Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada
A Helping of Hope
The E-Newsletter for Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada
and our St. Vincent's Programs

JUNE 2013

In This Issue
The "Park House" Grand Opening
A warm welcome to Paul Laxalt
We need hygiene products!
Fish to feed the hungry
Plates to Ease Poverty tickets now online!
Thanksgiving in May recap
 
Click here to make a charitable donation to help us ease the pain of poverty in Northern Nevada.
A Quick Look at Our Program Numbers

With nine unique programs, we help hundreds of people daily. Here are a few highlights from last month that best tell the story of what we do to ease the pain of poverty in our community.

Program Statistics for May 2013:

6,727 - Number of families served by our St. Vincent's Food Pantry in May (a new record!) 
1,343 - Number of clients seen by our Emergency Assistance Program
707- Donations to our St. Vincent's Thrift Shop
610 - People living in low income areas seen by our Kids to Seniors Korner outreach team in May
CCNN Executive Director Peter Vogel and Director of Program Operations Anne Schiller stand in front of the newly renovated Park House building at the grand opening on May 29th. 
Local television crews and a crowd of about 50 people attended the grand opening.
CCNN and NNAMHS celebrate a new collaboration in an old home
    
     "The Park House" has been around since 1955, but until recently, it wasn't much more than three dilapidated, single-level, multi-family homes on Montello Street in Reno. But now that has all changed. As part of a brand new collaborative partnership between Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada and Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services (NNAMHS), The Park House has been transformed into a live-in support system for adult mental health clients.
     At a ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening event for The Park House on May 29th, dozens of local mental health workers, law enforcement officers, politicians and supporters came out to welcome the brand new housing facility to the community, and to praise both agencies for such a smart collaboration.
     "Your commitment to providing services for adult mental health clients is admirable," stated a Senatorial Recognition Certificate presented to CCNN on behalf of Senator Dean Heller.
     NNAMHS leadership expects clients to begin moving into their new home in the first week of June. The 21 residents of The Park House will be wrapped in mental health and other social services in order to help encourage recovery, independent living and an improved quality of life. Because residents will also be surrounded by a live-in network, the goal is for them to achieve a sense of community and lifelong stability.
     "We are so excited about this collaboration," says Peter Vogel, CCNN Executive Director. "We see this as just the first of many more collaborations like this one. This is just the beginning of a very bright future."
     The Park House is modeled after the two-year-old Crossroads program based out of St. Vincent's Residence. That program, which is a collaboration between Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada and Washoe County Social Services, has saved the County an estimated $4 million per year in reduced jail, hospital and emergency services costs. Crossroads houses about 30 men and women who have been identified as serial inebriates, or frequent users of public emergency services. The clients, many of whom enter Crossroads from homelessness or substance abuse programs, provides clients with a blanket of social services to help them stay sober and prevent them from relapsing into homelessness. The goal for Park House is similar.
     "For these clients, it may mean they stay here four, five, six years. Of for others, maybe just a few months is enough," says Vogel. "We just want to see these residents succeed."
     NNAMHS leadership says about 75% of The Park House residents suffer from mental illnesses coupled with co-occuring substance abuse disorders. Residents will live at the Park House full-time, and will spend most days at various support groups and rehabilitation counseling sessions. There is one full-time staff member who will work in an office at the Park House, along with one on-property resident manager. For more information about the program, visit our website at www.ccsnn.org.
Welcome Paul Laxalt!
    
     Catholic Charities is thrilled to welcome the newest member of our team, 5th generation native Nevadan Paul M. Laxalt. Paul will be overseeing all development activity within the agency. He brings with him decades of experience in nonprofit fundraising, as well as a spirit rich with philanthropic giving.
     "Over the past ten months, my wife Janet and I volunteered and traveled. We spent some time living in an orphanage in Kenya, which was an incredible experience," says Paul.
     Paul's work history includes twenty years working in a variety of capacities at St. Mary's, most recently in a position as the President and CEO of the St. Mary's Foundation.
     "I am honored to be a part of a remarkable group of folks and take the philanthropic mission to the next level," says Paul.
     Paul can be reached at [email protected] or by calling (775)322-7073 ext. 232. With Paul's addition to the team, Auburn Harrison, will take on a new role overseeing all marketing and public relations for Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada.
This is a sample of the hygiene kits we plan to give away to clients who visit our Emergency Assistance program. Currently, we are facing a donation shortage.
Emergency Assistance faces severe shortage of hygiene products
    

     Our Emergency Assistance Program is running extremely low on hygiene items. We rely completely on donations from the community in order to continue providing hygiene products for our clients, but the donations come in waves. Currently, our shelves are close to empty. This comes on the eve of a new plan we are implementing in order to help more clients with basic needs.

