As the holiday season begins, many people are thinking about family gatherings, religious celebrations and exchanging gifts. But, some people face the reality of poverty and are not able to experience a joyous holiday season. One organization that allows poverty-stricken families to celebrate Christmas is Catholic Community Services with their “The community comes together for Christmas” program.
This program accepts many needy families, mostly in the Baton Rouge area, to receive assistance for the holidays. Needy families are adopted by businesses, families, and other groups in the community who purchase gifts, food and in some cases, Christmas decorations for the needy families. Those who adopt families have the option to personally deliver the items to the families themselves or remain anonymous and have a member of CCS deliver the items.
“Our program is a little different from others. It is more about building relationships,” said Carol Spruell, communication coordinator for Catholic Community Services.
Spruell said CCS accepts families to receive assistance after a brief screening process, which includes verifying the family’s income and the number of people that live in the household. CCS also checks to ensure that families do not receive Christmas donations from other organizations. This ensures that the maximum number of families can receive assistance.
Spruell said this year CCS will help 470 families. Last year they assisted 400 and the year before they helped 200 families.
But, approximately 250 families still need to be adopted this year. Even though it is nearing Christmas, Spruell said she believes all the families will be adopted.
Spruell said most of the families that will receive assistance from CCS are two-parent, working households. However most of them still are below the poverty line. The poverty line for a family of four is an income of $18,000 per year. She said this year, many of the families are in such poverty that they actually qualify to be categorized as homeless.
According to the CCS Web site, “In 1965, Catholic Community Services was created to reach out to people most vulnerable.”
Currently, CCS has 14 programs serving the needs of nearly 30,000 individuals of all faiths every year.
For people interested in adopting a family, they can log onto the CCS Web Site, click on the links section, and click on the Christmas, Adopt a Family, The Community Comes Together link and fill out the form. Those who want to send monetary donations can mail them to P.O. Box 1668, Baton Rouge, La., 70821.