Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New Year’s Blessings to Our Neighbors! 

At St. Francis Community Services, we walk with our vulnerable neighbors through the most difficult periods of their lives. We approach each relationship as a long-term relationship. Rather than holding ourselves above and apart from our clients, we embed ourselves in the community and work alongside each client to find solutions and help him or her achieve personal goals. The holidays can make these goals more challenging emotionally and financially. 

You Are The Hope of Our Clients! 
We cannot carry out our mission without your help! Your donations fund critical services, providing legal representation to abused women, veterans and others who cannot afford a lawyer; after school and summer programming for children of immigrant families; case management for impoverished families; and much more. There is still time to make a year-end donation for 2021! See our website – www.sfcsstl.org – or send a check to St. Francis Community Services, PO Box 952393, St. Louis, MO 63195-2393.  

We celebrate the staff who journey with our clients day after day. Two of our employees received the Everyday Amazing Award from Catholic Charities.
EVERYDAY AMAZING recognizes peer-nominated employees who exemplify Personal Excellence, a Spirit of Servant Leadership, and the Catholic Charities Mission.  

Wade Chatfield, Operations Manager 
Wade’s easy-going attitude and eagerness to help had a calming effect on staff at St. Francis’ Southside Center during the busy COA accreditation preparation process. While his official responsibility is for the agency’s Catholic Legal Aid (CLAM) site, Wade voluntarily put in many hours at Southside attending to safety and security related projects and overseeing their van repairs. “Wade never complained about the extra tasks,” said a colleague. “Instead, he continually asked what more he could do to help.” 

Sister Cecilia Pham, Health Worker 
Sister Cecilia oversees St. Francis’ Vietnamese Health Clinic, caring for her patients’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. “I’ve seen her cover all of Matthew 25:35-36 – I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me – in a single week,” said a colleague. Sister anticipates the needs of people new to the U.S., connecting them with transportation, food, and other services, and even creating color-coded medical forms to assist with language barriers. Sister Cecilia is like family to her clients, grieving with them when they grieve and celebrating with them when there is cause to celebrate! 

Ribbon Cutting on at the Hub 
Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, a Pathways to Progress North City partner, officially opened The Hub on East Prairie. We are moving into office space there. Congratulations to TCDC on this milestone!  St. Francis is thankful for the opportunity to collaborate as we work to support vulnerable families in north St. Louis.  

We achieved our goal – All 250 families sponsored for the holidays!
We would like to highlight a special person, Rosemary Nigro, who organizes the giving tree at St. Francis of Assisi Parish and continues to partner with our Adopt a Family program for 10 years. Every year she works tirelessly to find donors for all the families, and this year she found a donor to fulfill the remaining five for a total of 250 sponsored families. Rosemary shared her perspective: she knows she is supposed to just trust God and not worry about it so much, but she just can’t do that.  She continues with, ‘One day I’ll learn to trust God.’ In this season where we celebrate the miracle of the Divine being manifested among humankind, Rosemary is the perfect example of that in the Christmas spirit.   

Together, we are walking humbly with our neighbors. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.