Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities of Buffalo has set a goal of $10 million - one million dollars less than the year before - for its 2020 Appeal, which formally launched Tuesday morning.

Older refugees in Buffalo face challenges that younger refugees circumvent. Although services are prolific for this community, they are not always as accessible due to certain barriers. Those barriers make it sometimes impossible for them to utilize the available resources.

A new reentry program called Project Blue is a first-of-its-kind partnership to help formerly incarcerated individuals in Erie County transition back into society.

Catholic Charities officials acknowledged challenges awaiting them as they hosted the official launch Tuesday of their 2019 Appeal. Those challenges include seeking continued support from the public following a controversial decision to end its longtime foster and adoption services. But there is also good news for the organization: on day one of its drive, it already has $1.4 million pledged toward its overall goal.

Protesters gathered Tuesday morning outside the Buffalo headquarters of Catholic Charities, speaking out against the organization's August decision to phase out its foster care and adoption services. Saying the decision was an act against the LGBT community, the activists urged Erie County and New York State to rethink its public funding of the organization.

New York State requires same-sex couple have the same right as heterosexual couples to adopt children. Catholic doctrine defines marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman. Citing the irreconcilable difference, Catholic Charities has decided to end its long-running foster care and adoption services.

Catholic Charities hosted representatives of more than a dozen local businesses Tuesday. It was the not-for-profit agency's opportunity to say "thank you" for the willingness of those companies to provide jobs for some of Buffalo's resettled refugee population.

The 94th Catholic Charities Appeal in the Diocese of Buffalo is officially underway. This year's drive was formally launched inside the offices of one of its many diverse services. This year's Appeal has a familiar goal, while this year's theme recognizes what the bishop recognized as an increasingly polarized society and volatile world.

Health care for refugees and immigrants on the West Side is expanding, with the new Catholic Charities Health Care Center.

Community, public, labor and religious leaders are uniting to launch a pre-apprenticeship program that seeks to increase diversity in the Niagara Falls and Niagara County workforce.

The first day of the annual Catholic Charities went by Sunday with drive officials saying they are seeing signs the local economic resurgence is also showing up in gifts to the drive.

Among the individuals and families strolling through Delaware Park in Buffalo today were some who were there to raise awareness of breastfeeding and its benefits for both baby and mother.

Completion of a two-year expansion project was celebrated Tuesday on the campus of Sisters Hospital in Buffalo, the home of the busiest WIC office among 15 in Erie and Niagara Counties.

Social service agencies across the region are stepping up their efforts to protect the most vulnerable from the bone chilling cold of recent days.  WBFO's Mark Scott visited a program on Buffalo's East Side that caters to the needs of older adults.

Students at a South Buffalo school received a lesson in "kindness".  As part of our Focus on Education reporting, WBFO'S Eileen Buckley says the Catholic Charities in-school Social Work program delivered the Rachel's Challenge program to Notre Dame Academy on Abbott Road.