Chronicle SPRING 2019
Hope Springs Eternal fter losing her job in the spring of 2018, Rian also lost her apartment and ended up homeless and living in her car. She went to CCC's Housing Resource Center where Carson Cuppett, a Homeless Transition Specialist, found her a bed in a shelter the same day. She was also referred to CCC's Employment Specialist, Anna Wang.
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Anna worked with Rian to find a job with a livable wage to get her back on her feet. "Anna provided me with the details I need to navigate my recent circumstances," said Rian. "l felt confident that my unemployment and housing crisis would be very temporary because I believed I had a true advocate who was willing to partner with me to accomplish my goals." Together, Anna and Rian wrote a resume and cover letter, prepared for interviews, searched for jobs, and attended job fairs. "We partner with different local and state workforce and career centers," said Anna. "We've also established relationships with local employers to help place clients. With these resources, we've been able to help over 60 people find jobs so far this year." Rian soon found a job in human resources that provides her with a livable wage and gave her the stability she needed to find a home on her own. "I really felt safe in discussing and sharing my circumstances with Anna," said Rian. She has renewed my hope in myself as well as humanity."
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She has renewed my hope in myself as well as humanity.
www.cccofva.org • CCC provides quality, compassionate human services to all people, especially the most vulnerable, regardless of faith.
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Opening My Heart to Adoption This abridged story was printed with the author's permission. The full story is available at everydaymamas.com.
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or my entire life, I had one dream: I wanted to be a mother. When the time came to finally chase that dream, I had no idea it would be our most challenging, worthwhile adventure yet.
Five of our children are numbered among the saints, and after our last miscarriage (first one child and then, two weeks later, its twin), I was at the very bottom of the barrel. Four years of trying and five miscarriages in eighteen months had left me sad, bitter, and exhausted. When friends and family would lovingly suggest adoption to me, I took it as an offense, a vote of no confidence. But on March 17, 2017, as I lay on the couch quietly crying for the umpteenth night in a row, my husband gently suggested adoption again. “Do whatever you want,” I said. I was so afraid of being an adoptive parent—the idea of shared motherhood filled me with jealousy and self-pity. I imagine most mothers have a more beautiful journey to adoption, but I arrived at adoption’s door on my hands and knees with tear-stained cheeks and no hope. Luckily, all we needed to plow forward with an adoption was a homestudy from Commonwealth Catholic Charities. A homestudy is an exhaustive investigation into your life, finances, health, motivations to adopt, family dynamics, you name it, a homestudy has investigated it. It is a very involved process and by Divine Providence, we had already completed one.
They placed our names at the very bottom of the waiting list, and I slowly began to open my heart. Fast forward eight weeks. On May 20, I met my daughter for the first time…Wait, did we miss something? You were at the bottom of a waiting list? Yes, while I was fighting tooth and nail against adoption, my daughter had been born. Our daughter was placed with us by CCC and the following March we officially—legally—welcomed our little bean into our family. And the next day we began talking about adopting again in the future. After seeing how seamlessly she fit into our lives, how very much we love her, I was sold. By taking the road I was so afraid of, I have found everything I dreamed of. My daughter is my all—she has healed wounds in my heart that I struggle even to remember because our joy together is so complete. When we settled into our life with her, I told my husband, “If I had known it would be this wonderful, I would have run to adoption earlier.” The best part of being her mother is the experience of the little things, the things only she and I know that we can’t explain to anyone else. A look, a sound, a communication that can only happen between mother and daughter. Being hers is the best part. This isn’t the life I imagined, but thank God for that. I could have missed this.
Commonwealth Catholic Charities is committed to finding loving, permanent homes for all children in our care. We are a full-service adoption agency and can provide agency-assisted infant adoption, international adoption, parental placement adoption, and interstate adoption. To learn more visit www.cccofva.org. 2 | Commonwealth Catholic Charities
“This isn't the life I imagined, but thank God for that." Chronicle • Spring 2019 | 3
Home at Last
by Jacob Snow Program Supervisor, Housing Resource Center
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harles was born into a low-income family in Church Hill in 1959 and grew up downtown during segregation. He was held back in school multiple times for a pronounced learning disability. Soon after his mother died, he stopped going to school altogether. He was 15.
When he was 16, his father remarried. When he was 17, his father died. When he was 18, his stepmother kicked him out of the house so he walked across the street to an abandoned vehicle and started sleeping there until the car was towed. From there, he made his way down to the James River, where he began living outside. For the next ten years or so, he lived down on the sandy part of the riverbank near the end of the Pipeline Walk at the north end of Mayo Island. He watched the City build the floodwall from his campsite. The Department of Public Works destroyed his campsite sometime around 1991 so he walked up the bank to the edge of the 14th Street Bridge. He has been there for most of his adult life. Workers from local homeless service agencies would stop by to check on him from time-to-time over the years, but it was CCC who stuck with him. When CCC's Street Outreach team began regularly connecting with him in mid-2018, Charles had less than five official recorded engagements with the Richmond homeless service system across three decades of unsheltered homelessness. In the year since, we have added almost 50 more. As our team built trust and rapport with Charles, we began working to obtain his identifying records to
help with documentation in order to house him.
Initially, the only document he had with his name on it was a cracked library card. We helped him get his birth certificate from Vital Records, went to the Social Security Office to get his social security card, and went to DMV to get his identification card.
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We conducted vulnerability assessments and verified his history of homelessness and any barriers to rehousing. We enrolled him in Medicaid and matched him with a housing program. We shuttled him around to attend appointments and to look at potential units. We advocated for him endlessly at case conferencing meetings. We appealed for, and received, move-in assistance from a private donor. All the while, we kept going to the river with bus tickets, coffee, blankets, food, and clothing. And we didn’t stop until we moved him into his own apartment. Charles still goes down to the river most afternoons to look at the water. These days though, he just stays long enough to relax. Then he goes home.
