At St. Francis Community Services’ Southside Center location, Site Director and Therapist Meredith Rataj guides a mom through a small sea of Christmas packages to her family’s gifts. While staff try to determine if the many packages will fit in her car, the mother has other reflections. Looking at...
Bilingual Youth Program Visits Cardinal Ritter Senior Services
This 2018 Christmas season, St. Francis Community Services’ Bilingual Youth Program is sharing their musical talents through a holiday concert at Cardinal Ritter Senior Services. As a special treat, children got a visit from Santa at SFCS’ Southside location before the concert, receiving candy canes and sharing what they...
Christmas Adopt-a-Family 2018
The Southside Center location of St. Francis Community Services is holding its annual Christmas Adopt-a-Family program. Each year individuals, schools, churches, and businesses “adopt” immigrant families we serve to help make their holiday season brighter, providing gifts and household essentials. This year we have more than 170 families in...
Guardianship of a Minor
The staff attorneys at SFCS Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry recently were contacted by a grandmother, “Lottie,” seeking help in obtaining guardianship of her four-month old grandson who had been in her care since the day the child came home from the hospital. Our client’s daughter, the child’s mother, passed...
Restoring Hope
“Anna” was widowed at the age of 30 with two small children. Already on the brink of poverty and emotional collapse, her small house was extensively damaged later that same year during the severe flooding of December 2015. Anna was completely overwhelmed, and could not afford to pay for the repairs....
Seeds of Hope 2017: Photos
On June 17th, more than 400 guests gathered for a fun and meaningful evening at the Ballpark Hilton St. Louis for our 2nd annual summertime gala, Seeds of Hope. Thanks to the generosity of many supporters, we were able to raise funds to help continue our important work with vulnerable youth,...
Healthcare Needs and Difficult Choices
“Mrs. J” is a 68 year old senior who speaks very little English and has no transportation. She had been working at a factory in St. Louis for 13 years. Due to some serious health issues, she had to quit working at the end of July. Ms. J did...
Congratulations to the 2017 Sr. Betty Brucker, FSM Memorial Scholarship Recipient!
Congratulations to Rosetta, who was presented with St. Francis Community Services’ second annual Sr. Betty Brucker, FSM Memorial Scholarship on March 8th, 2017. This scholarship is intended to provides assistance to a student pursuing . Rosetta is a graduating senior at a St. Louis area high school. She has dreamed of becoming...
One Family, Many Needs
Southside Center has been working with Olivia and her family for over two years on a wide range of issues that have come up. Initially, Olivia reached out to the bilingual mental health department after a Spanish-speaking nun at her church referred her to our program. Her daughter, Jasmin, was suffering...
Army Veteran Regains Suspended License
“Marty,” an Army Veteran, single mother, and hard worker at a minimum wage job, came to Catholic Legal Assistance Ministries (CLAM) because she was unable to resolve several old traffic tickets due to lack of funds. These had caused her license to be suspended for over ten years, creating great hardship for her...