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“The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth and our Catholic Charities will embrace and help both materially and spiritually our brothers and sisters who are victims of the ravages of Hurricane Harvey. Our prayers are with each and everyone, victims and those coming to their aid. Now is a time for our Catholic population and all people of good will to come together and to offer our time as well as other resources to assist our brothers and sisters in need.” — Bishop Michael Olson, Diocese of Fort Worth

HURRICANE HARVEY UPDATE

**Please note we will periodically be updating this post with needs as new info arrives.

Catholic Charities Fort Worth is actively involved in a hands on way to help provide aid to those affected along the Texas Coast. Together with our Bishop, our Disaster Response Team has been in direct contact with local, state, and federal partners as well as in touch with all of our sister agencies in Galveston/Houston, Southeast Texas, Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, and Dallas and know what the on the ground needs really are. If you’re looking for a way to help out, or know anyone who is, please feel free to direct them to the following list.

Immediate Action:

– Pray.
– Cash Donations: For your convenience, Catholic Charities Fort Worth is accepting donations to take care of local evacuees and supporting the deployment of aid to the Texas Coast. Please click HERE to donate and specify “Harvey” in the notes section.

Donating:

Gift Card Drop-Offs: the needs on the ground are for cash donations to individual Catholic Charities Agencies and/or gift cards in the denominations of $10, $25, or $100 to stores that include Walmart, HEB Grocery Store, Home Depot, Kroger’s, Old Navy, and gas cards or fast food chains. If you want to provide gift cards, you can bring them directly to our main Catholic Charities Fort Worth campus at 249 W Thornhill Drive, or to one of the following parishes or locations closest to you. Our parish partners are so gracious to store and host these donations, and we will coordinate picking them up and getting them to the right place.

  • St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Arlington
  • St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, Fort Worth
  • Good Shepherd Catholic Community, Colleyville
  • Our Lady of the Lourdes, Mineral Wells
  • St. Brendan, Stephenville
  • Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Denton
  • Catholic Charities Fort Worth Northwest Campus, Wichita Falls

Volunteering:

We’re also looking for volunteers to assist with ongoing recovery efforts.

If you are interested in volunteering please fill out the application here and indicate “Harvey” under the section “Why do you want to volunteer at Catholic Charities Fort Worth?”

For other questions, or if you are an evacuee in need of aid, please call us at  682.321.8512 or email us at harveyhelp@ccdofw.org and we will work to get back to you as soon as possible!

Long Term:

As is to be expected, we will continue to need your support for the long term well-being of people displaced and seeking case management from us in the coming months. We’re here for the long haul and it will take a lot of energy to rebuild lives, not limited to financial planning, apartment setups, job placement aid, school enrollment, and more. As so many lives are impacted, so many people displaced, we will continue our work towards ending poverty by doing as much as we can to eradicate it from happening to our neighbors.

Status Report:

Total Donations:
Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth: $428,679

Parish Support:
Gift Cards: $10,155
11 Diocesan Volunteers Deployed

Local (Fort Worth) Aid Provided
We have completed a total of 139 intakes in Tarrant county, and from those we have served a
total of 91 households, representing 196 individuals, including 43 more intensive cases. The
intensive cases will require long term holistic case management to include housing, financial
planning, job placement, school enrollment, health services, coaching, and more. Remarkably,
15 households/families are in apartments with another 8 families scheduled to move-in next
week, and 7 people have already obtained employment.
Local shelter intakes were completed at Wilkerson-Grienes shelter by four staff and six
diocesan volunteers over a three-day period, resulting in 34.5 hours of service and sack lunches
to supply 21 households. Fourteen volunteers provided child care for evacuee’s children for a
total of 126 volunteer hours.

Deployment Aid Provided
We have sent out two rounds of deployment; the first on September 5 th to total 8 days of service
for 13 people, or 824.75 hours of service. The second round of deployment was on September
13 th for 6 days, included 10 people (5 volunteers from the Diocese), and resulted in 501 hours of
service. During the Catholic Charities USA Annual Conference in Houston, an additional 14
hours of volunteer work were given by our team.
Additionally, we have supported Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston and Catholic Charities
Southeast Texas by taking client phone calls and performing intakes with 3 volunteers and
completing over 200 calls. We have served Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston in 3 cities
over the course of 21 days and served over 800 families on the ground through intakes,
distribution of material goods (cleaning supplies, mops/brooms, food, personal hygiene items,
and formula/diapers for babies and toddlers).

What’s Next?
Right now, we are working closely with 43 families to help them secure housing, find sustainable
work, and rebuild their lives. We predict that we will work with these families over the next year
or two until they are successfully out of poverty and thriving here in our Diocese.