Catholic Charities receives Recovery Award
Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg recently received the Recovery Award at the annual Innovations Award dinner sponsored by Mental Health America of Westmoreland County at Four Points Hotel by Sheraton in Greensburg. The award was given for valuable work in the community. Catholic Charities’ mission is to provide a tangible response to the needs of the poor, the disenfranchised, the needy and the struggling.
“They were chosen because of their decades of work through their programs with individuals who are in various stages on the road to recovery in their mental wellness,’ said Laurie Barnett Levine, executive director of the agency that recently changed its name from Mental Health Association in Westmoreland County. “The contributions they have made to the community are invaluable.’
The terminology, she added, is changing from mental illness to mental wellness, which gives more commonality to everyone in the community.
“We all have mental wellness needs,’ Levine said.
The term “recovery’ also means more than it used to, according to Levine. As the work for which Catholic Charities was honored shows, recovery applies to people who are finding their way out of a multitude of situations, such as a childless couple adopting a baby, or a person getting back on his feet after a car breaks down, or a person moving out of a state of depression or anger and being able to cope with life’s circumstances.
“Catholic Charities provides many roads to recovery through the services it offers,’ said Molly Robb Shimko, associate vice president for institutional advancement at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, and past president of the mental health association’s board of directors. “They do a wonderful job of promoting the contributions that an individual can make in their own personal recovery through the services that Catholic Charities offer.’
Judy Modecki, director of coordinated services and development for Catholic Charities, said the award ‘speaks to the professionalism and credibility of what we do’ in the many available services.
“In counseling, the recovery that we work toward is kind of obvious,’ she said. “In our adoption program, we work toward recovery for children who need a ‘forever family’ and recovery for adults who may be dealing with issues of infertility.’
“I think this award is a wonderful public acknowledgement of the good work that’s done in each of the programs at Catholic Charities,’ said Monsignor Raymond E. Riffle, managing director of Catholic Charities. “This award is a treasured nod from the social service/mental health community of Westmoreland County that the work that we do is both innovative and appreciated.’