Our History

Early efforts
Individual and group endeavors to help the poor and the disadvantaged formed the background for the organization which is Catholic Charities today. At the turn of the century, many central Illinois Catholics were immigrants or “first generation” struggling for economic footing at a time when government provided few safety nets for families faced with adversity.

The Church’s concern for orphaned children provided the impetus for building the first diocesan orphanage, St. Mary’s, which was established in Metamora by Archbishop John Lancaster Spalding in 1880. The hospital Franciscan sisters had operated the orphanage in Metamora from 1880 to 1890 – when the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Immaculate Conception (the “Heading Avenue Sisters”) took over.

In 1914 the facility, which had become inadequate, was closed and residents were moved to a newly completed orphanage on 28 acres in West Peoria. Then-Bishop Edmund Dunne renamed it Guardian Angel Home. It served 100 homeless children, and was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1914. In 1918, in a letter to diocesan families, Bishop Dunne had appealed for Catholic adoptive homes for orphanage children – adding that any child so adopted would be “visited periodically in its new home to see how it is treated” a precursor of the organized social services yet to be established.

The diocese soon erected an isolation hospital for the children on the Guardian Angel grounds. It was named Spalding Memorial Hospital. In 1948 the facility, no longer used as the Guardian Angel Home infirmary, was re­named Schlarman Children’s Home, and used to care for infants and small children awaiting placement in a state facility for the retarded. At this point it was staffed by Franciscan sisters from St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rock Island.

In 1925, Bishop Dunne asked a community of sisters from the east to organize a Peoria Diocesan Catholic Charities office. In 1928 the work was continued by Springfield Dominican sisters. The first Charities office was in rooms rented at City Hall. Eventually, the Diocese purchased a home at 413 N.E. Monroe for charity work. In 1933 the sisters discontinued their social work and Bishop Schlarman named Father Charles Williams as the agency’s first priest director. He was succeeded a year later by Father E. M. Farrell, who served for the next ten years.

Birth of the present agency
Catholic Charities – soon to be renamed Catholic Social Service and again Catholic Charities – was incorporated on July 3, 1942. Its stated purpose was “to engage in chari­table, welfare and social service work . . . to aid the poor and needy, including depen­dents, delinquents, and underprivileged.”

In the early years the fledgling agency served primarily Catholics, but as it expanded to meet a growing commu­nity it began accepting financial support from sources such as United Ways and government agencies and, ac­cordingly, redefined its Mission to in­clude service to all in need regardless of age, sex, religion, ethnic origin, or financial circumstances.

While the need for social services increased during the Great Depression and World War II, the need for long-term residential care for children was gradually diminishing. The Heading Avenue Franciscans continued to oper­ate Guardian Angel Home for ever smaller numbers of children. Over the years, special diocesan annual collec­tions had funded the addition of other buildings at the Heading Avenue complex, including a school, convent for the sisters, quarters for the resident priest, and lastly, a swimming pool adjacent to the main building.

Years of expansion
Bishop Edward O’Rouke assigned the operation of Guardian Angel Home to Catholic Social Service in 1972. In a first expansion move, Catholic Social Service relocated its Cabrini Hall to the sisters’ vacated convent in 1972. Under Catholic Social Service op­eration, Guardian Angel Home became a treatment center, but initially also provided emergency care for dependent children. In the years that followed, it has expanded its services to in­clude younger children once again. The age range is now 6 to 18, with the facility licensed for 38. The program today provides residential treatment, counseling, and coordinated plans for appropriate aftercare placement. The children in this pro­gram are often (estimated 95%) victims of abuse or neglect, and the abuse is usually sexual in nature.

The years after 1970 were marked by great agency expansion and the establishment of branch offices in key lo­cations throughout the diocese. Monsignor Gill Middleton, who succeeded Father Farrell as Catholic Social Service Director in 1942, had established a second Catholic Social Service office in Rock Island in 1944. This of­fice continued to operate separately until 1976, when it became a Catholic Social Service branch office.

Growth of foster care
In the years of growth and change, one of the traditional programs to undergo dra­matic change was Foster Care. This child-welfare service in the agency’s early years had often been an adjunct of post-orphanage care, when dependent teens were placed with willing families. The need for foster care grew as orphanages were phased out. Dependent Catholic children were referred to Catholic Social Service for short-term, as well as more extended care. Funding was most often by the courts – with medical care and other services donated.

In the 1970s, when Catholic Social Service opened its doors to serve persons of ev­ery religious persuasion, the Catholic Social Service program most immediately af­fected was Foster Care, which began as a journey of phe­nomenal growth and added professional services. A staff of four pioneered this growth – working out of the lunch room in the North Office. Today the staff numbers in the hundreds.

A wing of the Guardian Angel building provided office space for the growing Foster Care staff in late 1978. In January 1986, Foster Care moved its main offices to the former Schlarman Children’s Home, which had been occupied most recently by the Diocesan Board of Education.

