As many as 5,000 people in Wake County experience homelessness each year, and currently, no single place exists where they can access all the resources they may need. Today marked a milestone in Raleigh’s innovative approach to end homelessness as ground was broken on the Oak City Cares facility. “Oak City Cares is a collaborative, community, approach bringing together government, nonprofits, the faith and business communities to make homelessness in Wake County brief, temporary and non-recurring,” said Lisa Perkins, Executive Director, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh. “There is nothing more disheartening… Read More
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh is excited to announce the appointment of Kathy Johnson to serve as the executive director of Oak City Cares, a new comprehensive, coordinated approach to making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in Wake County. For over 20 years, Johnson had a distinguished career at InterAct in Raleigh, where she served in multiple roles, including two stints as the interim executive director, associate executive director for resource development, and associate executive director for programs and services. Most recently, Johnson served as executive director for… Read More
On a beautiful afternoon on Monday, June 11th, 176 golfers from across eastern North Carolina gathered at North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh for the inaugural Catholic Charities Drive Out Hunger Golf Outing. Over $52,000 was raised at the golf outing and will go towards supporting Catholic Charities food pantries across the Diocese of Raleigh. “This golf outing has really helped us to do quite a few things,” explained Lisa Perkins, executive director of Catholic Charities. “It has been a friend raiser for us. As much as we can make… Read More
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Nancy Weishaupt volunteers at the Oak City Outreach Center with her husband Jason, and their 11-year-old daughter Kylie. Their 13-year-old son is another regular volunteer with the family, but had other obligations on this day. The final member of the family of five, their nineteen-year-old daughter Sydney, was at home preparing dinner. The Weishaupts volunteer from 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, a time slot which is typically hard to fill. While Nancy, Jason, Kylie, and Tyler are providing meals to others, Sydney is… Read More
Father Joseph Gerard Vetter, a retired priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, died Monday, May 7 in Durham. He was 71. Father Vetter, who was best known as Father Joe and signed most of his communication simply as “Joe,” was ordained to the priesthood March 26, 1973 at Annunciation Church in Havelock. In his vocation, he served the Lord through his work in campus ministry, parishes, hospital ministry and communications. “He was a good man and a good priest. I don’t think he would have wanted to be remembered… Read More
Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama of the Diocese of Raleigh and Bishop Peter J. Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte issued a letter reminding the more than one million Catholic faithful in North Carolina of the positions of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) on immigration policies and principles formed by Catholic social teaching and encouraging additional personal reflection and formation on these issues. Read the letter: English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
On Saturday, April 29th, volunteers from Work on Wilmington generously gave of their time to build and plant a Food Pantry Garden for the Catholic Charities Cape Fear office. Work On Wilmington is organized each year by the current class of Leadership Wilmington. Leadership Wilmington is a ten-month program to educate, challenge, and motivate leaders and future leaders for the betterment of the community. Work on Wilmington brings people together to roll up their sleeves and tackle community problems in just four hours. “The results today are amazing,” shared Ms…. Read More
Friends and families gathered at Catholic Parish Outreach Food Pantry in Raleigh on Saturday, April 21st for the 5th Annual Pig Picking and Open House. The event which lasted from 4 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. welcomed over 450 people to the largest food pantry in eastern North Carolina. Attendees were first treated to a tour of the 15,000 sq. ft. facility which includes space to interview clients and the warehouse that stores the 2.8 million pounds of food distributed annually from Catholic Parish Outreach. “We get to serve pork, hot… Read More
Para Español Last Thursday April 20th, Centro para Familias Hispanas held its second annual “Reunion de Amigos” at their facility located on 2013 N. Raleigh Blvd in Raleigh, NC. About 60 people attended the event with representatives from different partner organizations such as Wake Tech Community College, Wake County Public School System Preschool services, Children’s Developmental Services Agency, Wells Fargo, Mil Mujeres, Venezuela para Ti, members of the Centro para Familias Resource Development Committee. “It was great to see so many new faces and friends of the center,” Ms. Maty… Read More
On Sunday April 15th, a combination of youth groups from various churches around Wilmington came together for the Be the Light event. Be the Light hosts several projects each year and chose Catholic Charities as the beneficiary of their spring event. At the two hour event held at the Pine Valley Baptist Church, youth put together birthday bags for the Capes and Tiaras Birthday club program where children in poverty get a toy and all of the necessary items to have a cake on their special day. During this fun… Read More
