JANUARY 17, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
A year later, St. Monica’s is
home to 11 families, 16 kids
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
McNary’s Riky Galvin and Brayden Menan during dress re-
hearsals for Hello Dolly!
Curtain falls on Hello Dolly!
The McNary High School
production of Hello Dolly!
closes out with performances
on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 17
and 18.
Show times are 7 p.m. on
Friday and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
on Saturday. Tickets are $10 for
the general public and $8 for
students and will be available
at the door or online at mc-
nary-theater.ticketleap.com.
In late 19th century New
York, matchmaker Dolly Gal-
lagher Levi takes a trip to
Yonkers to seek a wife for the
well-known “half-a-million-
aire” Horace Vandergelder.
However, it becomes clear that
Dolly is hoping to be one the
one that Vandergelder chooses
as a spouse.
By LAUREN MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
In 2018, Catholic Commu-
nity Services (CCS) opened
the St. Monica Apartments on
Appleblossom Avenue, a com-
plex that serves single mothers
in the community. Since then,
it’s been fi lling in a gap the or-
ganization discovered among
its other programs.
The idea for the apartments
stemmed from the Father Ta-
affe Homes, which CCS has
been involved with since the
1980s. Father Charles Ta-
affe saw a need for affordable
housing for young moth-
ers (ages 12-20) and wanted
to provide highly structured
shelter, connection to com-
munity services and parenting
guidance.
However, the Taaffe Homes
were missing a subset of young
mothers that, “didn’t want to
live in a Taaffe home but had
signifi cant needs around par-
enting skills
and around
having a safe
place, having
some coach-
ing, having
the support
that
they
needed to
be able to be
really good
parents,” said
Josh Graves,
the execu-
tive director
of Catho-
lic Community Services. St.
Monica’s was born from that
need.
KEIZERTIMES/Lauren Murphy
The St. Monica Apartments, a project of Catholic Community Services, fi ll a gap in the low-in-
come housing need and supports residents with other services.
“It’s not a transitional liv-
ing program,” Graves said, “It
is truly affordable housing.”
He said there
is no expec-
tation that a
family move
out of the
apartments
once
they
move in.
The com-
plex has the
capacity to
hold 12 fam-
ilies and cur-
rently houses
11 families,
with 16 chil-
dren in total,
ranging from 1 to 8 years old.
“There’s a lot of kids, and
that’s what it’s for,” Graves said.
In addition to providing
residence services, the com-
munity teaches residents how
to be good tenants and what
makes for a good landlord. St.
Monica’s offers a family coach
that works with all of the
families as needed. The family
coach works with residents on
parenting skills and connects
them with resources.
“We’re really working hard
to connect to people with
existing services and, then, if
they have a need that doesn’t
fi t with those ... then we try to
fi ll the gap,” Graves said.
There are two “rules” that
preside over St. Monica’s, the
fi rst is the GoldenRule, treat
others how you would want
to be treated.
“The second rule is one we
made up. We call it the Iron
Rule,” Graves said. The Iron
Rule states that CCS won’t do
things for people that people
can and should do for them-
selves.
“We’ll do everything we
can to support a person in de-
veloping their own strength,
their own guidance in their
own strength. But we also, we
expect people to do every-
thing they can for themselves
and then we coach them along
the way,” Graves said.
CCS serves the communi-
ty, regardless of religious affi l-
iation.
“One of the things we
pride ourselves on is there
is no expectation of people
being Catholic or having a
specifi c faith background,”
Graves said.
Contact the reporter at report-
er@keizertimes.com
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