     In an effort to increase the number of people living in poverty who we can serve in our Emergency Assistance Program, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada will soon begin distributing pre-packaged hygiene kits to clients who visit our campus at 500 East Fourth Street in downtown Reno.

      Currently, we give out hundreds of separately packaged hygiene items to our clients each day, but these items may only last a week or so. Our goal is to give clients in need a hygiene "kit" that will include personal care items to last for a month or longer. In 2012, we saw 17,627 clients in our Emergency Assistance Program, mainly clients without food, transportation, clothing or a place to call home. Providing these people with personal care items is just one step toward giving them the dignity they need to make a permanent life change. Our goal is to provide our clients with more than just tangible items, but also with personalized case management to help them become employable and independent.

     In order to fulfill the need and help ease the pain of poverty for our clients, we are asking for the following donations from the community:

-toothpaste

-toothbrushes

-shampoo/ conditioner

-soap

-disposable razors

-lotion

-deodorant

-feminine hygiene products

-diapers

(We prefer all of these items in travel sizes if possible.)

     Donations can be dropped off in our Emergency Assistance Program office at 500 East Fourth Street Mondays through Fridays from 8:30-12:00 and 1:00-4:00. You can also arrange a pickup by calling 775-322-7073.

You're invited to the LEAPS Karaoke & Raffle Night!


Where: Plaza Garibaldi (1575 Vassar St, Reno)

When: Saturday, June 8th at 9 pm

Why: LEAPS Immigration Assistance for Students is holding a raffle during Karaoke Night at the family-style restaurant Plaza Garibaldi; all funds raised will go to the Northern Nevada DACA Scholarship Fund.

At LEAPS, we aim to empower undocumented high school students in Washoe County by offering them free immigration services. We often meet students who would love to apply for Deferred Action but who can't afford the $465 filing fee.  By building a scholarship fund, we hope to give these low-income students a chance to receive the protection and benefits of DACA.

If you'd like to learn more about the Northern Nevada DACA Scholarship Fund, please visit our site http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-northern-nevada-daca-scholarship-fund. 
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We are on the path to even greater success
 
     Welcome friends of Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada. Thank you for your continued support of our nonprofit organization.
     At the end of May, we held a grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting for our brand new partnership housing project with Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services (NNAMHS) The newly remodeled and refurnished multi-unit building will house mental health clients as they rehabilitate and gain independence. We are thrilled with this new collaboration, and we see the potential for great things moving forward. As we looked out over the crowd and prepared to cut the red ribbon to make the new program official, we couldn't help but feel nostalgic about how far we've come as an agency. In 72 years, we've gone from a one-program adoption agency, to an eleven program entity with a very vast and bright future ahead. We are so excited about what's to come.
     Here at CCNN, we do much more at than just provide hot meals, warm clothing and a helping hand to our clients in need. All of our programs strive to get the root of the poverty problem by providing comprehensive case management to the people who come to us in need. No one does more to ease the pain of poverty.

 
UNR researchers Christine Ngai Ryan and Jamie Chambers hold up vaccum sealed bags of fish they donated to St. Vincent's Dining Room after extracting them from Lake Tahoe as part of an ecology project.
UNR scientists donate fish to feed the hungry
   
