Catholic Charities streamlines to improve services

Sister Maureen Joyce, RSM, executive director, said that the process has already resulted in some changes at Catholic Charities, which has 20 agencies and 1,200 employees.

For one thing, she said, the diocesan office has lost three employees who covered public policy issues, quality assurance and strategic planning. Their positions have been frozen, and she is searching for a retiree with experience in public policy who would like to volunteer at Catholic Charities.

Newcomer

Sister Maureen explained that having one diocesan human resource director will free up the directors of each agency from having to handle issues like labor law, compliance and employee benefit packages.

Catholic Charities will also add an employee to the diocesan Stewardship Office, who will work at getting outside funding for charities from foundations and contributions. Sister Maureen noted that it had been proposed that Catholic Charities create its own development office, but a collaborative effort with the existing diocesan office worked better.

Consolidation

While it's more cost-effective, "this was a mammoth task," she remarked. "It amounts to 20 separate audits done by one firm."

Joint purchasing among agencies has also begun on a minor scale; for example, paper supplies are being bought in bulk rather than by individual agencies. Sister Maureen expects more of this to be done after research on the best plan has been completed.

One idea that won't come to pass is hiring an information-technology expert to manage Catholic Charities' computer system. While the proposal had value, Sister Maureen said, Catholic Charities has to focus its resources on the people it serves, not on technology. Instead, the office is using volunteers to help connect its agencies as best it can.

Priorities

Catholic Charities is working on criteria for what makes a service needed and viable; Sister Maureen said that when decisions have to be made about what services need funding, the criteria will already be in place.

However, just making the lists is a huge task, she explained, since in addition to the 20 agencies in the 14 counties of the Diocese, there are 50 to 60 outreach and residential sites that must be considered.

"Whether the community or the Diocese sees some major changes as a result, we will see some major changes in how we deliver services," she promised.

(10-24-02) [[In-content Ad]]