Thanks to generosity of thousands, the One Faith, One Hope, One Love capital campaign has surpassed $100 million in pledge payments! Check out the bulletin insert below for more details about the continued success of this historic campaign. Click here for a PDF version of the bulletin insert.

Congratulations to the students that participated in the Summer School program this year in Dayton!

Dayton Summer School was made possible through donations to the 1 Faith, 1 Hope, 1 Love campaign in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

The Dayton Summer School program completed its 10^th year this past summer with 80 students participating. The program runs for 4 weeks and is designed to help struggling students in kindergarten through 7^th grade maintain and increase their knowledge in Math and English/Language Arts over the summer break. Contributions from the One Faith, One Hope, One Love campaign provided $40,000 to help cover the cost to operate the program. Tuition cost for families is $100 for the first child and $50 for each additional child.

To help measure the program’s effectiveness, students are given a pre-assessment and a post-assessment. This year, 89% of the students demonstrated an improvement in Math and 83% improved in English/Language Arts. Breakfast and lunch are also provided daily, along with bus service from neighboring locations for students needing transportation.

The summer school program serves students from these Dayton Catholic schools:

Ascension School                                 Holy Angels School

Immaculate Conception School        St. Christopher School

Incarnation School                              St. Peter School

St. Helen School                                  St. Anthony School

Mother Brunner School                     St. Charles School

Our Lady of the Rosary School        St. Albert the Great School

St. Benedict School

“Many of our students live in struggling neighborhoods, so this program offers a healthy and productive environment for them to be a part of for a good portion of the summer,” said Lindsey Ropp who runs the program with Monica Haus. Both Ms. Ropp and Ms. Haus agree that the small class sizes, around 10 students per teacher, has a very positive impact on students’ overall growth and well-being. “In addition to helping academically, teachers can also focus on meeting the social and emotional needs of the children. They’re able to develop a healthy relationship where the students see them as role models,” said Ms. Haus.

The following report was submitted by Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley to show the organization’s use of funds from the One Faith, One Hope, One Love campaign in 2017.

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Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley

2017 Annual Report

Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley received two gift disbursements from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati One Faith, One Hope, One Love Campaign in 2017 for a total of $644,404.10.  The money was used to expand programs and services, support existing programs in need of transitional funding streams, accomplish needed capital improvements to existing buildings, and provide necessary resources to improve outreach throughout our community.

New Program Development

Funding support from the campaign helped CSSMV begin or enhance several new programs in 2017. In the agency’s northern counties region, CSSMV was able to begin delivering 40 lb. staple food boxes to home bound. The program is a partnership with the Shared Harvest Foodbank and is being piloted in three counties.  Additionally, the Sidney office was able to leverage Ohio Department of Transportation funding with matching funds from the campaign to better serve the transportation needs of our rural counties through Ridelink.

Through the Montgomery County/ United Way combined funding application, CSSMV was able to start an expansion program of the Pregnancy and Parenting support program call Teen Parents Learn.  This unique program seeks to assist high school aged students – who are pregnant or new parents – complete their high school degree, while teaching them critical parenting skills.

Another new program initiated by Montgomery County/United Way combined funding application was the Families Forward initiative.  This partnership between CSSMV (case management partner and lead agency), Dayton Public Schools, the University of Dayton, the House of Bread and Dayton Children’s Hospital provides wrap around service for children and their families at Kiser Elementary (K-5), a school which 100% of the students are eligible for free and reduced school lunch.

Finally, the parenting staff was able to allocate important resources and staff time to enhance the Parent Resource Room at Lincoln Academy.  Providing needed hospitality items, educational materials, and technology access to improve the experience for all parents visiting the center.

Total investment in new program development – $162,500

Improving Parish participation and engagement

The campaign continued to fund the position of Parish and Community Relations Manager.  2017 did see some changes to the position which will allow for deeper connections with parish staff, religious, and the parishioners themselves. Volunteer management and stewardship has now been included in the job description for the manager. This will allow for a more seamless transition from outreach to cultivation.

