The Caring Neighbors Ministry promotes a more caring parish community by providing a platform for members to become more connected to the needs of our neighbors and to express care through specific actions.
Director: Alex Benyo, 330-518-7207
Assistant Director: Bill Potkanowicz, 330-550-8289
To Help a Neighbor, Use these Resources
Click either button to find agencies that are ready to meet a wide variety of needs.
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What is a caring neighbor? Let us inspire you!
We collect Caring Neighbor Stories
We would love to hear from you if you’ve either seen a neighbor helping a neighbor or if you have helped a neighbor. Use the form below to tell your story. We’ll only contact you if we are curious about more details to your story in case we want to share it with our parishioners and on our website.
Caring Neighbor Story
This form is designed to collect Caring Neighbor stories. You can tell a story about how you helped a neighbor, or you can tell a story about how you saw someone else help a neighbor. It's ok if you want to be anonymous too.
The Caring Neighbors initiative developed from a parish-wide survey conducted by the St. Joseph Parish Planning team in 2018. Parishioners in the survey expressed strong opinions about the need to live Christian values on a daily basis. Two themes consistently surfaced throughout the survey: the need to build strong relationships among parishioners and the need to serve people in need both inside and outside the parish.
St. Joseph parishioners are good at caring for their neighbors, and we want to build on that strength. We believe we can become even more caring by inspiring each other through storytelling. So if you care for a neighbor in need, use the form above to tell us. It’s not about bragging or getting credit; it’s about shining the light on behaviors that we want to see more of. Don’t hide that light under a bushel basket!
Caring is a way that our parishioners express their faith. One parishioner put it this way, “[God is calling me] to help others by giving rides, cooking; just even listening to their problems.” Serving others is not just a way to solve a problem for someone else, it is also a faith builder for the person who does the serving. When we serve, we encounter the presence of God not only in the act of serving, but also in the person we serve. Christ’s face is especially visible in those who are in need. Click the “Why We Care” button below to learn more about caring and faith growth.
Click the Spotlight to read some inspiring stories!
Our Goals:
- To build a stronger sense of community among parishioners by increasing personal interactions and building friendships in our neighborhoods
- To honor the dignity of those within our neighborhoods by listening to them and understanding their needs
- To respond to needs of our neighbors by volunteering our time for our neighbors and/or by connecting those in need with agencies that can effectively address their needs
- To grow in our faith by learning and articulating what it means to be a servant according to the seven themes of Catholic social teaching
- To facilitate spiritual growth and the spreading of faith in our neighborhoods through our purposeful actions that meet needs
- To address the social problems within our neighborhoods through identifying and addressing needs
- To honor and practice Jesus’ commandment “Love one another as I have loved you.” John 15: 12-17
Find Your Neighborhood!
The Caring Neighbors project seeks to make it easier to get to know your neighbors. We’re starting by dividing our large parish into smaller neighborhood units. We’ve created 9 neighborhood units illustrated in the map below. We plan to provide opportunities for neighbors to get to know each other better and to look out for each other more effectively.
Responding to Needs
There are many people in need in our own neighborhoods. There are also many resources available in our parish and in our community that are designed to meet needs. Another aspect of Caring Neighbors is to match needs with resources. The better our parishioners know their neighbors, the more effectively we’ll be able to assess and address needs in our neighborhoods.
Do you know a neighbor in need?
Here are two places where they can find the assistance they need:
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