St. Sabina / Catholic Charities Social Services Center
St. Sabina / Catholic Charities Social Services Center
For over 25 years, the St. Sabina Social Services Center, a community-based social services agency, has provided parishioners and eligible local residents with the resources necessary to meet their basic human needs. The resources include food, clothing, and financial assistance for rent, mortgage, transportation and utility payments, as funds are available. Individual advocacy is also provided for those clients needing assistance applying for and navigating public benefit programs.
In November 1998, the St. Sabina Social Services Center collaborated with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and changed its name to the S1. Sabina/Catholic Charities Social Services Center. This partnership has enabled the Center to address basic social and psychological needs of families and individuals by providing information and referral linkages to counseling, community casework, shelter services, transitional housing, senior housing, nursing home and in-home care services, refugee resettlement and all of the 374 programs offered through Catholic Charities.
The Center maintains service agreements with various community agencies as well as select ministries of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina. These collaborative relationships assist the Center in addressing long-term, deep-seeded problems such as substance abuse, lack of job training, and domestic violence.
The Center enjoys informal relationships within the Archdiocese of Chicago and receives bimonthly goods donations from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview, Illinois and St. Fabian in Bridgeview, Illinois. The Center distributes approximately 1,000 bags of food each month and serves a monthly average of 1,500 people with food, clothes, advocacy, referrals and financial assistance.
The Center is operated by two full-time social workers and an administrative assistant who work in tandem with a host of volunteers from S1. Sabina and the community. The Center continually adjusts its services to effectively address the emerging needs of the residents of the Auburn~Gresham and Englewood communities with creative responses. In August 2001, the Center moved into a new facility at 1120W. 79th St. This facility houses the Center and a Women, Infant and Children (WIC) food center.
The Center is an outreach ministry of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina that strives to stand as a witness to God's goodness and love by being "doers of the Word."