Shannon Kelly has worked with Catholic Charities throughout the state of New York for 17 years and is currently the CEO of Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan and Ulster. In this time, a partnership between Catholic Charities and the Presentation Sisters has evolved and strengthened. However, Shannon’s experience with women religious goes back much further.
“Women religious in the United States have had a tremendous impact on my life through various projects or moments or phases in my life,” she shares. “I think they are always the prophets of the future that’s not our own. They are always unafraid to tackle hard issues, unafraid to stand up for what is right, in small ways and large. To have people that I can go to like that gives me hope for our country.”
It is with this focus on hope that the congregation and the nonprofit continue to partner in a variety of ways to meet the needs of those in the New Windsor area, especially women and children.
Catholic Charities provides programs with about 70% of their focus on substance use disorder prevention and treatment. That means working with kids in schools. Since at least 2018 this partnership has extended to Nora Cronin Presentation Academy. “Nora Cronin Presentation Academy is such an anchor institution for families in Newburgh,” Shannon says. “There have been times where families in need might get referred to Catholic Charities from the school or immigration clinics being offered were extended to staff and parents.” In addition, two of the substance use disorder prevention teams, Too Good for Drugs and Teen Intervene, go into Nora Cronin Presentation Academy to provide this service to the students.
“Sister Yliana and the administration of Nora Cronin made the determination that partnering with Catholic Charities to bring those services to the girls was a priority,” Shannon explains. This partnership continues today.
The other 30% of the agency’s mission is their social safety net programming. Here they offer food pantries, case managers who work with housing and household bills, immigration legal services and even provide a warming shelter from November through April.
Just as Catholic Charities is focused on meeting the needs of those living in the area, the Presentation Sisters mission is to “act for and with the poor and oppressed of our world and to care for the Earth.” Additionally, the congregation’s Chapter commitments call them to address the “needs of women and children, especially as they are impacted by economic, environmental and racial inequity.”
The Presentation Sisters’ hospitality and care for the other was on full display in November 2022 when Catholic Charities began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wanted to get our team together. Those folks had gone above and beyond throughout the pandemic … but I didn’t know where we could go,” Shannon shares. “I reached out to Sister Mary Catherine and explained to her that I wanted to do a Thanksgiving retreat for the staff to celebrate being together again. She said, ‘you can use our facility in New Windsor.’” In addition to the use of the administration center meeting room, Sister Mary Catherine provided an opening prayer that was meaningful, and the staff was very accommodating. “I remember my staff really sitting there and feeling like there was a collective sigh in the room as people were able to stop and take a breath for the first time in over two years,” she explains.
Many years ago, Catholic Charities had approached the congregation when a crisis came up for a family. From the challenges of that response, both Catholic Charities and the congregation learned what might be needed to provide for immediate needs for a family in crisis in the future. Recently, the Sisters had begun to have conversations about how their mission could be expressed more fully on the property in New Windsor. They shared with Catholic Charities that they would like to partner on something like what they had previously done, but the project had to be well-planned and responsibilities would need to be spelled out clearly.
After a process of due diligence, Catholic Charities was able to screen families they had been working with to see who might be a fit for a Haven Project placement with the Sisters. Through this transitional program a family is placed in safe housing for a period of several months. They access services and get help with future planning from Catholic Charities while the partner, in this case the Presentation Sisters, provides housing at no cost.
During this collaboration, the family placed with the congregation experienced a personal tragedy. While it was difficult for everyone involved, the support and care the sisters were able to provide was essential to the family. Shannon shares, “I continue to be tremendously impressed by all of the sisters and their support and willingness to make the care for this family a priority for them. They, along with the staff at Catholic Charities, have stepped up in so many ways to be here for the family.”
For several years the sisters and staff at Mt. St. Joseph have been active in the backpack and adopt a family programs. The adopt a family program pairs a family with whom Catholic Charities has been working with an organization or group who wants to meet their Christmas wish list. “The sisters and staff always rally and strive to make sure that they can give the family the best possible holiday season,” Shannon says.
In addition, when students go back to school, there is a long list of supplies that need to be purchased. Some families struggle to be able to afford this expense, so Catholic Charities has a school supply drive. The sisters and the staff at Mt. St. Joseph love to purchase and collect these items for students in need.
“Sometimes in the helping profession you get overwhelmed by the scope of the problems. You really have to think in terms of the ‘we’ to get through that,” Shannon says. “The fact that this partnership with the Presentation Sisters has evolved over the last couple of years is very hopeful. We don’t feel like all of the burden rests on our shoulders; it’s a shared community effort. That gives me a lot of hope.”