Working with Funded "Partners"

In MILWAUKEE, Fr. Wayne Jenkins is liaison to the Benedict Center for Criminal Justice, and our grant supports the expansion of their work with women in prostitution.  SET Ministry’s executive director has been a resource for us by speaking on three occasions in the last two years to groups of SHSST seminarians, and Mark Peters has helped with their development efforts. 

The Director has gone door-to-door with the Dominican Center’s neighborhood organizers and attended their Saturday community meeting and other community events, such as the re-opening of Moody Park for which the DC was a champion.  Their Amani neighborhood is one of the most impoverished areas of Milwaukee, an African-American community with the highest incarceration rate in the state.  Last February, the JPR Director took part in the Racial Equity Forum the Center sponsored, which attracted over 100 Milwaukee nonprofit and civic leaders. 

In CHICAGO, Mark Peters sits on the 8th Day Center’s Assembly of representatives which meets twice a year, and Fr. Bob Bossie continues to participate in some of their actions.  Fr. Bob and Mark and Fr. Bob Tucker attended an 8th Day-sponsored workshop on LGBTQ issues.  Frater Joseph Vu has been a big advocate of the Darst Center, which organizes “urban plunges” and social justice retreats for people from around the country, and Port Ministries, offering direct service and empowerment services in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood.  Other students at the Novitiate House have gotten involved with both groups in the past and we hope to see more such connections with the formation program in the future. 

In HOUSTON, we also support TMO, a community organization that Frs. Tim Gray and Tony Russo were very involved in and with which Fr. Tim has re-connected now that he is back there, and Magnificat Houses, of which Fr. Frank Wittouck has been a long-time champion.  In Green Bay, we continue to support a homeless shelter established by Fr. Guy Blair.