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The History of Catholic Social Service
Our Roots . . .
1727 - French Ursuline Sisters open an orphanage in New Orleans.
1910 - First meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Charities (NCCC) convenes in Washington D.C.
1954 - NCCC helps to start Caritas International, the international Catholic Charities organization, in Vatican City.
The Early Years . . .
 1965 - Catholic Social Service in the Diocese of Dodge City formally opened its doors at 1012 Washington, Great Bend KS, on Monday, March 15, 1965. The year before, Fr C Walter Weiss (right) conducted interviews with welfare directors in the 28 counties of southwest Kansas to find out how they felt about the need for a private social welfare agency. His interviews were part of his master's dissertation investigating the need for a Catholic Social Service agency in the Dodge City Diocese. After finishing his degree in social work in June 1964 from Catholic University of America, Fr Weiss returned to the Diocese and, with Bishop Forst's blessing, began to invite a group of people to be a Board of Directors for a possible agency.
These first board members were from seven cities: Great Bend: Frank Schartz, Joseph A Mermis Jr, Clair J Cavanaugh MD, Larry E Keenan, Mrs Frances Esfeld, Dave O'Neill (President), Zenon Lopez, Bob Rychlec, Alfonso Briscoe, Sr M Constance OP, Sr M Ancilla OP, Fr Richard Konda, and Msgr George Husman; St John: Fr Bernard Groome and Mrs Polly Taylor; Larned: WR Brenner MD and Ron Scott; Albert: RJ Pivonka; Hoisington: Cody Ochs; Ness City: Ed Robl and Keith Schramek; and LaCrosse: Ben Enslinger. Keith Rickert served as Vice-President and Kathleen Kummer Lutz served as treasurer.
By May 2, a Sunday afternoon, Catholic Social Service was ready for an open house to acquaint visitors with the services offered by the new agency:
- Marriage and family counseling
- Homemaker services
- Adoptions
- Aid to unwed mothers
At first, marriage counseling was the major service being offered, regardless of faith, and on a sliding fee scale proportionate to the client's income. According to Fr Weiss, the purpose of counseling wasn't to give advice, "but to help clients to try to understand their motivations . . . By understanding their motivations, we also help them solve their problems."
Within that first year, Catholic Social Service placed 16 children with adoptive parents; assisted 7 unwed mothers, provided foster home care to two children; and counseled 42 individuals in 1-25 sessions each, all at a cost of $7655. Mrs Geraldine Fosdick was hired as Secretary. Fr Weiss provided marriage counseling during office hours. Ron Scott MSW, Gale Giebler with an MS in Clinical psychology, and Dr Erwin Bacmeister were soon hired to provide a comprehensive treatment program for area citizens, especially during evenings and weekends. It was the only agency offering professional help in marriage counseling west of Wichita in Kansas. The cover of one of the first brochures read:
It is our hope that with this agency and its services we will be able to contribute in some small way to the betterment of human society and the happiness of humankind, both here and eternity.
1967 - (December 8) Catholic Social Service co-sponsors the first Alcoholism Awareness Seminar in Great Bend to stimulate a successful program in the area for the family of the alcoholic.
The Board creates an Ad Hoc Committee, led by Larry Keenan and Monsignor George Husmann, on Child Treatment Services.The committee identifies a need for a facility for troubled juvenile girls.
1968 - (February 4) The first adoptive couples meeting is held in Dodge City.
(March) Catholic Social Service licensed (through the state of Kansas) its first foster home.
1969 - (June) Father C. Walter Weiss becomes the Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
With extensive support from Catholic Social Service, the Business and Professional Women's Club in Great Bend takes up the project of starting a group home for troubled juvenile girls. Forest Place was soon established to house 10 girls.
Elaine Traffas is hired to stimulate interest in the community for a day care center; it soon opens with seven day children in the First Southern Baptist Church educational facilities building.
After forming a committee to investigate the need for low cost housing, the Board of Directors determines that there is a vital need for low income housing in Garden City and Great Bend. The Board voted to sponsor both projects if they were feasible. The Garden City project ran into funding problems, but the Great Bend project would later culminate in Sommerset Place.
The Seventies . . .
1970 - Bettie Nebergall, Board Member, leads Catholic Social Service efforts to initiate the Barton County Community College GED program.
