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MRS > Migration Policy and Public Affair Office > North West Action Plan Summaries
- The diocese will “enhance and expand Parish Social Ministry” in order to “educate the baptized to serve people in need.” The Cultural Ministries Office and Catholic Charities of Idaho will work together to enhance the capacity of the parishes through a training program. Workshops will be offered at the deanery level. The goal of the program will be to form at least five volunteers in each ‘Pilot Parish’ and deacons to promote multicultural ministry efforts.
- The diocese will work to produce a bilingual “handbook and referral directory” for new immigrants which provide general information about how to seek out social and pastoral resources in the former, supplemented by specific contact information in the latter (phone numbers for parishes, contact numbers for Catholic Charities agencies, etc).
- The diocese will establish a “Migrant and Multicultural Ministries Project” (MMMP) with a full-time Project Director, to coordinate work with various under-served populations in the diocese. The new program will be housed within Catholic Charities which will monitor the effectiveness of the program and work to integrate the project into diocesan life.
- The new MMMP Director will work directly with parishes to encouraged them to “actively welcome migrants, persons on the move or ethnically diverse populations.” By December 2005, the goal is to “double the number of parishes” directly involved in these welcoming ministries. To achieve this goal, the Project Director will establish a mentoring grogram which pairs parishes that are involved in welcoming ministries with those that are not.
- Catholic Charities (CC), with the collaboration of the MMMP Director, will undertake a comprehensive initiative to enhance direct services to assist immigrants. As such, they intend to undertake programs to increase the number of BIA accredited staff and volunteers, double the number of parish leaders who are proficient in Spanish, and to increase “awareness of the existing multicultural make-up of the Diocese” through promotion of and education about “ethnically diverse traditions, celebrations and activities.”
- The two lead agencies will also work to new community partnerships. One new program will encourage partnerships between Parish Social Justice Committees and newly arrived refugee families. Another will assist other Catholic institutions -- such as Catholic elementary and secondary schools, Gonzaga University, and lay organizations in the Diocese of Spokane -- to better understand the demographic changes occurring in the Diocese in order to increase the effectiveness of ongoing programs.
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