Catholic Charities of Buffalo

Catholic Charities of Buffalo is a Catholic sponsored human service agency serving anyone in need in the eight counties of Western New York. Believing all persons are created by God, we advocate for equity and justice for all people and empower individuals, children and families to achieve and maintain meaningful, healthy and productive lives.

Catholic Charities will be a community leader in providing quality, effective and efficient human services. We will be the premier agency of choice for clients, donors, employees and volunteers. We will be the beacon of hope for those in need.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Increase Financial / Economic Stability (e.g. analyze existing services for impact, effectiveness, and efficiency; evaluate community need and alternate providers to identify program future)

Goal Type: Focus on core programs to achieve mission and scale back on programs not seen as core.

Goal Two: Improve Mental Wellness (e.g. evaluate accessibility to behavioral health services; action plan targeting quality & integrated services; reengineer clinical services for financial sustainability)

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Strengthen Individual and Family Stability and Connectedness (e.g. develop existing and potential partners to collaborate on services; align services to meet immigrant / refugee needs)

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Describe an investment in leadership

Agency Leadership initiated an employee engagement program as part of our three-year strategic plan. The program included a voluntary survey that secured an outstanding 82% response rate. Feedback from the survey allowed leadership to identify "Enhancing Training & Development" as a top five recommendation from staff. In response, the Agency is rolling out a comprehensive training & development initiative with a preliminary foundational focus on 1) leadership tools and 2) safety. Training already in place includes but is not limited to a keynote address to the entire management team at a recent Quarterly Leadership meeting on the topic of servant leadership, training on de-escalation techniques for client facing staff, and NARCAN certification training. The next phase of the training includes a full supervisory skill curriculum (e.g., mentoring, interviewing, time management, etc.) for all managers and additional safety training on topics such as Active Shooter Response.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

The Agency engages in multiple strategic partnerships with local nonprofits; for example, the Agency is part of the Western New York Refugee and Asylum Consortium with the other resettlement agencies to ensure the organizations work together in service delivery. The Agency participates in collective clinical networks such as the Western New York Integrated Care Collaborative and the Value Network to ensure compliance with HIPAA requirements, to share benchmark data, and to implement healthcare best practices at our mental health clinics. Agency leadership routinely participates in group discussions at national conferences such as CCUSA. External training efforts include but are not limited to high school equivalency and job training for clients and ESL training for refugees. Marketing efforts to raise awareness of Agency services include regular press releases, community events, parish outreach, and social media messaging through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other channels.

The most salient example of effective change management is our leadership's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. COVID had a profound impact on our organization as it contributed to cumulative fundraising drop of over 10% from previous baselines (9.7% in 2020 and 3.2% in 2021) while driving unsustainable employee turnover rates (20% in 2020 and 31% in 2021). Meanwhile, COVID disrupted our ability to deliver services and limited access to critical resources while drastically increasing the demand for many programs. For example, the economic burdens of COVID contributed directly to a 21.4% increase in emergency financial assistance intakes. It was a crisis in every sense. In response, Agency leadership implemented and maintains an aggressive COVID response. We invested in our people to counter turnover, including a $2.3 million increase in payroll through a 5% increase to base wages. We implemented remote work where possible to reduce population density across our 50+ service sites. Administrative resources went 100% remote and service delivery switched to hybrid models where practical. We invested in systems and tools designed to facilitate remote work and our team stepped up to avoid any major disruptions to our ability to serve clients. Additionally, the biggest adaptation made during the pandemic was to require the COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment and volunteering. This decision was made as a moral and affirmative action to protect both our workers and our clients, many of whom are part of the most vulnerable populations. These collective changes were designed to ensure operational sustainability. The maintenance of the hybrid work model has allowed us to reduce our physical footprint while investments and changes to systems and processes allowed us to deliver services more efficiently. As a result, despite all the disruptions and challenges of COVID, the Agency was able to meet our obligations while achieving a financial surplus.