Father Sheridan was an assistant at St. Michael Parish and the nuns worked from a small house moved from Fifth Avenue to what is now a corner of the church parking lot. They offered family counseling – the preventive approach to social ills – to the Catholics of Genesee County and were soon joined by three more nuns and a lay person – all volunteers.
During the World War II years, the agency earned community respect as a concerned, caring organization and in 1945, the Community Chest gave the Bureau $11,800 – a substantial amount at that time. The mission stayed the same – to serve and bring healing to those who hurt – but the approach became more Catholic and more encompassing, reaching to meet new and or changing needs; such as hospital arrangements for unwed mothers, youth counseling, jobs for the unemployed, and financial assistance to needy families and individuals.
The Don Bosco Club, a program similar to Big Brothers, began in 1953 and within a year had eighteen men working as volunteer counselors. In 1955 the Bureau became a State-licensed child placement agency, enabling its child welfare program to serve both unwed mothers and prospective adoptive couples.
Father Sheridan, by then wearing monsignor’s red, resigned in 1965 and was replaced for one year by Father Francis Murray. In 1966 Bill Haley, who had been a caseworker for the agency since 1951, became the Bureau’s first lay executive director. That same year the agency name was changed to Catholic Social Services of Flint (CSS), consistent with the name used by Catholic social agencies across the country.
In 1971, the agency celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with the first Monsignor Earl V. Sheridan Award for outstanding volunteer service. The first honorees were Miss Mildred Carroll and Mrs. Zeta Studer, foster mothers who shared their big Montrose farmhouse with more than 150 youngsters over 35 years. The next year CSS tapped Harry Woodbeck who, in his own words, “tried to do my share.” That share ran from mentoring a parade of Little Brothers, to leading a Brownie troop, to teaching catechism, to shoveling snow around the front door at St. Michael Church – just to name a few. Later selections followed in the same vein, selfless individuals who did more than their share without much fuss. After a ten-year hiatus, the award resumed in 2001.
Over the last three decades, Catholic Social Services has reached out to an ever more diverse clientele, with different approaches. Programs are continually being born, merged, split, and morphed to respond to new community challenges.
In the late seventies, new approaches included Divorced Catholics, Woman to Woman, Emergency Shelter for Women, and closer ties with local parishes and other community groups.
The North End Soup Kitchen (NESK) and Holy Angels Sandwich Program merged with CSS in 1987, giving the volunteer food programs their first real administrative home. Their history dates back to the early 1940’s, when any hungry person who knocked on the back door of Holy Angels Convent was fed.
The North End Soup Kitchen was born when opportunity knocked in1980. While a Catholic Committee of Concern was searching for ways to address exploding poverty problems – particularly in Flint’s north end – Sacred Heart Catholic Church lost it’s tenant in the parish’s Father Blasko Hall.
A dollar a year rental was quickly struck, the cooking pots began to simmer in a prime location, and a volunteer effort mushroomed. Today, the North End Soup Kitchen draws broad financial and volunteer support. During 2007 just under 6,000 volunteers served up nearly 60,000 hot meals at the North End Soup Kitchen and over 105,000 sack lunches at three sandwich outlets.
New Horizons, a foster care program for teen mothers and their babies, began in 1988. Within a year, New Horizons reached its maximum of 15 girls and was named Innovative Foster Care Program of the Year by the Michigan Federation of Private Child and Family Agencies.
In 1990, CSS used grants from the Genesee County Commission on Substance Abuse Services and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint for a two-pronged approach to the problems of young children in families with drug and/or alcohol dependency. Children in Focus was a prevention and education program for elementary school children. Parents with Feeling and Communication helped parents understand their children’s feelings and needs.
In the spring of 1994 the agency introduced FAST (Families and Schools Together) to the Flint area. FAST is a nationally recognized program that targets elementary and middle school students and involves parents with the schools to work out behavior and performance problems.
In the fall of 1997, CSS moved from cramped quarters in the United Way Building to The Sheridan Center on Chippewa Street. The St. Joseph Guild at St. Michael’s Catholic Church transformed most of the old convent into office space. The guild workers built a ramp for accessibility, and later on, an elevator was completed so that all three levels have handicap access.
That same year Catholic Social Services of Shiawassee County merged with CSS of Genesee County. Thereafter, CSS began providing medication, case management, and outpatient services for Genesee County Community Mental Health.
Following the merging of two agencies, CSS began working with Connexion and the Spanish Speaking Information Center to provide support, training, and networking for grandparents – as well as aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings – raising someone else’s children. First called “Grandparents raising Grandchildren,” the current program today is referred to as “Kinship Caregivers.”