$25,000 Providing Help, Creating Hope, Preserving Dignity The communities we serve suffer from among the highest rates of poverty, maternal and infant mortality, untreated mental illness, child abuse and neglect, over-crowded housing, food scarcity, poor nutrition, and diminished healthcare access in all of New York City. The need is great and Catholic Guardian serves on the front lines. Your generous support helps us fulfill our mission.

$15,000 Supporting our Workforce Now Working Remotely Most of our hundreds of social workers now work remotely to ensure proper social distancing in our offices. That means they need to set up “offices” in their homes. With their modest salaries and their own children using the sole family computer, Catholic Guardian has had to provide them with a dedicated laptop for work functions. Your support can help us to defray this new and expensive cost. $15,000 pays for 20 laptops.

$10,000 Deep Cleanings for Residential Homes Catholic Guardian operates a variety of residential facilities for youth, families, and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, all of which need to be disinfected and deep-cleaned regularly to curb viral transmission and exposure. These cleanings are a new but significant expense, and they are absolutely necessary for many of our clients who exhibit underlying medical conditions that make them especially vulnerable to COVID-19. $10,000 pays for one month of service.

$5,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Catholic Guardian’s many teams of case workers, direct support professionals, therapists, and clinicians need full inventories of masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and more in order to safely operate on-site services, including our Parenting Resource Center, Mental Health Clinic, and a variety of family support, child welfare, and youth development programs and services. We also distribute PPE for free to hundreds of financially vulnerable families to help ensure their health and safety without burdening them with steep expenses. $5,000 pays for one month’s supply for the agency.

$2,500 Tele-mental Health Care for Children in Trauma Recovery Heightened environmental stressors, increased isolation, and unreported domestic and child abuse have left many at-risk children and families in acute need of mental health services. Many families will require virtual services even as quarantine restrictions lift due to underlying health concerns. As a result, the CGS Family Center will need to continue operating its HIPAA-compliant tele-mental health services throughout the coming months, a necessary but significant expense. $2,500 provides a month of service.

$1,000 Essential Supplies for New Mothers and Infants Many families in Catholic Guardian’s community have experienced significant financial hardship due to the COVID-19 economic recession. For many of our young parents, Personal Protective Equipment, disinfecting wipes and sprays, and technology for at-home work pose significant financial burdens, especially for those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and are struggling to find employment. Financial assistance in the form of cash grants have proven to be an effective resource for families facing these challenges, and they will remain so for the foreseeable future. Families are awarded grants of various $-amounts depending on their circumstances.

$500 Online Job Training for Youth in Care With social distancing restrictions still in place, Catholic Guardian Services has adapted our Youth Employment Services (YES) job training classes to online formats. These formats are effective in the context of remote learning and crucial for youth with underlying medical conditions and their family members, however they pose significant IT expenses that need to be underwritten. $500 provides a month of service.

$100 Facemasks for Children in Care With many schools at least partially reopening in the fall, it is imperative that we ensure our students’ and families’ health is protected by minimizing viral exposure and transmission through reusable facemasks designed for children. Masks are especially crucial for children in foster care who will need protective equipment in order to ensure safety as we facilitate supervised, on-site visits with biological parents, a crucial family support practice we have had to restrict to virtual formats due to social distancing protocols and we will reestablish as safety concerns permit. $100 buys one child a 3-month supply of masks.