WelCom October 2021
The Vicariate for Catholic Social Services (CSS) is the Archdiocese of Wellington’s social-outreach agency. We work with many people and communities across the archdiocese to help encourage, inspire and transform their lives. We are guided by the principles of Catholic
Social Teaching.
CSS was established as an agency of the Archdiocese in 1955 with its main focus being working with unmarried mothers and adoption. In 1975, CSS established a therapeutic practice involving counsellors and social workers.
In the early 2000s Cardinal John Dew developed a new vision for CSS, to begin its direction of ‘reaching out’ into the wider community with those ‘on the margins and peripheries’ at the centre.
Our mission now includes working with people and advocating for change, working collaboratively with other organisations and networks, and developing relationships and connectedness in communities. The recent establishment of the Community Facilitator role has been important for this work.
Our support operations and outreach services include: social work; short-term therapeutic interventions; prison and hospital chaplaincy; refugee resettlement; community facilitation and advocacy; clergy health; and help with grief, loss and change through our Seasons for Growth programme.
Meet the team
Our small team at CSS is big in heart and is responsible for a diverse range of activities.
Social Work
Jess Harward senior social worker and Eru Fox social worker oversee our:
- lead agency for Strengthening Families in Wellington and the Hutt Valley
- payment policy for interpreting for clients with refugee backgrounds
- Game On, parenting workshop for men
- Befrienders programme – trained volunteers who provide long-term support for people needing extra help, supported by our social workers.
Community Facilitation
Paul Alsford facilitates our:
- Refugee Resettlement programme
- Benefit Impact
- Volunteer training to support our mission in parishes and other communities
- Community ‘resilience and vulnerability mapping’.
Chaplaincy
Prison chaplaincy: Falefou Sio
Hospital chaplaincy: Lizzie Wootton and Kate Sanders O’Connor, Wellington Hospital; Marie Paurin, Kenepuru; Kathryn Van Woerkom, Hutt Hospital.
Clergy Healthcare Support
Linda MacGregor
Season for Growth Co-ordination
Katrin Eickhorst: This educational programme supports people of all ages suffering from trauma, loss and grief, such as family break up, bereavement and loss of income. Seasons for Growth works with 37 agencies including schools, social-work agencies including Barnardo’s and Raukawa Whānau Ora, Public Health Boards, residential homes and parishes.
Administration – Vivien Chiu
Kaiarahi | Director– Karen Holland
Professional expertise, networking and community engagement
As well as working with parishes, CSS works closely with the other sector organisations – NZ Red Cross, Changemakers, Refugee Family Reunification Trust, Greenstone Doors, Upper Hutt Housing Trust, Hutt Valley BEST, Strengthening Families network, Te Tai o Morakura Health and Social Service in Kaikōura. We are also is also a member of New Zealand Council for Christian Social Services and other professional bodies.
Community volunteers
The social services sector relies on volunteers to bridge the gap to help our social workers address communities’ needs. CSS volunteers work in refugee resettlement and our Seasons for Growth and Befrienders programmes. We also need volunteers to help with our communications and social media.
Volunteers often work with isolated and vulnerable people and we have developed a new initiative to ensure everyone’s safety. The programme includes: volunteering basics; personal boundaries; self-awareness, ‘safe friendships’. and building cultural competencies; conflict recognition and management.
Befriender volunteers
Shaymar a former refugee, and Christine from one of our parishes, are our first two Befriender volunteers. They began working with CSS this year as an ‘intentional encounter’ team. CSS has started another team and will be rolling out this programme of ‘transformative encounter’ across the archdiocese.
Projects
Some of our recent projects include: Benefit Impacts Ōtaki and Levin; Benefit impact for Deaf Community; phone top ups; PPE provisions; supermarket vouchers and financial help to small community organisations during lockdown 1; financial and household donations for Kahungungu Whānau Services; Kaupapa Māori Housing First provider to set up nine homes; funding for Game On for Dads’ programme; grant for Community Facilitator role; grants for Seasons for Growth resources for prisons, low-decile schools and communities; Afghan Evacuees Appeal for housing and donations.
Ōtaki Benefit Advocacy
Following the successful Benefit Impact Clinic in Ōtaki in May this year, the local community has mobilised and has now established the ‘Ōtaki Benefit Advocacy Group’. The group now provides a monthly Benefit Impact Clinic for the local community. The Advocacy Group is a collective of church groups, local networks and individuals who recognise the need for this service on an ongoing basis.
Their work exemplifies Pope Francis’ call to go to work in the margins. The swift response by the Ōtaki Benefit Advocacy Group to pick up the need locally illustrates how the new model that CSS is implementing, can in turn empower local communities to identify and meet the needs of their own communities.
Deaf Community
This year CSS worked with the Deaf Community to run a pilot Benefit Impact for the Deaf Community in Levin. Lack of understanding of unique socio-linguistic cultural group means many in the Deaf Community struggle to successfully navigate and thrive. Communication, especially the use of only the written word, can further marginalise some. CSS is assessing the need to employ a Community Support Worker-Advocate for the Deaf Community to lead, promote and coordinate Benefit Impacts in 2022, and together, with the Archdiocesan Chaplain for the Deaf Community, whether to create a permanent role to work with the Deaf Community.
Crisis response plan
Following the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, CSS looked at how we responded to emergency responses like Covid and the Kaikōura Earthquake 2016; and how to improve leading future responses within the archdiocese.
Chris Cattaway, a consultant with 25 years experience in the international humanitarian sector, having led and evaluated large-scale disaster responses for major humanitarian NGOs, has analysed the archdiocese’s responses after the Kaikōura Earthquake and during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.
Chris is producing a simple plan that the archdiocese can use to meet future emergency responses to psychosocial and pastoral needs of its affected communities.
Funding
CSS is primarily funded by the archdiocese, our Kotahitanga and 1000 regular ‘club donors’. Other funders include: The Catholic Foundation; David Daily Charitable Trust; Gaynor Charitable Nominees; Donovan Family Charitable Trust; Hutt Mana Charitable Trust; NZ Lottery Grants Board; Knights of the Southern Cross; Wellington Community Trust; Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children; JK Baxter Trust; Ministry for Social Development; Tindall Foundation; Estate of Kathleen Alice Boyd; Winton and Margaret Bear Charitable Trust; Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand; The Tindall Foundation.
Annual appeal November
Catholic Social Services’ annual appeal takes place in November to help raise funds for our pastoral and support work.
To donate online to our annual appeal: wn-catholicsocialservices.org.nz/donate
Contact us
For more information or for people needing assistance, please contact: reception@wn-catholicsocialservices.org.nz or call (04) 385 8642.
Referrals for CSS services are also made by sector partners, schools, parishes, and individuals.