By:John C. O'Connell
Parish Outreach announces project to grow with community's needs
Whether it's shame that makes them hide, or human nature's tendency to turn away, the neediest are often the least visible members of any community. Valley Stream's poor and hungry, unemployed or sick, bereaved or homeless are growing more numerous, and one organization is seeing to it that their needs are met with dignity and love.
"Just in terms of basic nutrition for hungry parents and children, our outreach program serves more than 80 families a month now," said Sister Margie Kelly of Parish Outreach, a program of charity for all people - regardless of creed - within the boundaries of Holy Name of Mary parish on East Jamaica Avenue off Rockaway Avenue.
"This moment is an exciting one for us because we think we have found a way to expand the services we provide and that are so desperately needed. This is a wonderful opportunity for us, and we need the community's help to make it happen," Sr. Margie told The Herald from the small outreach center in the elementary school building across from the church.
Project ARCH - an acronym for A Road to Charity and Hope - is Parish Outreach's plan to purchase a two-story house near the church, that would offer more adequate office, client, food pantry and volunteer space.
"We need money from the community to help make the purchase of this house a reality," Sr. Margie said. "We are already supported by many community organizations such as the schools, local churches, service organizations, the Valley Stream Religious Council, the Friends of Bridge, the Chamber of Commerce, as well as people in our own parish. But we are also looking for financial assistance from businesses and large corporations.
The list of community services Parish Outreach provides in its current quarters is extensive. It makes legal, financial, health, housing, childcare and employment referrals and runs support groups for distressed mothers and the bereaved, as well as hosting AA, AlAnon, AlaTeen, and other recovery meetings.
Outreach partners with St. Vincent DePaul and Long Island Cares to store and provide food for the hungry. They arrange for classes in English, hold blood drives, sponsor health and other education programs, help in cases of domestic violence and bring assistance to both the homebound and the homeless.
People fall on hard times. Even in this time of riches and in this place of relative wealth, there are many who are just making it; or aren't making it at all, Sr. Margie said. "Getting this house would enable us to serve their needs better, more confidentially, and more fully," she said.
During the last three years, Parish Outreach has responded to over 22,000 requests for assistance and services. There have been 9,000 requests for food, clothing, furniture and other basic needs; 500 requests for transportation, 4,800 requests for legal, financial, employment and medical needs; 200 requests for instruction in English. There are hundreds, Sr. Margie said, in over 25 support groups.
Of the 80 families currently served monthly, Sr. Margie says that 30 percent are single mothers, 26 percent are immigrants, 22 percent are seniors, and 43 percent are working, but that the low incomes they make leaves them far short of self sufficient.
Parish Outreach has one full-time paid professional, one part-time paid secretary, a few hundred volunteers, and contributions from the parish and the community.
"The services of the outreach program is growing every year in terms of its diversity," Paul Lieber of Lieber Funeral Homes told The Herald. "This is just the right thing to do to make the providing of these services more inviting for poor people to go to.... Parish Outreach does so much. [Sister Margie's] helped wayward girls with little children, she's doing these very important bereavement seminars
"I know of so many people she's helped get back on their feet and get their lives restarted. I see what she does for the people of this community. She never stops," Lieber said. "This house would enable the whole program to grow. Right now there's just no room for her to even store things that people need, not to mention the need for private rooms for meetings and places people feel more comfortable going to."
"We see this as a way for the rest of the community, especially the larger business community, to make an additional investment in Valley Stream. We have always been a generous village, a place with a solidly earned reputation for generosity, volunteerism and caring. People in Valley Stream have a high quality of life and it is just like us to want to share that quality of life with others who aren't so fortunate, who really need help. Getting this house will help us help them.
"Our intent is to use this house for an expanded food pantry, office space, program and confidential meeting space. It won't be a residence, and won't replace our school space, but will be an addition to it," Sr. Margie said.
"Poverty and need, sadly, is happening in Valley Stream, and so we are making outreach happen here, too. We hope everyone who can will help us."
For more information, Sr. Margie can be reached at (516) 825-0177, or by mail at HNM Parish Outreach, 55 East Jamaica Ave., Valley Stream, NY 11580-6313, or email to
hnmparishoutreach@juno.com.