In the following years, Foster Care needs in the community continued to increase. The Catholic Social Service program added staff accordingly, and differentiated its ser­vices in line with each children’s individual service plan. Specialized Foster Care for children with acute needs was first. Then followed other sub-departments in addition to Direct Service: Resources, Treatment, Relative, Aftercare, and facilities such as the Child Development Center and the Chicago Project. Foster Care program growth in the branch offices has not only accounted for additional staff throughout the diocese, but in some cities, separate buildings.

Establishment of Cabrini Hall
Cabrini Hall Maternity Home was established by Catholic Social Service in 1958 – after the Home of the Good Shepherd closed. First located in a house on Heading Avenue, it was moved to Monroe Street in the mid 1960s, and then to a house on the corner of Hamilton and Randolph in Peoria. When the agency took over the Guardian Angel complex in 1972, the Cabrini program was the first to move to the new site – relocat­ing to the brick building directly behind the main Guardian Angel building.

For a number of years, Catholic Social Service maintained an informal reciprocal agreement with area Catholic hospitals and other maternity homes whereby Peoria-area clients went to out-of-town facilities during their preg­nancies, and non-Peoria resi­dents came to Cabrini – thus helping to maintain client confidentiality. When, in time, confidentiality ceased to be an issue, Cabrini reverted to services for local area women. In 1988, Cabrini moved to renovated and expanded quarters over the garage at the West campus. It is licensed to serve ten young women.
In the early years of Cabrini’s existence, agency staff sought to provide continuing schooling for Cabrini school-age residents through correspondence courses. Eventually, Peoria School District #150 staffed an on-grounds classroom for residents.

New program for pregnant teens
In 1988, the agency further extended its residential maternity services with a new, in­novative program: St. Anne Maternity Treatment Center. Housed in the former Cabrini building, St. Anne Hall provides residential prenatal care and treatment for pregnant and/or parenting teen wards of the Department of Children and Family Services, and also for continued care, treatment, and training post-delivery, with ac­commodation for infants, children, and their mothers. District #150 staffed an on-grounds classroom in the Heading Avenue School for the St. Anne clients – as well as for the residents of nearby Guardian Angel Home.

The St. Anne facility experienced expansion needs. In the fall of 1994, additional space at the West Campus became available with the closing of St. John Bosco House. The facility was gutted and ren­ovated to house 8 more St. Anne residents and their chil­dren and was renamed St. Anne II.

Evolution of daycare services
Begun as an adjunct to the St. Anne program in 1988, Jesu Children’s Enrichment Center’s first clients were the infants born to St. Anne residents. The daycare building was originally a gazebo, then renovated to serve as the first LaCasa, and later still ex­panded and renovated once again for adoption program offices. As Jesu I, it became a much larger L-shaped building, with fenced-in play areas. Originally licensed for 39 in­fants and preschoolers, it soon began accepting children from community families, other community agencies, and children of Catholic Social Service staff. Jesu experi­enced increasingly long waiting lists, and in 1993 and 1994 embarked on further expan­sion, first to Jesu II across from St. Anne, then to Jesu III in a wing of Guardian Angel Home. Capacity for the three facilities was established at 185 by state licensing per­sonnel.

Additional pregnancy services with Women’s Counseling and Support Services
In the early years of its service to unwed mothers, the Agency concentrated its ef­forts in sheltered residential care and counseling. As social mores shifted, the need for confidentiality became less acute – although the need for services did not diminish. In 1980 the agency offered an alternative outpatient pregnancy service called Women-In-Need (WIN). Originally located at 506 Hancock, the program was later related to the North Office and its crisis pregnancy services – including assistance in securing medi­cal care – were extended with additional staff in Catholic Social Service branch offices. The program has been renamed Women’s Counseling and Support Services. It offers free pregnancy testing, counseling, and other needed services throughout the diocese in its branch offices to pregnancy clients and those at risk.

Diocesan concern with family planning
Catholic Social Service’s interest in providing Natural Family Planning assistance and in­formation dates from the mid 1970s, but its organization as a separate agency service began in 1978. In that year, four certified teaching couples offered workshops throughout the diocese on the sympto-thermal method of Natural Family Planning. In the years immediately following, the program expanded, offering its services to en­gaged couples in Pre-Cana Conferences – from which evolved Christian Sexuality workshops – which are now a part of the Diocesan re­quirement for marriage, and it also began a newsletter designed to promote Natural Family Planning information. Shortly thereafter, additional staff fluent in Vietnamese and Spanish were added to provide service to non-English-speaking families.

Over the years, Natural Family Planning has continued to extend its services, adding highly successful related services, such as Time for Mom in Peoria and LaSalle, and a series of Mother/Daughter and Father/Son programs throughout the diocese. Natural Family Planning staff regularly present informational in-services on this method of fam­ily planning es­poused by the agency. Staff have also been largely responsible for the agency’s Chastity Education curriculum.