1971 - In April, Fr Weiss resigns. Ann Forster serves as Acting Director for two months. In June, Fr Gilbert Herrman is named as Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
(March) Bishop Forst hires Sr Malachy Stockemer to create and coordinate a program for senior citizens. Several programs and services are created as a result of Sr Malachy's efforts: homemaker programs, Senior Citizen Centers, Meals on Wheels, nutrition programs, Living Memorial Funds, activity programs for the elderly, Concerned Citizens for the Aging in Garden City, and consultation services for retirement home developers.
1972 - (July) Fr Lisle J Pottorff is named Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
1973 - (July 22) An Open House is held for families to view the new low income housing project in Great Bend: Sommerset Place.
1974 - (January) While Catholic Charity agencies across the country are struggling with several problem areas (e.g. respect for life, income maintenance, the elderly, childcare, the disabled, and housing), Bishop Forst writes that Catholic Social Service has done very well:
There are a few Dioceses in the 48 states which have had as good a history in the area of social services as we have had considering our size . . . the Agency serves the vast rural area of 28 counties, over 23,000 square miles, with over 200,000 population. Yet, all of these objectives in some way have been handled by this Agency.
An Emergency Assistance program is established and seed money is appropriated to the Barton County Boys' Home.
(June) Sr Teri Wall is named Program Director
(September) CSS Board of Directors recommends opening an office in Garden City to work with refugees.
1975 - A satellite office for Catholic Social Service is started in Garden City by Sr Frances Biernacki and Levita Rohlman.
Catholic Social Service becomes a re-settlement agency for individuals and organizations wanting to sponsor Vietnamese persons within the Diocese through the Vietnamese Refugee Service program.
1976 - (October 28) Bishop Marion F Forst resigns.
- (December 14) Bishop Eugene J Gerber is ordained to the episcopacy.
1979 - (March 20) Bishop Gerber appoints an Ad Hoc Committee to study the goals of Catholic Social Service.
(November) The Emmaus House is established as a Catholic Social Service activity in Garden City to shelter the transient and homeless.
(December) Board of Directors accept the Ad Hoc Committee reports: the top priority service is to be counseling in all areas.
The Eighties . . .
1980 - A coalition called Ourselves and Our Families is formed in Barton County to educate parents and the public about problems in the community such as parent-child-adolescent relationships, sex and drugs, moral values, and child abuse and prevention.
(September 3) The Emmaus House becomes a reality. Catholic Social Service plays a significant part in the management and support of this shelter which serves people needing food, shelter, work, advice and friendship.
1981 - (February) The Crisis Center for battered wives and children (Family Crisis Center) is established under the sponsorship of Catholic Social Service in Great Bend to serve victims of domestic violence.
(November) Alice Humphrey is employed as Lay Director.
1982 - (November) Bishop Gerber is appointed Bishop of Wichita.
1983 - (February) Alice Humphreys becomes Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
(March 1) Bishop Stanley G Schlarman, auxiliary of Belleville, Illinois, becomes the fourth bishop of Dodge City.
1984 - (April) A temporary office is established in Dodge City.
(May) Revised By-laws establishes a 12-member working Board of Directors.
1985 - (May) Garden City and Dodge City offices close.
1986 - (June) Fr Ted Skalsky is named Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
National Conference of Catholic Charities becomes Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA)
1987 - (January) Paula Vink is named Program Director.
Adult Adoptee Search and Reunion Program is initiated by Catholic Social Service, and is the first of its kind in Kansas.
(October) A part-time office opens in Sacred Heart Cathedral in Dodge City.
1989 - (December 11th) The Catholic Social Service Endowment is incorporated in the State of Kansas. The purpose of the Endowment was to replace funding from Diocesan cutbacks and to secure the future for Catholic Social Service financially.
The Nineties . . .
1990 - (March) After visiting with Kent Stehlik, fundraising counsel, the Board decides to start fundraising in the Great Bend area where the main office was located.
(April) The Garden City office reopens part-time at 118 1/2 Grant.
(June) The Board conducts a feasibility study with over thirty community leaders in Great Bend. The results indicated that Catholic Social Service was known in the community, had a good reputation and that the community would support a major campaign. Thus, the "Endowment for the Future Fund" is established.
1991 - (May) The Endowment launches the first two phases of the campaign in Great Bend. Over the next two years, the Campaign moves to Ellinwood, Larned, Pratt, St John, and Scott City.
(July) Debbie Snapp is named Program Director.
1992 - (June) A second feasibility study was conducted in Garden City to determine whether a joint campaign between Catholic Social Service and Emmaus House would be feasible. Twenty-six leaders participated in this study. The conclusion indicated that the potential for success of a joint campaign for Catholic Social Service and Emmaus House was good. The public thought highly of both agencies.
