Catholic Charities provides all year round

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
December 18, 2003

Offices in Sioux City, Fort Dodge, Carroll, Algona and Storm Lake allow Catholic Charities to offer to people around the Diocese of Sioux City throughout the year.

Jerry Eaton, director of Catholic Charities, commented that this has been a good year for the organization. They helped over 5,700 people throughout the diocese in the counseling services in.

"We were able to help a great number of people this year," said Eaton. "We received a good level of support as always from people throughout the diocese."

Catholic Charities provided about $42,000 in emergency help to people living in every county in the diocese for things such as rent, utilities, prescription costs, helping people to buy wheelchairs and transportation to the Mayo Clinic.

"You can't achieve everything," said Eaton. "There is always going to be a greater need than you have the ability to set aside. As always, you work closely with other people and you figure out ways to collaborate and to help people to take on the responsibility they need to take on as well. All in all, it was a very good year."

One source in the past for Catholic Charities has been the government.

"We've seen a drop in the revenue from government sources," said Eaton. "So as we have seen that drop, we have had to figure out different ways of helping the people and encouraging the government to live up to their responsibility. In a sense, when they take a child to court, take that child out of the custody of their parents, the state then assumes the responsibility of a parent.

"The state has had a hard time living up to that responsibility. In terms of making sure there were adequate funds made available to provide service for that child, to reunite that child with their own family or to find a permanent family for that child."

Eaton noted that the organization needs to continually help people become aware of the needs in the world. Things are so fast paced that people can get up in the morning, go to work, come home, turn on the television, go to activities and not really see what is going on around them.

"So what we want to do is make sure that we are making people aware that there are some people out there, maybe living in their own communities, that were good friend of theirs when they were going to grade school, and now they are really struggling," he said. "They can no longer automatically go to the government and get help, so we all have to pitch in. We have to begin to look out for each other a little bit better than we have in the past."

The counseling services offered by Catholic Charities give people someone to talk to during their time of need.

The holiday season can be a hard time for people who have lost someone in their life. Whether it was a month ago or five years ago, the holidays bring feelings of loss and loneliness to the surface.

"There is an emphasis during the holidays because holidays are traditionally family events," said Eaton. "For a lot of people who have lost a parent or spouse, getting together at Christmas or during the holidays is a wonderful thing in a way because you get together with the surviving family members. There are feelings of loss associated with that.

"Often times a person will go through that first year with a loss after a death, and they'll hold everything together. A major event like Christmas will come around, and it's after Christmas is over that there is a down period. That's all a normal part of the grieving process."

Catholic Charities provides the person to talk to when it is hard to deal with something. It doesn't mean that there is something wrong with the person if they want to talk to someone, explained Eaton.

"When people typically think of counseling, they think, 'oh, gosh, somebody must have some great mental problem,'" said Eaton. "Quite often what we are doing is helping a couple work through a problem in their relationship. It's not that there is something terribly wrong, it's that they are going through the normal grief process and need someone to talk to."

The process takes time and energy to get through and being able to talk to someone can help. Catholic Charities offers that ear to listen when the time comes that someone wants to talk.

Eaton encouraged that people have a regular routine and to set goals for themselves to accomplish each day to make things better. He added that eating properly, exercising and sleeping a normal amount would be helpful in the process.