Impact Stories

After 50 Years of Marriage – They needed a Social Worker

  David and Maggie have been married for fifty years. David used to do everything for Maggie, but in his later years he is suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This meant that Maggie had to become the primary caregiver for David. She made a promise to David that she would never leave him. But with […]

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The Priceless Gift of Peace of Mind

We often envision our elder years as a time of leisure and peace. The hustle of life settles down a bit, and we can finally breathe without the pressures of a job and career. While reaching our elder years can bring many gifts and blessings, this stage of life also brings many new challenges and […]

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More Than A Ride

We often take for granted having adequate, convenient, and safe transportation. Though we may not consider it often, many of our elderly neighbors no longer have this luxury. Many, no longer able to drive themselves due to age-related physical or cognitive limitations, struggle to get to their routine medical appointments without a ride. This struggle […]

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A Journey Toward Self-Sufficiency – The Power of Language

Two children, six suitcases, and $300. This is all Marisol had when she arrived in Columbus five years ago to start her new life. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, she’d lost both her home and her job in Puerto Rico. She arrived in Ohio with her savings depleted, but faced an even greater challenge […]

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Seniors Caring for Seniors, Heart and Soul

For some seniors, the experience of old age means wanting company and never having it. Due simply to their later stage of life, seniors often experience the shrinking of their social circle. In many cases, spouses, family members, and friends have passed away— and sometimes those that are left seem busy with careers and families […]

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A Hopeful Investment for a Community in Need

It is a time of hope. And few people need hope more than the poverty-stricken residents of Portsmouth, Ohio, located in Scioto County— the second poorest county in the state. With a median household income of $28,840, Portsmouth bears the burden of a 37% poverty rate. Nestled in green hills, this rural town across the […]

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Stay the Course® Provides Students with a Map and Traveling Companion

When a person decides to enroll in community college, they embark on a journey— one that often ends prematurely due to non-academic obstacles that make the goal of graduation an ever-distant dream. The fact is only 39 percent of students receive some degree or certificate within six years of enrolling in community college. There is […]

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You Are Not Alone: Providing Hope for Seniors in the Midst of Overwhelming Isolation

In this pandemic, we are all experiencing amplified feelings of loneliness and isolation, but these experiences are, perhaps, felt most acutely by senior citizens— a highly vulnerable group that has been advised to stay at home and out of harm’s way because they are particularly susceptible to COVID-19. With many senior centers closed and organized […]

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Reasons to Celebrate: A New Year, New Hopes, and New Graduates

New Year’s is a time for resolutions. New goals and aspirations parade through our minds, exciting us with their sparkling possibilities. Yet we all know goals are hard to accomplish. More often than not, they’re forgotten too soon, left by the wayside as minds grow busy, habits return, and we witness our initial motivation shrinking […]

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Without Shelter and Without Options

In the work we do here at Catholic Social Services (CSS), stories of strife flood in from the community on a weekly basis. This is a particularly difficult one to tell. It happened today.   This morning, at our St. Francis Center in Portsmouth, the center’s Director, Barbara McKenzie, heard the usual Wednesday morning ruckus of […]

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Locations

COLUMBUS

197 E. Gay Street
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 221-5891

WEST COLUMBUS

Our Lady of Guadalupe Center
409 Industry Drive
Columbus, OH 43204
(614) 340-7061

NEWARK

1031 Brice Street
Newark, OH 43055
(740) 345-2565

PORTSMOUTH

St. Francis Catholic Outreach Center
2311 Stockham Lane
Portsmouth, OH 45662
(740) 961-4020

ZANESVILLE

422 Main Street, Ste 400
P.O. Box 3446
Zanesville, OH 43702-3446
(740) 452-5057

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