4 | Commonwealth Catholic Charities
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We advocated for him endlessly...and didn't stop until we moved him into his own apartment.
Care Coordination n May CCC began providing a new Aging and Disability Service: Care Coordination. Care coordination services support caregivers who need additional assistance with the management and organization of daily tasks for their loved one.
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The Care Coordinator works with doctors, family, and other community providers to ensure that needed services are provided. The fee-for-service is currently offered in Henrico and Chesterfield Counties and Richmond City. For more information, call 804.545.5953.
Care Coordinators can assist with: • Routine visits • Care monitoring and communication with family and other care team members • Service coordination • Routine communication with family and other care team members • Participation in medical appointments and follow up after medical appointments to advocate on behalf of the individual • Residential transition assistance
Foster Care
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• Bill pay and budgeting services
pring has found the Foster Care staff in Richmond as busy as bees.
In April Richmond's minor league baseball team, the Flying Squirrels, donated discounted tickets to the children in the Foster Care program to attend the season opener. The children also attended studio art lessons with internationally-known artist, Holly Markhoff, who donated her time, her studio, and supplies to provide the children with a great spring break activity. During Foster Care Awareness Month in May, the team hosted a special Blue Night at Blue Bee Cider in Richmond with the theme of "Bee a Foster Parent." The event featured food, fun, games, and live music to bring the need for foster parents, mentors, and tutors to a younger audience in the Richmond area.
Chronicle • Spring 2019 | 5
Hope for a Future in a new Country s an English-speaker who had previously worked with the United States government in Afghanistan, Aria was hopeful about her prospects upon arriving in the U.S. as a refugee. She was optimistic that she'd quickly find a good job and settle into her new life. However, she discovered that even with her skills and background, finding a job in a new country is difficult.
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"Many refugees arrive in the U.S. with career backgrounds. They speak English, have college degrees, and business experience," said CCC Employment Specialist Caroline Zong.
"Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate into immediate, or even adequate, employment. But that's why we are here―to help; to give hope." Despite the difficulties, Aria didn't give up. Instead, she turned to CCC's Refugee Resettlement team who had previously helped her resettle in the United States. Through the whole process she remained positive. “If we are happy or sad, crying or laughing, thinking positively or negatively, time still moves on so why not work to laugh,” said Aria. “We should try to be an example for others by being happy and thinking positively about life’s situations.” There’s no doubt that her positive attitude and perseverance led to a job that she loves.
Welcoming the stranger orld-wide there are an estimated 69 million refugees and displaced persons. Parents and children; old and young people who were forced by war, persecution, and violence to leave their homes, their lives, and often, even their family members in search of safety and a future.
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CCC’s Resettlement Program helps these individuals to rebuild their lives and gain stability, equipping them with the skills, resources, and guidance they need to begin their new lives in the United States.
27 From 2013 to 2018, CCC resettled people from 27 countries. Eighty percent originated from Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Bhutan, and Somalia.
32% Of the refugees who arrived in Virginia between 2013 and 2018, 32% were preschool and school-aged children.
6 | Commonwealth Catholic Charities
50% CCC is one of two resettlement agencies in Richmond and Central Virginia and has been helping refugees since 1975.
3,550 Between 2013 and 2018, CCC resettled 3,550 individuals in Virginia.
21,000 In over 40 years of helping refugees, CCC has settled more than 21,000 people.
World Refugee Day is June 20 Support refugees. Support CCC.
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ach shirt purchased helps CCC to continue serving and supporting refugees as we have done for 40 years!
See all colors, sizes, & styles for kids and adults at www.cccofva.org/brothersandsisters.
Only $2 5 or less!
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Grateful for Grants & Gifts •
The Lora M. & E. Claiborne Robins, Sr. Community Innovation Grant of $500,000 was awarded to CCC's Youth Housing Stability Project, focused on ending youth homelessness and housing instability in Richmond communities.
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Richmond Christmas Mother Fund gave $1,000 to our Cold Weather Overflow Shelter for the purchase of warm clothing as Christmas gifts to homeless clients.
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Through the Thrive Grant of the United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, CCC received $30,000 for a new financial counselor in the Petersburg area.
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Dollar General Literacy Foundation Adult Literacy Grant awarded CCC $7,000 for our Newcomers Intensive Language Training Program for use with our Refugee Resettlement program.
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The Children's Milk Fund of Bank of America, N.A. has awarded a grant in the amount of $12,800 to CCC to improve children’s food access through the Dibert Food Pantry.
Chronicle • Spring 2019 | 7
918 Harris Street Charlottesville, VA 22903 434.974.6880
1601 Rolling Hills Drive Richmond, VA 23229 804.285.5900
12284 Warwick Boulevard Suite 1-A Newport News, VA 23606 757.247.3600
511 West Grace Street Richmond, VA 23220 804.648.4177
7813 Halprin Drive Norfolk, VA 23518 757.256.6272 507 Park Avenue SW Norton, VA 24273 276.679.1195
541 Luck Avenue SW Suite 118 Roanoke, VA 24016 540.342.0411
www.cccofva.org
A st ma w an n to he ds ne he n h as t ve lp e k all r a ch ne as ild. els
111 Perry Street Petersburg, VA 23803 804.733.6207
820 Campbell Avenue SW Roanoke, VA 24016 540.342.7561
Learn about becoming a foster parent. www.cccofva.org
