Cincinnati, Ohio
Center for Respite Care
The Center for Respite Care (CRC) is a 14-bed 24-hour facility providing medical and nursing care to sick homeless people to promote effective healing. Clients receive quality, holistic medical care and assistance in breaking the cycle of homelessness. Since opening in the fall of 2003, the Center for Respite Care has cared for sick and injured people who are homeless. Our goals also include preventing the re-hospitalization of clients for related conditions and moving clients to appropriate facilities to assist in their transition to self-sufficiency after recovery in the Center for Respite Care.
Potential Placements:
Volunteer Coordinator – volunteers will recruit volunteers to meet the needs of the center, help interested volunteer groups to choose a convenient date, coordinate the event, and make sure a CRC staff person is on site to welcome the volunteer group and explain the program. Often, the Marianist volunteer will be the staff person to meet the group and work with them during their time at the Center.
Mercy Neighborhood Ministries, Inc.
Inspirited by the vision of the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy Neighborhood Ministries (MNM) promotes the empowerment of individuals and families through programs that address their immediate needs, foster self-reliance, promote holistic health and advocate for social justice. MNM accomplishes this mission by providing crisis assistance and payee services, adult education and job training, employment and retention support, home health care and health promotion, senior services and food assistance.
A Marianist volunteer would work in the Empowerment Program, whose purpose is to strengthen the impact of other MNM programs by offering educational, resource and mentoring support to clients or students who are willing to work to move out of dependency into greater self-sufficiency. Eventually, the Empowerment Program will be offered to all clients and students connected to MNM.
Potential Placements:
Volunteers will learn thoroughly the application of the Benefits Bank, software which guides individuals living in poverty to access needed public benefits, in order to assist and mentor individuals in the Empowerment Program through the Benefits Bank process. Volunteers will coordinate with other volunteers to learn and apply the Benefits Bank process.
St. Boniface School
St. Boniface is an inner city school of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, fully accredited, grades K-8. St. Boniface’s mission is to provide a quality Catholic Christian education to the children who come to the school. Of the students at the school, 85% comes from single parent homes, 88% are at or below the national poverty level, and 80% are minority students. All of the public schools around St. Boniface have been declared in “academic emergency,” however, St. Boniface has not! This year, all classes scored within “normal limits” of achievement and ability!
Potential Placements:
Volunteers will be on site at the school. The work done by volunteers will depend on the education, talents, and input of the individuals. Direct interaction with the children, social service/counseling work with the students and their families, office duties, and special projects such as plays and school programs, etc. – or a combination of all of the above – are all possible types of work for volunteers.
