Diocesan employees donate hygiene kits to Forgach House, CCS domestic violence shelter

By Mary Lim

On January 12, 2023, The Catholic Foundation sponsored first “Thankful Thursday” event of the year for the Diocese of Tucson Pastoral Center employees, in which participants learned about Catholic Community Service’s (CCS) program to address domestic violence. 

Catholic Foundation, Diocesan, and St. Augustine Cathedral staff worked together to fill 200 hygiene bags for women and youth to be donated to the domestic violence shelter in Sierra Vista, Forgach House. 

Just a few of the items that the Catholic Foundation included for volunteers to package into hygiene bags were warm blankets, miniature soaps, toothbrushes, and several other personal essentials to get the people who are experiencing domestic violence through some of the most difficult days of their lives. 

CCS Safe House Program Coordinator, Jodie Wight, was the presenter of the day at the first quarter Thankful Thursday event. She has been with CCS for over ten years, overseeing all of the Safe House Programs, including the domestic violence shelters in Cochise County, Santa Cruz County, Sierra Vista, Douglas, and also one house formerly in Nogales (the shelter that was formerly being operated in Nogales closed due to budget). CCS has been operating the Safe House Program and the Domestic Violence Shelters in Cochise County for forty years. 

All of the shelters provide housing and hygiene items for mostly females (open to males, too, but demographically it is women who are in need of the services) and their children for up to four months. During that time, each client also receives case management and advocacy services according to their individual service plan.  

Caseworkers assess each victim or victim family, create a plan for their unique situation, and coordinate services to support the victim or victim family as much as possible during those four months. These services may include anything from clothing and food, to job readiness training, to obtaining an order of protection, to legal counsel for divorce or custody, to finding housing. All services are provided within the safety of the shelters. 

“When a client comes to us, they don’t have anything,” says Program Coordinator, Jodie Wight, “and they are often fleeing an emergency situation. We work at their pace and their level, but we only have those four months to get everything that they need done – we want them to be successful but not pressured.” 

At the end of the four months, if needed, the program helps transition clients out of the shelter and into the community. They can also help pay for rent, keep them safe, and provide counsel and guidance toward safe, independent living. 

There is intentionally extremely limited information available about the specific shelters to the public – this is for the safety of the clients. If you or someone that you know is in need of domestic violence services, call the numbers on their website to be in touch with a caseworker. Many times, people come to the shelters by learning about them through social media, through a web browser/search, from referrals from the police department, hospital, doctors offices, or the Department of Child Safety (DCS), or by word of mouth. 

CCS operates many services and agencies in Tucson, but does not have a domestic violence shelter in Tucson. This is because there are similar services provided by other agencies already. If other shelters are full and a Tucson client calls one of the CCS Safe House Programs, they can be accepted if there are any available beds, otherwise CCS will call around to find an opening in another location or with other agencies. 

The hygiene bags prepared by the Diocese of Tucson were sent to the Forgach House in Sierra Vista. At that location alone, there were 105 women, one male, and 115 children who received services last year.  

Wight commented that, since the pandemic, the number of people served at each of the shelters has increased. They have also noticed that clients tend to stay longer than they would usually have pre-Covid. The trend that they have seen in the last couple of years, due to Covid-19, has been that there are more clients whose cases are related to financial abuse because of loss of jobs and loss of wages – this financial stress resulted in a disruption of the family unit that didn’t previously exist, which led to domestic violence that maybe wasn’t an issue before. 

Covid continues to have a major impact on many families, and CCS is actively working on addressing the changing needs of their clients. If you or a loved one is experiencing domestic violence, there is help available. CCS is well-connected with numerous other agencies and shelters throughout southern Arizona, so victims can always call them at 520-458-4203 to see if there is availability in one of their shelters, or to see if they can connect victims to another agency. Help can always be had through the National Domestic Violence Emergency Hotline at 800-799-7233.  

For their “Thankful Thursday” service project, The Catholic Foundation packaged up all of the hygiene kits that were so lovingly put together, and they personally delivered the boxes to Forgach House themselves. 

Director of The Catholic Foundation, Elizabeth Bollinger, said that being at the shelter and witnessing the work being done “made it more real” for all Catholic Foundation members who came to help with the delivery. 

As the hygiene kits were being packed just a few weeks prior to their delivery, Pastoral Center staff learned about and prayed over the victims who would need to use these simple bags. If you would like to support the Safe House Program, you can learn more or donate at CCS’s website. 

(Pictured below are Catholic Foundation Director Elizabeth Bollinger, Grant Manager Katheryn Hutchinson, ACA Manager Suzanne Hopkins, and Board President Les Orchekowsky. They were met at the Forgach House by CCS Board President Maryann Hockstad and new CCS CEO Elena Dwyre.)