1993 - (March) After much planning, the joint campaign between Catholic Social Service and Emmaus House is launched. It is agreed that the funds raised would be divided equally between the two organizations except for the designation of gifts.
Kansas is 7th in the nation for the most institutionalized children. Through affiliations with Arrowhead West, Inc and Southwest Development Services, Catholic Social Service develops a foster care and respite care program for children with physical and mental disabilities. Many children have been able to stay with or close to their families through this program.
(September) Full-time offices are opened in Garden City, and in the Chancery Office in Dodge City.
1994 - (December) Dodge City office moves to the Annex Building.
1995 - (June) Family Counseling Services are offered in all three locations.
(November) After a year of waiting (several other capital campaigns were already in progress), the Endowment Campaign is launched in Dodge City.
1996 - Kansas begins to privatize all of its social services, and Lutheran Social Service becomes the state contractor for Adoption Services.
(October) Catholic Social Service becomes a sub-contractor with Lutheran Social Service and begins providing Special Needs Adoption Services within Diocesan boundaries.
(October) A successful Endowment Campaign is conducted in the Spearville area.
1998 - (May) Bishop Schlarman resigns, and Msgr Ronald M Gilmore is named as the next Bishop of the Dodge City Diocese.
(September 9) The final phase of the Endowment Campaign begins in the Ingalls/Cimarron area. It is a successful campaign. Over the seven years that the Campaign had been in progress, and with the help of 309 campaign workers, 919 donors pledged over $681,000 to the Endowment for the Future Fund.
1999 - Catholic Social Service joins with other Catholic Charities agencies in the state to form the Kansas Catholic Charities Network. Through the network a state grant was obtained for the Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative. Counseling and case management services are provided to help women give birth to their children in lieu of an abortion.
2000 and Beyond . . .
2000 - (June) Special Needs Adoption Program ends with the termination of the state contract with Lutheran Social Service. Over the previous four years of the contract period, CSS provided services for 184 children, placing 142 for adoption and legalizing 96 of those placements. An additional 38 children were waiting to have their adoptions legalized when the contract ended.
Kansas Children's Service League is named as the new state contractor for adoption services.
2001 - (December) Special Needs Adoption Program resumes with a contract with Kansas Children's Service League.
2005 - (June) Catholic Social Service ends its involvement with special needs adoption because of a change in the contractors and service delivery model. This marks an end to a statewide network to find homes for waiting children in Kansas.
(September) - Board member, Hattie Stein urges the agency to expand its programming to include drug and alcohol services and offered to develop it. Catholic Social Service became licensed by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services as a Drug and Alcohol Outpatient Treatment Program in September 2005. Services begin in the Dodge City office and have since expanded to the Great Bend and Garden City offices.
The federal government begins funding a project to provide training to medical providers who have contact with pregnant women to help them talk about hte option of adoption without misinformation and personal biases. The concern was that adoption was presented as a lower value choice than parenting and abortion by medical providers. Catholic Social Service served as a host agency for the first year and then entered into a five-year agreement as a lead agency with Spaulding for Children in Detroit MI to coordinate the Infant Adoption Awareness Project throughout the state of Kansas.
2006 - (September 1) Bishop Gilmore names Debbie Snapp as the Executive Director of Catholic Social Service.
2007 - CCUSA initiates a campaign to cut poverty in half by the year 2020.
(October) Catholic Social Service begins another major project with the Kansas Catholic Charities Network (KCCN): Marriage for Keeps. KCCN was selected as a federally funded research and service site to provide marriage education and enrichment. Garden City was selected as the site for the Diocese of Dodge City. Within Our Reach relationship classes were held in both English and Spanish. A variety of enrichment activities were implemented and the project eventually began holding classes in Dodge City. Parish weekend retreats were conducted as well.
2008 - Catholic Social Service unveils its new website at www.catholicsocialservice.org
(September) - After more than 40 years, the Catholic Social Service in Great Bend moves from Washington Street to its present location at 2201 16th St in order to accommodate growing services.
2010 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designate Catholic Charities Sunday, September 26th, as a day to celebrate the Catholic Charity Centennial.
2011 - Catholic Social Service begins using three web-based services with its adoption programs: www.myadoptionportal.com, www.parentfinder.com, and www.childconnect.com.
2015 - Catholic Social Service celebrates 50 years of service with the people of Southwest Kansas!
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