23 Detroit-area parishes, schools and groups receive Catholic Foundation grants

DETROIT — At the Catholic Foundation of Michigan’s inaugural grant awards banquet on Dec. 11 at the Detroit Athletic Club, 23 Catholic parishes, schools and nonprofits received grants from $1,000 to $5,000 to support evangelization, Christian service and parish life goals.

In total, the foundation granted $88,500 through a competitive process. Here is a list of the winners:

LIST OF 2018 GRANT RECIPIENTS

Catholic Education and Formation

• Cathedral Choir Academy of Detroit ($5,000) — Choir Academy serves both urban and suburban youth of all faiths, grades 3 – 9. The program includes two levels of instruction; the Cathedral Descant Choir or training choir, and the Cathedral Children’s Choir.

• Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit ($2,000 and $2,500) — Offering Vacation Bible School, From the Shallows of the Deep, to more than 100 area children, as well as a separate grant to provide 12 meals for Alpha for up to 100 attendees. Alpha then launches RCIA, which is very likely smaller but also benefits from communal meals.

• La Casa Guadalupana, Detroit ($5,000) — Spanish-language educational and leadership classes. Program is classroom based with a group and a teacher who encourages group interaction. Hispanic students thrive in this setting, enjoy working as a class and discovering their own leadership abilities.

• Ste. Anne de Detroit Parish ($5,000) — Jornadas Matrimonios program. Jornadas means journey. The purpose of the Jornadas is to assist people in a
formation process to encounter Christ and to serve.

• St. Mary Catholic Central High School, Monroe ($1,000) — Launch a permanent inclusion program to provide a Catholic secondary educational
environment for families with students with significant educational and
developmental challenges.

Social Outreach

• Catholic Church of St. Moses the Black, Detroit ($5,000) — Relocating and stabilizing emergency food pantry. The St. Moses the Black Emergency Food Pantry and Clothes Closet are operating as Client Choice Programs and the program equipment is readily mobile and portable.

• Christ the King Catholic School, Detroit ($5,000) — Social justice formation program. Students benefit from numerous social outreach programs, and the school makes a point of having all students from Christ the King Catholic School participate in various learning projects.

• Christ the King Service Corps, Detroit ($5,000) — Supply low-cost, high-skilled and Christ inspired volunteers to nonprofits that engage in social outreach with some of Detroit’s most impoverished population.

• Detroit Oratory-In-Formation ($5,000) — Better Way Detroit employment program. Provide employment for homeless persons, to help beautify the city of Detroit, and to connect homeless persons with services and other needs.

• Freedom House Detroit ($2,000) — New Beginnings permanent housing program. New Beginnings strives to have 85 percent of Freedom House Detroit’s residents exit the program into permanent, unsubsidized housing.

• Gianna House, Eastpointe ($3,000) — Pregnancy and parenting residence. Provide a safe and loving environment that teaches educational, life skills and career planning that positively impacts the women, youth and their child.

• Interfaith Hospitality Network at Alpha House, Ann Arbor ($3,000) — Support for families in short and longer-term housing. To increase the number of families sheltered each year. To shorten the length of time families spend in shelter. To place families into permanent housing more quickly. To increase the number of landlords that will work with us to provide housing.

• Pope Francis Center, Detroit ($5,000) — Nutrition program. Improve the health and well-being of the center's guests by providing the highest quality, most nutritious foods available.

• Racquet Up Detroit ($5,000) — Youth enrichment activities. That Racquet Up students have opportunities to learn how to be responsible, socially aware, and compassionate members of the Detroit community through community service, cultural enrichment, college visits, and youth leadership activities.

• The Servants of Jesus of the Divine Mercy, Clinton Township ($2,000) — Kitchen and outreach. Hoping for an increased number of community members, including families whose children attend local schools, to experience corporal works of mercy that help address their hunger needs.

• St. Augustine and St. Monica Parish, Detroit ($5,000) — Neighborhood evangelization and parish-based evangelization mission. Home visits are done in pairs and include invitations to Mass/events at the parish, inquiries about church, home and family, offering a Bible if they do not have one, while seeking opportunities to discuss Jesus and share the Gospel.

• St. Catherine of Siena Academy, Wixom ($3,000) — Epoch service formation week. Help establish parish-based evangelization to build up the Kingdom of God in the city of Detroit, by raising up leaders in the black Catholic community to serve in this mission to love people into the Church through Christ's love in our hearts.

• St. Mary’s Parish of Redford, Detroit ($5,000) — Jazz Mass with six church choirs. This Jazz Mass included six choirs (five from Catholic churches, one non-Catholic church). The Jazz Mass, held in November 2018, included narration explaining the musical parts of the Mass being presented.

• St. Vincent de Paul at St. Charles Lwanga Parish, Detroit ($2,000) — Neighborhood partnership revitalization program. Responding to emergency needs, partnering with agencies and churches to evangelize by invitations to belong to a faith community, participating with the Evangelization Commission of St. Charles Lwanga’s efforts.

Vibrant Parish Life

• Holy Redeemer Parish, Detroit ($5,000) — “Revive” faith enrichment program. “Revive” is an 11-week program in Spanish based on Alpha for Catholics. The weekly format consists of a supper followed by a talk on the Catholic faith, a small group discussion, and some praise and worship music.

• Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Detroit ($5,000) — Communications director. Hire a communications and events director for five hours per week to oversee communications and activities planning of the parish.

• St. Lucy Catholic Church, St. Clair Shores ($1,000) — Share a Little Light evangelization. Develop and use all of the various print, social media and digital communication tools available to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the community so they can become part of the Body of Christ.

• St. Peter Claver Parish, Detroit — New Evangelization Mission Team. St. Peter Claver’s New Evangelization Mission Team (NEMT) is working to create
vicariate-wide evangelization activities.