Fayette County agencies receive Poverty Relief Fund grants
Grants of $10,000 each to four Fayette County social service agencies by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg’s Poverty Relief Fund will provide help to local residents in need.
With applications reviewed by the Greensburg Catholic Charities Diocesan Poverty Relief Fund Committee and approved by Bishop Edward C. Malesic, the fund awarded seven grants in all, including three others in Greensburg.
Monsignor Raymond E. Riffle, managing director of Catholic Charities, said in a press release, “As the Church beings the Year of Mercy, it is appropriate that we support these seven groups that help carry out Christ’s mission to serve individuals and families in need.”
Fayette County organizations receiving the funds include Alternatives.Yes in Connellsville, Brownsville Area Ministerial Association (BAMA) and Rendu Services working in Brownsville, Genesis House Ministries Inc. in Uniontown and Wesley Church Health Center in Connellsville.
Alternatives.Yes will use the grant for its Earn While You Learn parenting and life-skills program as well as for supplies for infants.
Andrea Pritts, executive director, said, “It’s a huge benefit to us. We give out so many baby supplies — cribs, car seats, emergency supplies. It will help us to provide those items for infants in need. By the end of this year, we will probably have had 1,300 visits. But we don’t just hand out free things. We provide information on parenting and life skills so they’re not just leaving with a car seat and diapers but some knowledge for taking care of their child.”
BAMA and Rendu Services needs the funds to provide food and household items to about 80 families who use two food pantries in Brownsville.
Sister Nancy Cassidy of Rendu Services explained, “We will use the grant to purchase extra food supplies and household supplies that the Fayette County Food Bank and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank don’t supply. Sometimes it’s meat. Sometimes it’s toilet paper. They supply us with 12 to 13 items each month and we supplement it.”
Cassidy said the food pantries are set up once each month at Snowdon Terrace Community Center and Calvin United Presbyterian Church’s social hall.
Genesis House will use the grant for daily operation of its 20-resident facility and life-skills training for men making the transition from the criminal justice system into society.
The Rev. Terry Sanders, executive director, said daily operations include drug and alcohol treatment, life-skills training, career training and placement.
Sanders said, “We are excited to be working with partners who see the vision of restoring men back to wholeness: mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
The facility, which opened in October 2014, has seen about 40 men pass through the residential program with 17 currently enrolled.
Wesley Church Health Center will use the grant to help its dental program by allowing it to take dental X-rays of patients. The grant is paying for a part called a sensor, needed to operate the X-ray machine.
Marilyn Weaver, executive director, said, “We had not been able to afford it. We applied and were blessed to receive it. We are so thankful for the gift. It will make a difference because although we were able to clean and check teeth, we were not able to take X-rays.”
Weaver explained the facility uses a public health dental hygienist to give cleanings and check ups to patients who are uninsured or under-insured. The health center will now be able to to take X-rays that will be given to a dentist in the need of expanded services. Weaver said the facility sees 435 to 450 individuals each year who come back multiple times.
In addition, St. Vincent De Paul Society of St. Paul Parish in Greensburg received a grant for its Utility Super Fund that helps clients pay their water, sewage, natural gas and electric bills. Utility Super Fund support is available to qualifying people in all four counties of the diocese, including Fayette, Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland.
The Poverty Relief Fund awards grants each year in June and December to agencies in the Greensburg diocese, supported by an annual diocesan-wide collection taken in all parishes the weekend before Thanksgiving. More information on the fund can be found at the Catholic Charities website at ccharitiesgreensburg.org or by calling Heather Rady, director of community relations and special events for Catholic Charities, at 724-837-1840.