A flood of refugees tests CSS’s ability
Catholic Social Service has been a special concern to the plight of refugee peoples, beginning with Hungarian families in 1956, and Cubans in the 1960s. Refugee work be­came a major effort beginning in 1975, with the end of the war in Vietnam and the con­sequent flood of displaced people heading for the United States. Catholic Social Service’s Refugee Resettlement program, under the auspices of the United States Catholic Conference, sought to provide adult refugees and their families with reloca­tion services, housing, employment, financial aid, English lessons, and needed social services. Before the program effectively terminated in 1994, more than 5,000 persons had been resettled. These included not only Southeast Asians, but refugees from many other parts of the world as well.

In 1979, as a continuing refugee service, Catholic Social Service open the Tha Huong residential program in a wing of the Guardian Angel building. Tha Huong served refugee children who came to the United States unac­companied by their parents. Tha Huong provided residential care, ESL training as needed, acculturation, and edu­cation while aiming at foster placement or independent living. The numbers of these children dwin­dled after 1990, and the program ended in early 1991.

Seniors not forgotten
The special needs of elderly persons became increasingly recognized in the mid 1970s. In 1977, Catholic Social Service began building the foundations of a senior citizen pro­gram for persons aged 60 and over. It first established senior clubs in area parishes and recruited volunteers for a program of regular home visits. These visits included fol­low-up counseling as needed. In the early 1980s the Senior Citizen program operated a nutrition service with meals to the elderly at selected rural and city sites, plus home-delivered meals. In Canton, Catholic Social Service also briefly provided elderly care at a daycare center. A second similar facility, Elderworld in LaSalle, also started at the same time and continued until 1991. In the mid 1980s, local funds which had supported the Friendly Visitor program ended, but in-home counseling continued. The service continues today with a staff based at the North Office.

Adoption services move into a new era
Adoption, one of the agency’s original services, has been transformed by vast changes in recent years, but with a continuing philosophy of professional services to all mem­bers of the adoption triad. The adoption process has moved away from the one-time secrecy which characterized it, to a spirit of openness and ongoing support. Adoption staff actively recruit minority families, and homes for “special” children, and also work closely with other adoption services at the local, state, and international levels to pro­vide secure, permanent homes for children of all ages and persuasions. Adoption ser­vices include counseling, support, post-adoption services, and “searches.”

Solving the problems of youth
Acute social problems, such as dealing with runaways, require an immediate response. Catholic Social Service has endeavored always to meet these demands. For a time in the early 1980s, the Guardian Angel and Foster programs provided evaluation, inter­vention, and/or short-term placement in cooperation with the Department of Children and Family Services on cases involving abuse or neglect.

By 1983, Catholic Social Service had in place a Crisis Intervention emer­gency/advocacy service to status offender children in eight counties of the diocese. Services to troubled youth were further expanded through Unified Delinquency Intervention Service contract with DCFS. Services were thus available for delinquent youth in three counties. Today, Catholic Social Service’s Youth Intervention Programs are continually expanding and evolving to meet the needs of area youth.

Community Area Projects
In 1986, Community Area Projects (CAP) were established in Peoria and Bloomington-Normal neighborhoods. These grass-roots programs recruited neighbor­hood residents who then identified existing problems and established committees and steps toward solutions. Two other CAP centers – in Pekin and Danville – followed. In Peoria, the already established LaCasa Center for area Hispanic people merged with PCAP.

Counseling
Over the years, the Catholic Social Service Counseling Program has evolved with its professional staff into a program of effective, therapeutic intervention to preserve and enrich family life. Each of the program’s therapists, whether based in Peoria or branch offices, has had special training in the family systems method of treatment.

In Peoria the Counseling program offices have been relocated several times in recent years from the North Office on Monroe and then to the West Campus before mov­ing to a newly acquired building at 417 N.E. Monroe in 1990. This site is now the Catholic Social Service Family Counseling Center. Counseling staff are also based in Catholic Social Service branch offices.

Other services
Special service needs – such as the devastation from the Mississippi River flooding in 1993 – have always been a call to Catholic Charities to organize available re­sources for those in need. In response to the flooding, Catholic Charities staff worked in the western counties of the diocese to evaluate need and help distribute assistance.

Catholic Charities has had many behind-the-scenes staff whose efficient work contributes immeasurably to the delivery of social services. Clerical, accounting, ad­ministrative, and statistical staff in Peoria number about 35. Each branch office has clerical and housekeeping staff as well. The Catholic Charities Maintenance Department, based at the West Campus, are responsible for building repair, renova­tion, and maintenance. Housekeeping and automotive repair/maintenance services are also based at the West Campus.

Catholic Charities has had a presence in the Diocese of Peoria for the better part of a century. Its scope and size have grown many times, but its mission to the aid the needy, the troubled, and the disadvantaged still charts its course today as it did in the very beginning.