adrian Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee, Dominican Ministry Trust approved $794,500 for and Hillsdale Counties, Counseling Center the following 27 Member Initiatives for Fiscal Adrian, Michigan Year 2022. Ministry Trust Grant criteria require Pam Millenbach, OP, Staff an alignment between the funded project and the The grant will ensure the continued 2016 General Chapter Enactments and the development of a Counseling Center for Mission and Vision of the Adrian Dominican Lenawee County for treatment of children Sisters. who are victims of trauma and abuse. The grant will partially fund critical work in Angela House the Child Advocacy Center, where schools, Houston, Texas educators, and para-professionals help in the Maureen O’Connell, OP, Board Member Angela identification, assessment, and treatment of House provides safe, drug- and violence-free abuse. This will ensure the appropriate level transitional housing and holistic programs for of care and treatment. The 2022 grant funds women re-entering society after incarceration. this new phase of the Catholic Charities The grant allows Angela House to continue counseling program. structured case management for residents while initiating a new program component to Centro Latino of Shelbyville, Inc. provide services at the Harris County Jail. Shelbyville, Kentucky “Angela House on the Inside” will engage Patricia Reno, OP, Executive Director incarcerated women in voluntary shame- Centro Latino assists the vulnerable Latinx resilience group therapy sessions, conduct community through programs and advocacy interviews for Angela House applicants, and work, providing a haven for the Latinx people offer referrals for community services to and protecting them as they adjust to living facilitate re-entry. View https://youtu.be/ in the United States, with its different culture, KIGyPZn-WA0. traditions, and way of life. Centro Latino and the marginalized Latinx in rural Kentucky Centro Santa Catalina will continue to benefit from vital programs Juárez, Mexico addressing two of society’s greatest issues: Patricia Erickson, OP, Board Member poverty and the dignity of life. View https:// The purpose of the Centro Santa Catalina youtu.be/Wx_k_-K4okk (CSC) project is to lift women and Covenant Community Care children from abject poverty and social marginalization by providing activities Detroit, Michigan that relieve participants of severe economic Mary Jane Lubinski, OP, Board Member hardships. Ministry Trust funds will be used Detroit continues to have one of the highest to strengthen electronic hardware and virtual infant mortality rates in the country. Leading communication resources while resuming causes of infant death include birth defects, basic programming for the women and prematurity, low birth weight, maternal children of CSC. The purpose is to create, complications, and sudden infant death restore, and expand development of syndrome. Centering Healthcare Institute educational, nutritional, entrepreneurial, and – the umbrella organization of Covenant life skills by the close of the funding cycle in Community Care’s Pregnancy, Parenting, June 2022. The fund will also help to ensure and Healthcare program – has data on the just wages for Centro staff. View http:// effectiveness of its program in eliminating centrosantacatalina.org/about/our-stories/. racial disparities and reducing pre-term birth rates. The Ministry Trust grant this year will Continued on next page. 1 Ministry Trust Grants, continued from page 1 Friends in Solidarity with South Sudan develop a Centering Pregnancy Program Washington, D.C. in Southwest Detroit, which will continue Durstyne Farnan, OP, Board Member to provide Behavioral Health services to 25 Friends in Solidarity with South Sudan pregnant women weekly. Some 90% of these collaborates with the Catholic Health Training women are uninsured. Medical professionals Institute to support the empowerment of will provide additional time and attention in citizens in this young African nation. The a group setting with other women who are grant provides full funding to support six pregnant. students for one year in a three-year nursing program to train South Sudanese women and Earth Law Education Initiative men as Certified Midwives and Registered New York, New York Nurses. The comprehensive training includes Elise García, OP, Board Member practical experience in hospitals and local A grant to the Earth Law Center (ELC) will clinics, as well as trauma healing and peace- support its Education Initiative in its work to making. View https://vimeo.com/436110879. secure the passage of new eco-centric laws Habitat for Humanity of Lenawee County and court decisions that recognize the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy