CCEVA services help ‘remedy the brokenness in the world’
The Norfolk office of Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia (CCEVA) has a new home – a home where staff live out their mission of being servants of God by spreading love to the hundreds of people who walk through its doors each month.
On Friday, March 24, Bishop Barry C. Knestout dedicated the building at 1132 Pickett Road in Norfolk.
Thanks to Angel Ragland, grand-daughter of benefactors George and Josephine Stenke, CCEVA moved its main office from St. Gregory Catholic Church, Virginia Beach, and now has triple the space. The organization, which has been using the building for a year, is in a long-term lease but expects to eventually own it.
The new site, in what was formerly a Hampton Roads Church, is closer to the Salvation Army and the Union Mission Ministries, so it is also closer to the residences of many clients and is easily accessible by bus for other clients, said Tracy Fick, CCEVA’s president and CEO.
CCEVA continues to offer services at their other offices in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News and Exmore.
The Norfolk building is larger than the previous one, allowing for more community-based services to be housed in one site. For example, a woman may receive diapers and baby supplies as well as further parenting support and financial counseling in one visit, Fick explained.
The renovated building has about 20 offices and conference rooms, including a large one that is also available to community partners, including parishes, for meetings and events.
“Our new office space allows us to better meet the needs of vulnerable populations in our region. With the costs of groceries, gas and housing all skyrocketing, families are struggling now more than ever,” Fick said. “Our services are designed to provide critical material support as well as education to empower families to move out of poverty.”
“We are so grateful to have this large office space to better provide so many crucial services and hold large classes and community forums. We are truly blessed to have our staff working together so closely,” she added.
Serving the vulnerable
Bishop Knestout dedicated the office after celebrating a Mass in which 39 former clients, donors and staff members’ relatives who all died over the past year were honored. Each of their names was read aloud during the Prayer of the Faithful.
The memorial service reflects the organization’s “core value of dignity and sanctity of life,” Fick said.
Most of the clients honored received guardianship services.
“Really, these are people who are our family,” Fick said. “They often have no family to care for them. We take care of them until they die and plan their funerals” which are often “very simple” so the March service “feels like this is almost their funeral Mass.”
“While they might have had a small service or funeral, this is our chance to really honor them and memorialize their lives,” she said. “It’s just a very important way to bring us back to serving the most vulnerable, making sure that they are treated with as much dignity and respect as any dignitary would be.”
Remedy the brokenness
In his homily, Bishop Knestout expressed gratitude to Catholic Charities as he spoke about the importance of being Christ to others as one responds to “the brokenness” of the world in “love, charity, and hope.”
“I’m grateful for all that Catholic Charities does in that area, and all that you do with your own resources, time, talent and treasures, all that you do to assist in remedying that brokenness in the world around us,” he told the congregation which was primarily staff, board members and CCEVA supporters.
He said it can be overwhelming and make one feel “worn thin” in responding to everyone’s needs, but the sacraments can give us strength through grace.
He stressed that everyone must walk with Christ who “endured the punishment and the suffering and the anxiety and the difficulties of the whole world that he experienced on his shoulders in bearing the cross.”
CCEVA serves more than 10,000 families annually through its adoption and post-adoption services, financial and housing counseling programs, guardianship and representative payee services, mental health counseling, health and community services and family engagement services.
Setting, attaining goals
For many, the organization has made a significant difference in their lives.
For example, CCEVA began providing diapers and baby supplies to Rosalind Braxton for her 2-year-old granddaughter for whom she has cared since the child was born. CCEVA is also helping Braxton set financial goals. Before seeking help from CCEVA, life was “very hard, challenging, stressful and a struggle,” she said.
“I honestly don’t know where I would be (with- out CCEVA’s help),” she said.
Similarly, Sharon Justice has been receiving the agency’s assistance and support for about a year, ever since she gained custody of her granddaughter Zena, now three.
She is part of the Grandparents as Parents sup- port group and has received diapers and clothing for Zena and plans to seek mental health counsel- ing for herself and her granddaughter.
CCEVA has helped her set and attain personal goals and has provided referrals for other community assistance such as a food pantry and electrical bill assistance, she said.
“With my newfound situation, I sort of lost track of where I was headed in life, so it’s just allowing me to know that even though I am in this situation that I can still set goals and achieve those goals,” Justice said.
One goal was returning to work which she
was unable do when she first assumed custody because she couldn’t find daycare for Zena immediately. She is now self-employed as a housekeeper and care provider for the elderly, and she plans to have CCEVA help her create a résumé, she said.
She added that before receiving services she felt alone but now has support from the organization and from other grandparents in the support group.
“I know for me it’s been a very positive thing and as I’m becoming more part of the group, I realize that there’s things I can do also as far as helping the group and the other grandparents involved,” she said.
“Zena just loves it too. She loves the program (which has special events for grandchildren),” Justice added. “She loves being there, and so it’s been a positive thing for her too.”