Bishop Sullivan Center

Bishop Sullivan Center is located at 6435 Truman Road, KC, MO 64126. Tom Turner is the Director and may be contacted at 231-0984. Their mission is to help provide low-income families with the basic necessities of life and to help move them toward self-sufficiency. It is also to educate others about the realities of poverty.

Bishop Sullivan Center is a very busy place as it serves the many needs of the less fortunate in the surrounding neighborhood, often stretching even beyond its boundaries. Besides offering emergency assistance, they offer a full job assistance program, work with car loans for the working poor, teach computer classes, tutor children, and much more.

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Community LINC

Community LINC is dedicated to empowering homeless and at-risk families toward sustained self-sufficiency through its people, programs, and collaborations. It is locally based and operated transitional living program for homeless families. It places strict demands on the families it assists. Community LINC provides a refuge of tranquility, order and permanence in an otherwise chaotic community. The goal is not to simply sustain people, but to help them change so that they can sustain themselves at reduced or no government subsidies.

Families who apply to the Community LINC program receive budget counseling, tutoring for the children, and advocacy. Community LINC has also broadened to developing Cleaning a la Carte, a cleaning service operated and provided by its clients and "YAP," a student-run business making dog treats, etc. These help the clients develop even further self-sufficiency by taking part in their own business.

Find out more about Community LINC by checking out their website at www.communitylinc.org.

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Donations

Many and varied donations are accepted by St. Thomas More Parish on behalf of the ministries we serve. We are able to accept books, school supplies, gently used and in-season clothing, suitcases, dishes, Christmas decorations, bedding, food, craft items, gently-used toys, and small appliances and will disperse them to the ministries found here. At times we are also able to accept larger furniture and appliances. Dollar collections are also taken up at Mass at various times for some of these ministries.

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Grants

Through the generosity of STM parishioners, we are able to offer both Parish-Based and Central City Grants to churches and organizations in the KC area. Parish-Based Grants are awarded to low-income churches for the purpose of supplementing salaries, primarily for those who work in social services. Applications are sent out and received by the Diocese in the spring for the following year.

Central City Grants are awarded to non-profit agencies who demonstrate need. Often, awards are granted for program "extras" that would otherwise not be offered due to lack of funding. Applications are sent out and received back to STM in the spring to be received early summer.

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Guatemala Sister Parish

St. Thomas More has a "sister parish" relationship with San Andres Itzapa in Guatemala. The purpose is to promote awareness and understanding of the Guatemalan people and their culture. We aim to support their progress toward a better education for their children and more medical care for their community. We hope to assist with their special needs. We strive to grow spiritually and intellectually through our intercultural exchanges with the people of San Andres by becoming more in touch with their simple way of life, tremendous faith in God, and appreciation of people.

Typically parishioners travel there each summer to meet, break bread together, pray together, build stoves, and generally just to "be" with our sister parish members.

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Holy Family Catholic Worker House

Catholic Worker House is located at 912 East 31st Street and strives to be a "school of radical Christianity, an invitation to know, through experience, the Gospel Jesus, who chose to become like, be with and for the poor" and strives to embody Christ's message of love through service.

St. Thomas More serves a meal on the first Saturday of each month. Four or five people are needed from 4:00 to 7:30 PM. You will prepare the food and get the tables ready. Approximately 70 to 150 people are served. It is an excellent opportunity to serve the poor and homeless of Kansas City. This is a good place for a family to do something together for the poor.

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More Hands

More Hands is St. Thomas More's response to assist with Helpful Hands. Helpful Hands is called to share resources so that all may have a better quality of life. Members come in partnership from different religious, racial, and economic backgrounds to improve housing and to promote personal empowerment in order to try to diminish boundaries, develop trust and build new relationships.

Volunteers with this ministry may find themselves moving furniture, cleaning yards for those who are unable, doing small home repairs, installing CO2 detectors, painting, etc.

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Respect Life

St. Thomas More supports respecting the "seamless garment" of life from conception to natural death. Our Respect Life group strives to educate about life issues and helps support pro-life organizations.

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ReStart Homeless Shelter

ReStart provides time, space, and resources in a supportive environment for homeless persons seeking to move toward independent living. They are located at 918 E. 9th St. ReStart provides temporary shelter to individual adults as well as to families and has both boys' and girls' teen runaway programs.

St. Thomas More provides a light evening meal on the second Friday of each month. This meal consists of sandwiches (prepared ahead of time by volunteers), chips, cookies, and milk and orange juice that are also donated. Other volunteers pick up the food at 5 pm to deliver and serve it at ReStart. This is another wonderful way to meet some of our financially less fortunate brothers and sisters. (One group of volunteers was even serenaded after serving such a humble meal!)

