Catholic Community Services of Western Washington

Our agency works in many different ways to respond to the needs of the individuals and communities impacted by poverty, racism and intolerance throughout Western Washington. We provide direct service to over 77,000 clients each year regardless of their beliefs. In addition, we advocate for changes in public policy which would positively impact those living in poverty and provide staffing, resources and structural support to community initiatives working on these same issues.

We employ approximately 4,100 staff and engage over 3,000 volunteers to provide direct service to our clients through over 180 programs we have developed throughout Western Washington.

We advocate on public policy issues affecting individuals and communities impacted by poverty. We work on federal, state and local public policy initiatives.

We respond to and provide assistance to community groups implementing initiatives within their own communities to address issues of poverty and disproportionality.

CCS/CHS has been successfully providing services in Western Washington for almost 100 years. We are the largest private social service provider in Washington State.

We have a strong and active Board of Trustees with representatives from the communities we serve. Archbishop Etienne is our Corporate Member and Very Rev. Bradley Hagelin serves as the Chair of the Board of CCS.
We have approximately 4,100 staff and over 3,000 volunteers. Their commitment to our mission and our clients is the greatest strength of our agency. We have numerous stories of how our staff and volunteers have positively impacted the lives of our clients.

Agency leadership is strong and stable. Many leaders have been with the agency for more than 20 years. Active succession planning is ongoing.

We are a trusted partner with those who fund our services including federal, state and local government, numerous foundations, and thousands of individual donors. Because of our many relationships with unique funders we have the flexibility to improve our services through innovation which leads to better outcomes for our clients.

We have been active advocates for many years in Olympia (the state capital) and locally with county and city governments. We are frequently called to testify before legislators on bills impacting our clients.
Many community partners, particularly communities of color and low income rural populations, trust us to work with them in creative ways to increase the assets of their communities and develop opportunities which will benefit both their communities as a whole as well as individual community members.

What we have accomplished so far:

A. The following is a partial list of the capacity we have developed to provides services on an annual basis:
• Provide 2,567 units of permanent housing
• Provide over 2.2 million hours of homecare
• Provide 1,072,679 meals to individuals per year.
• Provide 142,391 home delivered meals to individuals per year.
• Provide 416,915 bed nights to those who don't have a home but seek shelter from us in our shelters
• Provide employment services to 175 clients able to work
• Developed an ASSET training program which provides job readiness training for clients and ex-clients. At the conclusion of the training, we work with them to secure employment.

B. Parish Partnerships – we have developed 486 partnerships with 137 parishes

C. We provide staffing and structural support for the Communities of Concern Commission which is a coalition of leaders from communities of color and low income rural populations that are disproportionately affected by poverty and have yet to fully benefit from the economic growth that is so apparent in many areas of Washington State. We are working with them as they create capital assets that will help to reduce poverty and build stronger and more sustainable communities.

II. What's next?
CCS/CHS is committed to serving our clients through our 180 programs already in place and through innovative approaches in the future. We work in solidarity with communities of color and rural communities who are disproportionately impacted by poverty, racism and intolerance. We have developed a staff of Network Builders who work with parishes, faith based and secular partners in Western Washington to provide concrete assistance to discern, develop, and launch new and expanded outreach programs to serve poor and vulnerable neighbors.