St. Patrick Parish has maintained a strong, committed partnership with both St. Vincent de Paul and Birthright of Kokomo over the years. We appreciate the faithful and ongoing support our parishioners continue to provide to both of these ministries through the gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Whether it's the St. Vincent de Paul Sharing Sunday contributions, providing needed supplies for new mothers, volunteering hours at either ministry, or financially supporting their work in our community, we appreciate the many ways our parishioners partner with St. VdP and Birthright.

In addition to these two important organizations and their life-changing work, St. Patrick has been able to partner -- to varying degrees -- with other groups in our community that are impacting lives through their work and ministry as well.

Check out the list to see if you would like to help with any of these organizations. Contact the parish office (452-6021) if you would like more information. And thank you for your continued support of St. Patrick, St. Vincent de Paul, Birthright, and others who are serving as the hands and feet of Christ.

The Crossing
The Crossing is a Christian-based alternative high school located one block west of St. Patrick Church. Their vision, as posted on their web site, is “Transforming lives through education by focusing on the heart and mind.” In addition to their academic focus, The Crossing offers their students job training and faith-based character education. The school offers an education and hands-on learning opportunities to students who have struggled in traditional educational settings.
Our partnership with The Crossing has included:

• A community garden on our property

• Providing sweatshirts with their school logo for all their students for Christmas
• Financial support for their job training program to build ramps for the poor and needy in our community
• Shared extra food from parish meals to help with the school’s lunch program, which relies on donations
• We have also helped provide food for their quarterly family nights.

Coordinated Assistance Ministries, Inc.
C.A.M. is a local organization whose mission is “to unify the assistance ministries of the religious community, show God’s love, meet needs not being met by community agencies, and cooperate with social service agencies in meeting the needs of our community.” They offer assistance to the homeless and help people get established in a home of their own.
Our partnership with C.A.M. has included:

• Food & drink donations with extras from parish events, dinners, etc.
• As C.A.M. helps families with nothing get established in a home of their own, we have donated items we no longer need at the parish, and we encourage others to do the same.
• Following the tornadoes of August 24, 2016, a person in Indianapolis contacted C.A.M. and offered to donate all the furniture and appliances from a home they were vacating. C.A.M. contacted St. Patrick, and we covered the cost of the U-Haul rental truck and gas.

Habitat for Humanity
As they explain on their web site, Habitat for Humanity’s vision is “a world where everyone has a decent place to live.” Their mission statement proclaims that, “seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.”
Our partnership with Habitat for Humanity has included:

• St. Patrick parishioners have been actively involved with Habitat for Humanity on multiple build sites.
• We have raised funds for our local Habitat for Humanity by hosting a paper shredding event.
• On at least two builds, we were part of an “Apostles’ Build” – where 12 congregations from our community came together to provide funding and labor to construct homes in Kokomo.
• We have also provided meals for volunteers at Habitat builds. 

St. Patrick has partnered with Pettit Park School (the neighborhood public elementary school), Grace United Methodist Church, and other groups to helped organize a neighborhood Family Fun Fest for the people who live, work, study, and worship within the boundaries of our neighborhood -- the Near Northwest Neighborhood. The annual Family Fun Fest includes a cookout, family parade through the neighborhood, a community fair, and a variety of social service booths representing the organizations that are present in our community to help with various issues and concerns.

Kokomo Urban Outreach
Kokomo Urban Outreach (KUO) has been instrumental in feeding the hungry in our community – both the physical hunger and the spiritual hunger. In 2016, however, they shifted gears after reading the book Toxic Charity and leading a community-wide book study of the work. According to K.U.O.’s web site, “To really help people we had to change how we were helping as not to hurt people.” They began to implement a new model of serving our community. “It is now the KUO way of doing most everything. CTC stands for ‘Coaching, Tools and Community.’ Our goal is to coach people into a better life, as well as giving them tools to succeed, all done in a community setting. Whenever you see CTC in a program description you will know we are working with families to help them to help themselves.”
Our partnership with Kokomo Urban Outreach has included:

• Major sponsor of the annual Empty Bowl Project which is a major fundraiser at Rozzi’s for K.U.O.
• Following the multiple tornadoes on the afternoon of August 24, 2016, St. Patrick partnered with and assisted KUO in multiple ways – donating funds, serving a meal to street department crews, fixing and serving meals to the community.
• Some parishioners have hired the boys in the ManUp program which helps boys learn responsibility, communication skills, and job skills.
• We have welcomed the StepUp for Girls program as they have hosted a booth at the past two years’ Oktoberfests.

St. Vincent de Paul
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic organization of lay persons who wish to live their faith by loving and serving as Jesus did. The group operates the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store and food pantry at 1207 N. Armstrong St. -- right across the street from the parish office. Volunteers help man the store, sort donations for the store and food pantry, and interact with members of the community who need assistance.
Our partnership with St. Vincent de Paul has included:

• Parishioners’ donations of food and money on the second Sunday of each month
• Financial support to help St. Vincent de Paul assist those in our community who need help with certain bills
• Parishioners volunteer to help oversee the operation of the store and the food pantry

  The Church of Goodness is a fairly-new organization in town. Their ministry addresses the needs of the homeless in our community. They provide a “warming center” and a safe place for the homeless in our community to come 24 hours a day. They offer the opportunity for the homeless to take a shower, to get some sleep in a safe and warm place, to get a decent meal, and to get their laundry washed. The organization recently set up a room in their facility as a “clothes closet” as well. We are just beginning our partnership with The Church of Goodness; Fr. Dudzinski and some staff members met with the people in charge of this local ministry recently, toured their facility, and learned of ways St. Patrick Parish and our parishioners can assist them as they address the needs of the homeless in our community.
We anticipate that our partnership with The Church of Goodness will include:

• Donations of food items, laundry detergent, and other items needed to help the homeless
• Financial support to help their ministry
• Parishioner volunteers to help when/where needed