Marriage Classes Forming Now:

Learn how to transform fights with each other into a fight FOR your marriage

Every marriage is bound to have a share of disagreement and fighting. But when disagreement and fighting start to tear your marriage apart . . . it's time to transform your fights with each other into a fight FOR your marriage. Catholic Social Service is hosting a Marriage for Keeps class to help couples do just that. Keep reading for a few tips on how to fight FOR your marriage.

Emergency Kit Checklist for the Home

FEMA and the Red Cross recommend keeping enough supplies in your home to meet your family's needs for at least three days. An Emergency Kit that can support your family for up to two weeks is optimal. Whether you need to update your emergency kit, or completely start from scratch, this checklist will give you plenty of ideas to ensure that you have everything you need.

Emergency Plan Checklist

If a disaster hit your community today, would you know what to do? The best time to prepare for a disaster is before it occurs. Take some time with your family at home, and with your colleagues at the workplace, to go through this emergency plan checklist . . . before it's too late!

Catholic Social Service Receives $1500 from the Albert Gumbir Charitable Fund

In every community there are those few individuals who truly made a difference.  Albert Gumbir was one of those individuals.  Today Albert’s legacy lives on, with the help of the Golden Belt Community Foundation to continue to provide support to charitable organizations that help those people who are indigent and could not otherwise pay for the services they need.  The Albert Gumbir Charitable Fund continues to provide grants to Barton County agencies to carry out his wish of helping others.

Born in 1905 in Austria, Albert settled in Odin, Kansas with his family and was a resident of Great Bend since 1922.  It could be said that Albert was a “self-made” man, meaning that he worked hard during his lifetime and was very diligent about money.  He preferred to be known by these words, “He’s been richly blessed with good health and wants to help others.”  And that is exactly what he did – help others.  He was always looking for things that he could do for others or for his community.  He felt that the community had been good to him for so many years and he wanted to somehow repay it.  Specifically, Albert was concerned about those individuals who might fall through the cracks and not receive the help they really needed when it was most important to them.  These are the individuals whom he wished to help the most.

Albert passed away at the age of 96 in June of 2001.  The Foundation is honored to be able to continue Albert’s charitable giving in his name.  It is the Foundation’s hope that he will be remembered not only as someone who was full of life and loved to help others, but as a great volunteer and philanthropist to his community.

by Christy Tustin, Executive Director
Golden Belt Community Foundation

Addiction Counseling Services Are Expanding . . .

Hattie Stein, our addictions counselor at Catholic Social Service, has added two more days for individual appointments in Garden City. Presently, Hattie alternates every other Monday between Garden City and Great Bend. Now, Hattie will be in Garden City on both Monday and Tuesday of every other week. To find out whether Hattie will be in Garden City or Great Bend, you can follow her schedule on our website calendar. On other days, except for Friday, Hattie can be reached at our Dodge City office listed at the bottom of this page.

The Rural Family Addiction and Behavioral Health program at Catholic Social Service in Dodge City, Kansas consists of chemical dependent and co-dependent outpatient services including including individual, group, couple, and family counseling, and relapse prevention therapy and planning.

Depending on assessment and evaluation outcomes, clients receive an individualized treatment/counseling plan based on spiritual concepts of the 12 step program which uses a holistic approach to address the physical, mental, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of the human being. AA, NA, SA, Al-Anon, AlAteen, are utilized for support and development of a social network for recovery outside the treatment program. For more information about the Addiction Counseling at Catholic Social Service, you can email Hattie at hstein@catholicsocialservice, or call 620-227-1584.

Mark your calendars and plan on joining us for the

2010 Stewardship Conference in Dodge City

For more information, click here.

Adoption Workshop Schedule set for Fall 2010

Catholic Social Service has set the fall schedule for the Adoption Workshop Series. This set of four workshops is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about open-adoption and the issues faced when raising an adopted child. A range of child development topics are addressed including specific developmental issues of children who have been adopted, attachment and bonding issues, and grief and loss issues. For more information, and to register for the Adoption Workshop Series, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by phone at 620-272-0010.

September 10th - "Facing our Fears in Adoption"
1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
St Augustine Room in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe
3231 N 14th St, Dodge City KS

October 1st - "What is Open Adoption"
1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
St Augustine Room in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe
3231 N 14th St, Dodge City KS

The Gulf Oil Crisis is a Disaster Event and Catholic Charities USA is treating it as such.

Click here to read the latest situation reports and news about Catholic Charities' disaster response. Click here to donate.

Trained Benefit Bank Counselors will be available to help individuals and families fill out the SRS application for food, medical, cash, and child care assistance. For more information, contact Pattie Sanders or Gabriela Moreno at 620-792-1393

Needed: A Few Teen Mom Mentors

If you believe statistics, the odds are stacked against teen mom success. They are less likely to finish high school, let alone college. They are more likely to depend on welfare assistance. Their children are less likely to succeed. And their daughters are more likely to become teen moms, too. The Catholic Social Service Teen Moms program works to change these odds.

The Teen Moms program is for women between the ages of 13 and 23 who have chosen to parent their child, but who have not yet obtained their high school diploma, or who are transitioning from high school to full time employment, college course work, or technical/certificate programs. In return for their efforts to postpone subsequent pregnancies and be engaged full-time in school and/or employment, the women in the program receive support from one-on-one visits, Discovery workshops, Mentors, and referrals as appropriate.

Mentors are a vital part of the Teen Mom program. A mentor is a woman who makes a one-year commitment (approx. 10 hours a month) to befriend one of the young women in the program, and to help her be successful in meeting her goals. Mentors help teen moms to overcome the odds; it's an opportunity to really make a difference in a young mother's life.

Could you mentor a teen mom? Would you? If you, or someone you know, is interested in being a Teen Mom Mentor, please contact Amy Falcon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Maria Gutierrez ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) by email or by phone at 620-227-1562, or 1-800-222-9383.