Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston

As one of Massachusetts' largest social service organizations, Catholic Charities of Boston serves our most vulnerable neighbors each year, regardless of religion, race, gender, age, disability, or ethnicity. Catholic Charities has five hub locations in Dorchester, Lynn, Brockton, Lowell, and South Boston, with 23 program locations supporting families across Eastern Massachusetts. The Agency's four core services assist clients with Basic Needs, Family & Youth Services, Adult Education & Workforce Development, and Refugee & Immigrant Services. We help our clients move from crisis to stability to self-sufficiency.

At the very core of the CCAB mission is the aim to serve those on the margins, specifically those 1) in communities that have been underserved for generations and 2) recently arrived immigrant and refugees. We address each clients’ immediate needs – food, housing, mental health, childcare, etc. through our basic needs and family & youth services. And then recognizing the inequity that the vast majority of our clients have experienced for generations, we work with them to provide a path of stability – through permanent housing, education or job training, or immigration assistance. Perhaps most importantly, we look at each client as an individual, rather than the sum of the problems that they come to us with.

To increase our capability to meet the growing needs in the communities we serve, in 2021, Catholic Charities engaged in a strategic planning process that led to an organizational restricting and alignment of programs and services into four divisions – Basic Needs; Family and Youth Services; Education and Workforce Development; and Refugee and Immigrant Services. In addition to program divisions, Catholic Charities is organized in local hubs based in Dorchester, South Boston, Lynn (including Gloucester, Danvers and Peabody), and Lowell as well as a location in Brockton. This organization provides a clearer structure for programs and services that helps remove barriers for clients. The organization supports community advisory boards that provide community representation, resource development, referrals, and service coordination and responds to local community and neighborhood needs. The advisory boards allow the agency to engage clients, community members, program partners, and other stakeholders.

Catholic Charities partners local churches of multiple denominations in the region to support food distribution and other basic needs for members of their churches regardless of religious practice or affiliation. Churches are also a source of community volunteers, and they help strengthen the capacity of the agency’s programs and services. Along with churches, Catholic Charities’ volunteer network includes high schools, colleges, community service organizations, and local businesses.

Catholic Charities is committed to both measuring our program outcomes and using this data to improve the quality of the services we offer on a regular basis. Examples of recent performance data, taken from our 2023 Impact Report, includes:

Received BPS early childhood programming funding for 4 Universal PreK classrooms, offering free preschool for Boston residents regardless of income.

 Sunset Point Camp in Hull served over 400 at-risk youth this summer.

Teen Center offered a summer enrichment program in partnership with Boston Public Schools providing educational support for 35 youth.

Both the BHA and OCPC Elder services have renewed the contracts serving elders in Boston and South Shore.

Clinics continue to provide outpatient counseling and psychiatry to children and adults, assisting clients in-person and via tele-health technology.

Served over 1,600 individuals and families with over $625,000 in rent and utility payments. 

Food Security Network served over 42,000 individuals in Lowell, South End, Yawkey and Brockton, providing families with nutritional meals

Starting ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and high-school equivalency (GED & HiSET) classes this month with around 800 seats.

Selected as a finalist in the CCUSA Innovation Challenge for our new Healthcare Bridge ESOL Program – winners will be awarded $633K over 3 years, selected next week at the Annual Gathering

Received $1M grant from Commonwealth Corporation to expand NA/HHA training program services and make it free for participants – enrolling 156+ participants from 9/23 – 8/24, up from 135 in the previous year and 79 in FY22.

Providing interpreter and translation services, primarily for Haitian Creole speakers, at hotels/shelters serving migrant arrivals

Awarded two State contracts to provide legal services, with focus on applications for work authorization and pro se asylum for families residing in state emergency assistance shelters. Immigration Court Orientation program serving double the number of people at Immigration Court as we enter year two of this expanded program. 

Resettlement continues to provide group intake sessions for 40-50 new Haitian entrants each week

Safe Passages team expanding to serve increasing number of migrant children on MA waitlist of 100+.