Staff members at Catholic Charities, which has been providing services in Emporia since 1994, have reason to celebrate this week.
The staff is settling into the agency’s new home at 702 Commercial St., Suite 3-A. The suite includes offices, a staff lounge area, reception area, handicapped-accessible bathrooms and a conference room. To celebrate their new quarters, the agency will have an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday to let the public take a peek inside the offices. The Rev. Darren Henson, priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, will bless the offices during the open house.
“It’s a beautiful building,” said Christine Arndt, resource family coordinator at Catholic Charities. “We have so much more space.”
Catholic Charities has come a long way in Emporia from one part-time staff member to eight staff members. The agency started in Emporia with Ron Scott, who was working out of Didde Catholic Campus Center. The office then moved to its most recent location on West 12th Avenue until it outgrew that space and moved to Commercial Street.
Arndt said despite the name of the agency, the agency serves everybody, not just Catholics.
In Emporia, the agency offers three main services — parent-education programs, counseling and foster care.
Gloria Jackson of Pathways, the parent-education program, said the agency offers parenting classes through Boystown, Common Sense Parenting. The class is geared toward parents of pre-school and school-age children. A separate parenting class, The Parent Adventure, is geared toward parents of infants. The fee for each of these classes is $50. A sliding scale fee structure is available and no one is turned away because of inability to pay, Jackson said.
The Pathways program is supported by a $20,000 grant from the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority, Jackson said.
Nancy Romine, a social worker in the counseling department, said the department offers several types of counseling for individuals, families, adults and children.
Entry into the counseling program is usually rapid.
“We try to set people up within a week (of initial contact),” Romine said.
Fees in the counseling program also are set up on a sliding scale. Insurance is accepted, Romine said.
Arndt works in the foster care program. The agency has 21 families in four counties and 35 to 40 children in foster care at any given time, she said.
May is resource parent appreciation month, Arndt said.
“We have excellent resource parents,” she said. “We’re very fortunate.”