One Church, One Home project helps homeless mothers rebuild their lives

CHATHAM — Catholics recognize reaching out to help people who are in need as part of their baptismal call. Thanks to the generosity of parishioners at St. Joseph the Worker, in Chatham, a homeless mother with three young children moved into a fully furnished two bedroom apartment in January. The parish partnered with MERCY Communities in its new project called One Church, One Home.

When St. Joseph parishioner Margaret Brooks retired last May, she prayed God would show her what he wanted her to do in this new phase of her life. Susan Carrigan, another St. Joseph parishioner, suggested she look into MERCY Communities, a non-for-profit organization in Springfield which helps homeless mothers with children, giving the mothers and children a place to live while the mothers learn job skills to find employment that pays enough to make them self-sufficient.

Brooks met with Mary Stone, MERCY director, talked with Father John Nolan, St. Joseph pastor, and came up with the idea to form a parish committee called TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More), to help MERCY in its mission.

“We have a program at MERCY where three Catholic parishes — St. Agnes, Blessed Sacrament and Christ the King — take one family and follow it through the program, supplying parenting skills mentors, lifetime skills mentors, and other needs,” Stone said.

“When we learned what the people at St. Joseph were talking about, taking on one of our apartments, rather than a family, and supplying the apartment with all its needs, we built a program around their concept. It is called ‘One Church, One Home.’”

St. Joseph in Chatham is the first church to participate in the program. This month Petersburg United Methodist Church became an apartment sponsor. St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Springfield is taking on an apartment as a Lenten project. In June, Western Oaks Baptist in Springfield plans to sponsor an apartment, and several other Catholic churches in Springfield are considering sponsoring an apartment.

The church committee at St. Joseph supplies the apartment with furniture, linens, silverware, trash cans, whatever is needed. “Most of the women we get don’t bring anything with them, they are homeless,” says Bob Hall, president of MERCY Communities’ board. “A homeless mother and her children lives here for 18 to 24 months, while taking parenting classes, life skills counseling, job training, whatever is necessary for that woman. When she successfully completes the program, and for some homeless mothers it includes getting her GED, we give the woman the furniture and supplies to set her up in a new apartment.”

“Margaret was the driving force at the heart of this project,” Father Nolan said. “It was a project completely initiated by parishioners. They formed a committee and came to me with the possibility of doing something like this.”

During Advent the entire parish got the opportunity to be involved in the project when the apartment needs were included on St. Joseph’s Angel Tree. “We received $800 in gift cards, so we were able to buy everything from cleaning supplies to new sheets,” Brooks said.

Chatham Knights of Columbus Council 4179 agreed to pick up donated furniture, move it to a storage unit the committee rented, and then move it into the apartment once it was ready for occupancy.

For more information about starting a One Church, One Home project at a parish, call MERCY Communities at (217) 753-1358 or go on-line at www.mercycommunities.org.