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Seton Center

Seton Center was named after St. Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint, known for her social work. She founded a religious community, a school for poor children that was the beginning of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States.

Seton Center is a social service agency located at 23rd and Benton in the central area of Kansas City, MO. Seton Center was founded in October 1969 by Sr. Mathilde, a Daughter of Charity, to reach out to the homebound elderly and needy families in the neighborhood. There were two areas of service: 1) programs for the elderly such as meals and providing recreational activities and 2) an emergency food pantry for the families in need.

Since its very beginning thirty years ago, STM parishioners have been continuously supportive of Seton's work with the poor to improve their lives.

Food Pantry - The food pantry provides emergency food to an average of 500 individuals each month. The 1st Sunday of every month the Seton Action Group has a food collection in the back of the church plus two special food drives. Food donations for the special food drives are brought to the school auditorium. Volunteers sort and pack the food, teenagers divide rice and beans into one-lb. bags. Volunteers stock shelves in the pantry and bag food for the needy.

Thrift Shop - The Thrift shop serves neighborhood families. It is open three days a week. The shop is operated by volunteers. They also sort and size the clothes. STM furnishes some of the clothes.

Christmas Baskets - A month before Christmas the Seton Action Group puts an insert with a list of food and gifts needed for the baskets in the church bulletin. The donations are brought to the school auditorium. Volunteers' work is the same as when we have a special food drive. Last year, 550 families received a Christmas basket from Seton.

Senior Buddies and Nursing Home Programs - Twice a week the Senior Buddies come to Seton Center for a meal and to socialize. They especially enjoy their 3rd Tuesday lunch served by STM volunteers. In the afternoon they participate in a variety of activities such as: crafts, games, sing-a-long, trips to the mall, ball games, etc. Nursing home residents are brought to Seton twice a week for recreation.

Adult Day Care - Seton's Adult Day Care provides assistance to families caring for an impaired adult who cannot by left alone during the day and yet who does not require 24-hour nursing care in an institution.

"Back-to-School Giveaway" - seton Action Group organizes the project. The donations of school supplies and "gently-used" clothes are brought in the auditorium the 1st week in August. Volunteers sort and size the clothes and pack them. Last year, volunteers worked four days at Seton distributing clothes and supplies to 332 children.

Summer Camp - Seton Action Group puts an ad in the bulletin to raise funds to send children from the Seton neighborhood to summer camp. We give the children a before-summer-camp party at Seton. Volunteers help with games and lunch.

Seton Center Alternative School - The school provides at-risk youth with an individualized education program. Volunteer tutors are needed.

Medical Clinic - Seton Center Family and Health Services provides a variety of services for poor families. It includes a dental and medical component, a wellness program, and a counseling unit.

If you are interested in helping in any of Seton's programs listed above or with the Seton Center Action Group at STM, call Sr. Mary Ann at Seton, 816/231-3955 or contact Heidi at heidi@stmkc.com. Volunteer and experience that "good feeling" that comes with helping others.

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"That's Not Fair" middle school curriculum

This program, offered through Bishop Sullivan Center, strives to teach our school 6th grade students about social justice. It is a wonderful program that begins by educating on the dignity of each human being and continues on to show the difficulty some individuals have in the system. The program culminates with having the class choose an advocacy issue and act on it, educating the members of the parish on the topic along the way.

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Twinning (St. Louis Parish)

Besides having a sister parish in Guatemala, St. Thomas More also has a twin relationship with St. Louis Parish, 5930 Swope Parkway, KC, MO 64130. The goal of this is to build awareness and develop rapport with our twin parish while challenging us to recognize and welcome Christ in everyone regardless of race, color, creed, or economic status; to celebrate and respect diversity in all parish activities, particularly in the liturgy.

St. Thomas More and St. Louis Parish members all worship together on several occasions through the year. In addition, the two parishes come together often to serve the needs of the community surrounding St. Louis Parish. St. Louis Parish has a Senior Center, a Food Pantry and Clothes Closet, and a youth center called the Upper Room. St. Thomas More parishioners:

• organize the Swope Park 5K Challenge in the fall to benefit the Senior Center
• assist with the Upper Room fundraiser in the fall
• help provide Christmas food and gifts for the Food Pantry
• enjoy several meals together including the St. Louis Steak Fry and the St. Thomas-St. Louis Jazz & Barbeque Fest in the early summer
• tutor children in the Upper Room program
• make gifts on special occasions for the seniors
• assist in the Food Pantry
• supply donations as possible

For more information on Peace and Justice Ministries and activities in our Diocese, please log onto http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/peaceandjustice/.

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