     It's not often that St. Vincent's Dining Room Manager Ray Trevino gets an opportunity to serve freshly caught fish to his hungry clients.
     "I'm going to broil this and use a provencal sauce, which is tomato based. That will really bring out the flavor," says Ray.
     He's talking about the more than 50 pounds of fish that were donated to the Dining Room on May 30th, just hours after they were extracted from the clear blue waters of our very own Lake Tahoe.
     "It's part of a research project we are working on up at the lake. We're removing non-native fish that don't belong in Lake Tahoe," says research faculty Christine Ngai Ryan from the Natural Resources and Environmental Science program in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources at UNR.
     The research team uses an electrofishing boat to stun the fish temporarily while they collect them from the lake. They then process the fish for consumption and remove the eggs and bones. In order to eliminate waste, the bones and eggs are  composted, and the smaller fish are donated to Animal Ark wildlife sanctuary to be used as bear food. The largest fish will be taken to St. Vincent's Dining Room to be used for feeding the 500-600 men, women and families who eat there six days per week.
     "I'm thrilled," says Ray. "I'll be cooking these fish tomorrow for lunch. People are hungry. We appreciate anything we can get."
     The research team says they plan to collect several dozen edible fish each week as long as the project continues, mostly Largemouth Bass and Black Crappie. They're expected to wrap up this round of research sometime in mid to late September.
     "It's fantastic because we are restoring the natural ecology of the lake by removing invasive species of fish. It's great to be able to use our research to give back to the greater good," says Jamie Chambers, a research assistant on the project.
     Ray says he's thrilled to be a partner with the university, and he's even hoping to treat them research team to a fish dinner once they're done with their project.
     "Come back and eat! I'll show you the best way to prepare this type of fish," he says with a smile.
     The St. Vincent's Dining Room serves a hot meal at 11:30 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, year round.
Plates to Ease Poverty logo
Tickets now online for Plates to Ease Poverty! 

 

      For the first time in the history of CCNN's annual dinner and auction benefit, Catholic Charities supporters can now purchase tickets and table sponsorships online. If you and your company want to purchase a table for our annual "Plates to Ease Poverty" dinner benefit and auction on September 26th, 2013 at the Peppermill Resort & Casino, all you have to do is go to CCNN's home page at www.ccsnn.org and click on "Upcoming Events." Or you can follow this link:

 Prices are as follows:

$1,800: Humanitarian Sponsorship

  •  One table of ten (10) to the event
  •  Full page black and white ad in the event program
  •  Listing in event program with other table sponsors

$1,700: Philanthropist Sponsorship

  •  One table of ten (10) to the event
  •  Half page ad in the event program
  •  Listing in event program with other table sponsors

$1,500: Helper Sponsorship

  •  Includes one table of ten (10) to the event
  •  Listing in event program with other table sponsors

*Individual tickets can be purchased for $150 per person*

 

The 6th annual fundraising gala and dinner will benefit the nine poverty assistance programs of CCNN. To inquire about purchasing a table or donating an auction item, please contact Auburn Harrison at [email protected].  

 
Make sure to visit our Facebook event page and RSVP by clicking here:

One of our St. Vincent's Food Pantry clients makes his way through the food line during our Thanksgiving in May event. Each household received one turkey and a food box with side fixings for a special holiday meal.
Nearly 4,000 served during Thanksgiving in May event    

 

     When we set out to hold a Thanksgiving in May event, we expected to be serving our clients outside in the sun on a warm spring day, but instead, the weather also replicated a typical day in late November. Despite the thirty-something degree temperatures and biting wind, hundreds of locals lined up outside the St. Vincent's Food Pantry on Wednesday, May 22nd to receive a frozen turkey and a food box for a special holiday meal. St. Vincent's Food Pantry Manager Scott Cooksley says the first person got in line at 4:45 a.m.
     "This event has surpassed all of our expectations," says Scott. "I'm just so thankful to the community for their incredible generosity."
     The 1,600 turkeys we gave out came from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the rest of the food and Thanksgiving fixings came from community donations. In total, we gave turkeys to 1,159 families, pet food to 477 families, and monthly food boxes to 1,895 families. In just one day, CCNN helped relieve the hunger needs of 3,738 people in total. Our Kids to Seniors Korner Program also met with more than 100 clients, offering things like primary care referrals and immunizations.
     Local resident, 74-year-old Judy Teneyck, says she was most excited about the turkey because she's able to make it last for several days. "I think Catholic Charities does remarkable work. What we would all do without them? It's really sad that there are so many people standing in these lines, but it's great we are getting the help we need."
     Each household took home a frozen turkey, a loaf of bread, a box of stuffing or rice, one can of vegetables, one can of fruit, and a gallon of juice. Families with babies and young children also took home baby food and extra snacks for each child.
     Regular Food Pantry client Holly Fixl says she's a full-time student with three teenagers at home, so her quarterly visits to St. Vincent's help her tremendously. "It's absolutely awesome. We were down to the last little bit of our food. This is wonderful."
     Cooksley says he's pleased that the Thanksgiving in May Event was so successful, and that it helped draw attention to the hunger needs in Reno. To donate or volunteer in the Food Pantry, you can find information on our website at www.ccsnn.org.