Adrian, Michigan environment. The organization seeks to Joanne Peters, OP, Board Member ensure that its Earth Law casebook, partially Habitat for Humanity of Lenawee County will funded by a previous Ministry Trust Grant, raise funds and hammers to expand the home is taught in at least five law schools and repair timeframe to meet immediate repair universities by 2022. ELC will also continue needs that fall outside a limited timeframe to write amicus briefs in support of litigation funded by other sources. The greatest benefit securing the rights of nature. will be for vulnerable homeowners living at or below 70% of the area median income who Enfoque la Familia do not typically qualify for traditional home- Detroit, Michigan improvement bank loans. The completion of Rosalie Esquerra, OP, Co-founder Lenawee County’s H4H Faith-Build project and Corporate Secretary was recently featured in The Daily Telegram, Enfoque la Familia is the Spanish-speaking noting primary support of the project by counterpart of an amazing youth program, the Ministry Trust. View https://youtu. Life Directions, associated with Detroit, be/2OQVEm_SoYs. Chicago, and San Antonio public schools. The HOPE Community Center goal of the Enfoque la Familia grant project is to train 10 Spanish-speaking families to identify Adrian, Michigan and deal constructively with their trauma. Rosemary Abramovich, OP, Board Member During the grant cycle Enfoque will conduct HOPE Community Center offers participants assessments and group sessions to facilitate the opportunity for holistic programs and each individual’s awareness. The trained projects that promote health, wellness, and volunteers and ministers will visit each family dignity in a culture of caring and sharing. The twice during the year to observe and to teach center offers excellent programs and support them to manage their own stressors and for the life and dignity of marginalized people conflicts. View https://youtu.be/cZ-MDg5zj10. in Lenawee County. The 2022 grant provides mind-body-spirit classes and activities each week. At the same time HOPE will initiate a “HOPE at Home” program to facilitate Continued on next page. 2 Ministry Trust Grants, continued from page 2 resources in a productive manner. The grant coaching and learning at home. View https:// provides clients with opportunities to move youtu.be/NDcw3a8BmGU. themselves toward self-sufficiency through financial, social, and emotional resourcing. Hotel Hope MLK One graduate wrote, “The Getting Ahead class New Orleans, Louisiana taught me more about myself, my community Judith Zynda, OP, Board Member and its resources than I could have ever Supportive services at Hotel Hope MLK take imagined.” The funding will also enable the the form of intensive case management for Migrant Services Program to provide much- each homeless guest, linking her to services needed medical, vision, and dental services and opportunities with the aim of long- and prescriptions to seasonal workers in term residential sustainability. The grant Lenawee County migrant camps. allows staff to assist homeless women and Maketai, Inc. their children as they develop resiliency and personal/financial skills and resources, as Amazon Rainforest measured by the 10 Hotel Hope Benchmarks. Judith Bisignano, OP, Founder, Board Member The aim is to transition the women and their The grant will be used to develop and children to safe, permanent housing in 60 operationalize an integrated and sustainable days. A former resident has recently been reforestation project in the Achuar region of named to the Board of Directors. View https:// the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. Maketai youtu.be/CORUYC_Njyk will provide the means for the Achuar to germinate and plant 24,000 trees: 8,000 Housing Help of Lenawee seedlings, 8,000 wildings, and 8,000 nursery- Homeless Prevention grown saplings in eight villages (1,000 of each Adrian, Michigan per village) between July 1, 2021, and June 30, Angela Susalla, OP, Board Member 2022, to bring about reforestation, rewilding, Jean Tobin, OP, Board Member and community resilience. The project is Housing Help of Lenawee’s Homeless designed to reduce human impact on climate Prevention program provides support to change and ecological degradation by families and individuals in housing crisis supporting ecotourism as an educational tool who need assistance to overcome barriers to for conservation and sustainable development housing and self-sufficiency. Ministry Trust of Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest. View https:// funds will provide funding for safe, affordable vimeo.com/443924028. housing and support services for four low- Mercy Housing Northwest income households that are not eligible for government