Total investment in Parish and Community Relations Manager – $39,492

Investment in IT infrastructure and capital improvements

The funds from 2017 helped CSSMV make several IT upgrades.  It allowed for the ongoing implementation of the new Apricot case management software, and helped CSSMV launch a refreshed website – www.cssmv.org. Additionally, we were able to make lighting improvements and increase efficiency at the Center for Families on Brown Street and the Eckerle Administration Building on Riverview Avenue.

Total investment in IT infrastructure and capital improvements – $47,500

Program capacity building and replacement for unforeseen loss in public funding

2017 was a challenging year for the refugee resettlement program.  With uncertainty at the federal level and substantial loss in new arrivals, the resettlement program relied heavily on the support of both the Archdiocese and the USCCB.  This bridge support allowed the refugee program to realign its priorities, staffing and goals in several areas, while maintaining its level of service to our newest arriving refugees.

The campaign helped CSSMV grow the Family Stabilization and Support program – the fastest growing program in the Dayton office. This program provides case management support to anyone in the Dayton area, and is operated out of the food pantry.  It also supported ongoing programming in counseling through the SAFE program.  This program works with children suffering from RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder).

Erma’s House received additional support in 2017 from the campaign to continue its important work as the only supervised visitation and exchange services building in Montgomery County.  Erma’s, which was recognized this year by the Council on Accreditation as the gold standard for supervised visitation in the country, celebrated its 20^th anniversary in 2017.  The funds were used to bridge a gap in new service from the county to combat a rise in children’s services cases.

Finally, the campaign helped support capacity building with early childhood education (opened new classroom), and losses in county and state funding for parenting education, senior service and food contracts for the pantry.

Total investment in program capacity building and replacement for loss in public funding – $447,000 (includes balance used from 2016 campaign funds)

Strategic Leadership Development

In 2017, the One Faith, One Hope, One Love campaign continued to enable CSSMV to invest in strategic planning, and professional development opportunities for its staff. Most notably, CSSMV was able to retain consulting services to create a strategy for continuation of health care services in the northern counties region with the possibility of Medicaid eliminating the PASSPORT program.  This program is the largest staffed program at CSSMV and accounts for more than 2/3 of the agency’s total annual budget.

Additionally, three members of the agency staff were able to participate in the CCUSA national conference in Houston, Texas. Due to the conference taking place just weeks after hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston area, conference attendees – including those from CSSMV – were invited to join in the recovery efforts.

Total investment in strategic leadership development and consulting fees – $46,500

If you’ve called the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Stewardship Department in the last few years with questions about your donation to the 1 Faith, 1 Hope, 1 Love campaign, you may have talked to Nancy Dragan. And if you have left a voicemail for the department, she has more than likely promptly returned your call. In fact, she’s returned more than 4,600 phone calls about donations since January of 2016. And she’ll make her final phone calls, on Friday, June 1, 2018, when she retires from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Ms. Dragan has worked extensively on the 1 Faith, 1 Hope, 1 Love campaign from its inception. She’s patiently helped thousands of donors over the years. And that hasn’t always meant assisting with people’s financial donations, but also answering simple questions, taking time to listen to some long-winded callers and at times offering prayers for those who call. And it’s obvious that her patience stems from her faith and is an important part of the work that she is doing. “I thank God every morning for the blessings I cannot see. Those are the most important. I don’t think people have a full understanding of what all the [1 Faith, 1 Hope, 1 Love] campaign is doing for people, but those are the blessings that you can’t always see,” said Ms. Dragan.

Nancy Dragan, Campaign Assistant, with Leslie Odioso, Donor Relations Manager

In addition to Ms. Dragan’s patience and faith that are the foundation of her work, her role as Campaign Assistant, also provides a sentimental connection to her father. In the 1950s, Ms. Dragan’s father, Paul Rauf, volunteered for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s capital campaign to raise money to build several high schools in the archdiocese.  He walked door to door asking for donations to the campaign. “I just find that to be kind of odd that my dad did that so many years ago and then here’s his daughter, a grown woman with a family, and I end up working on the historical campaign,” said Ms. Dragan.

Congratulations on your retirement Nancy from all of us at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati!

More than $15 Million dollars from the One Faith, One Hope, One Love campaigns is set aside for Fostering Vocations.

Director of Development at The Athenaeum of Ohio, Kyle Isaack, was recently interviewed by Fox 19 about the growth of the seminary and increase in vocations to the priesthood.

Over the last four years, the Office for Evangelization and Discipleship at the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has shown a great love and dedication in their work developing a new religion Graded Course of Study for Pre-Kindergarten through 8^th grade students. The new curriculum now incorporates Theology of the Body into content taught each year in school religion classes and catechetical programs throughout the archdiocese. This work was made possible with funds from the 1Faith1Hope1Love campaign.

The Theology of the Body teaching originated in 129 Wednesday audiences by Pope St. John Paul II between 1979 and 1984. During the audiences the Holy Father presented a unified vision of personhood as soul and body. Archbishop Schnurr has directed that the Theology of the Body be a part of religion studies for all schools and parishes in the archdiocese.

In 2016 the Graded Course of Study was approved for schools and catechetical programs in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 4^th. In February of 2018 Archbishop Schnurr approved the Graded Course of Study in grades    5^th – 8^th. With funds from the 1Faith1Hope1Love campaign the Office for Evangelization and Discipleship is working toward a curriculum for high school students to be released in 2020.

“In this age of radical secularism, scientism and self-invention, we Catholics must boldly and lovingly proclaim the truth, the goodness and the beauty of the biblical vision of what it means to be human,” wrote Archbishop Schnurr, in a February 14^th announcement when he officially promulgated the new course of study.

The undertaking of this latest Graded Course of Study was enormous. It included five contributing writers. The review committee consisted of more than a dozen clergy and dozens of parish catechetical leaders, catechists, Catholic school administrators and teachers.

The new Graded Course of Study provides resources to help teachers with the content – something they did not have in the past. The study materials include citations from Magisterial documents and Sacred Scripture. In addition to the educational resources, new prayer booklets have also been created to accompany the material.

The Theology of the Body content is new in the Graded Course of Study, but the other focus areas remain the same:  knowledge of the faith, knowledge of the sacraments and liturgy, moral formation, praying with Christ, living in the community of the Church, and living as a Christian in society.

Archbishop Schnurr went on to write, “I pray that God will richly bless these standards as a centerpiece of our efforts to create a culture of vocations amongst our Archdiocesan Catholic school principals, teachers, directors of religious education and parents.”

Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley is an organization that receives funds from the 1 Faith 1 Hope 1 Love campaign. Part of the funds support a Family Visitation Center. The article below first appeared in the Catholic Social Services Winter 2017 Good News magazine.

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Erma’s House: Supporting families and protecting children

Keeping children safe has been the mission of Erma’s House Family Visitation Center since its beginning in 1997. The program – which celebrated its 20^th anniversary this year (2017) – grew out of the community’s need for a safe, structured environment for children to have scheduled contact and maintain a relationship with their non-residential parents.

The Montgomery County Child Protection Task Force was convened in 1993 in response to the community’s growing concern about child protection issues. In February of 1995, their year-long study resulted in a 90-page report titled “A Community That Supports Families and Protects Children.”

Based on the 56 recommendations in the report, a Child Protection Work Group was formed and began working toward the establishment of a Family Visitation Center. With collaboration and support from community partners, Catholic Social Services was approached to operate the new center.

The intent was to design a program to establish a safe, home-like environment where children could visit with their non-custodial parents in an atmosphere conducive to a nurturing interchange between the parent and child.

The need for supervised parenting may be related to divorce or separation, child abuse or neglect, protection or restraining orders, or other issues where a neutral setting is important to the safety and comfort of the family unit. Erma’s House reduces the potential for physical and emotional harm for both children and parents.

Trained staff and volunteers monitor the interaction between parent and child, observing the visit and keeping a record of activities. The monitor only intervenes if it is considered necessary for the emotional or physical safety of the child.

Erma’s House also offers supervised exchanges for a parent who needs to transfer the child between households without interacting with the other parent. Staff monitors the exchange to ensure the safety of all family members.

To access the services of Erma’s House, a family must be referred by a third party such as Montgomery County Children Services, social workers or mental health professionals, or the Montgomery County Domestic Relations Court or Juvenile Court. At least one parent or guardian must live in Montgomery County.