2026 United Catholic Appeal
St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities is about ‘providing help, creating hope’
Dorcas Marrero, left, poses with Tricia Byrd, residential program director for St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities in New Albany, and agency director Mark Casper in the agency’s Holy Trinity Park on May 30. (Photo courtesy of Cantaloupe)
By Natalie Hoefer
NEW ALBANY—In 2019, Dorcas Marrero was a stay-at-home mom in Jeffersonville with two little boys in diapers.
“Almost everything was going good,” she says. “But there were some things I was battling that I knew I had to get away from.”
Her phrasing minimizes the severity—Marrero was a victim of domestic violence.
“Realizing that the path I was on was not a good example” for her children, Marrero called a domestic abuse hotline. They referred her to help close to home: St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities (SECC) in New Albany.
Through the agency’s Women and Children Emergency Shelter and Affordable Supportive Housing—two of SECC’s eight programs, all made possible in part through the archdiocese’s United Catholic Appeal—Marrero and her children were provided temporary housing, and she received the help she needed to heal, find a job, afford permanent housing and become self-sufficient.
SECC is “definitely a bridge between a life you shouldn’t be living, [that’s] not for you, and the one that you deserve,” says Marrero.
‘Reassuring and just non-judgmental’
SECC’s mission has “always been about providing help, creating hope and sharing all of our gifts that we’ve been blessed with, with anyone who comes to our door,” says agency director Mark Casper.
Sadly, he notes, “Dorcas is very common to what we see.
“The women that come to St. Elizabeth all have special circumstances that led them here—from mental health, addiction, domestic violence, poor life choices, or just ‘life happens.’ They all come here needing to be built back up, relationships restored, their self-esteem put back and assistance to get them returned to the community.”
Some women arrive “with no other option, often homeless,” says Casper. “Many of them have been couch surfing and suffering other trauma. Our case workers and staff [first] deal with their basic needs of life—security, food, clothing—to get them through the first few nights of living in a shelter.”
Feeling secure with those needs met, women are in a better place for the next crucial step—healing.
The counselors and case managers “try to meet them where they are and see what trauma they experienced and what best we can do to help them with their needs,” Casper explains.
Marrero’s experience is proof of that approach.
“The first impression was very welcoming, very warm, very reassuring and just non-judgmental,” she says. “… It was just an environment of, ‘Hey, it’s OK, we’ll meet you where you’re at’ type of thing.”
She calls both the group and individual mental health counseling “outstanding.”
“Hearing others’ stories, that was extremely important to me at the time,” says Marrero. “That was one of the major ones for me—just not feeling alone.
“I just needed reassurance that I was doing the right thing or that I wasn’t crazy. … The validation for me was extremely important in order to find the strength to continue on.”
‘I saw myself being able to move forward’
She says that emotional support continued “even after I left the shelter,” a grant-driven requirement after 90 days.
With that time limit in mind, SECC’s case managers help women achieve their goals for their next step after leaving the shelter.
For Marrero, that next step meant finding a job so she and her children could move into one of the agency’s sliding-scale fee, furnished Affordable Supportive Housing (ASH) units.
“That’s what I like about [SECC],” says Marrero. “They give you the tools to succeed. I had access to a computer to find a job. They gave me rides to the store, to job interviews” and helped enroll her children in day care.
“Within three months of her being here, [Marrero] had received a certification to be an interpreter and got a very good job that she really enjoyed and did well,” says Tricia Byrd. As SECC’s residential program director, she oversees the emergency shelter, the ASH program and the Domestic Violence Transitional Housing and Rapid Rehousing programs.
As her ASH rent slowly increased, Marrero found a higher-paying job.
“The reason for the rent increase in the ASH program is because we want residents to make it up to the point where they can pay fair market rent” and move out on their own, Byrd explains.
Marrero appreciates the approach.
“The services are supposed to be temporary,” she says. “That’s the whole point. It’s to empower you, move you forward. That really helps motivate you to seek better things.”
As she met the challenge of the rate increases, “That’s when I saw myself being able to move forward on my own,” says Marrero. “… It allowed me to see, ‘This is temporary. I’m going to get out of here one day. It can only get better from here.’ ”
When it was time for Marrero to seek her own housing, Byrd suggested she apply for a Habitat for Humanity home, where accepted applicants help to build an affordable home with 0% monthly mortgage payments.
Marrero’s application was approved.
She credits Byrd and her former case manager Erin Goodlett with helping her believe in her ability to succeed.
“Sometimes, when there’s so much going on, you can’t see it,” says Marrero. “They did. They would stress that I was this independent person and helped me see that quality in me.”
SECC staff, board members and volunteers helped build the interior walls of Marrero’s new home.
“We were all there in tears on the ribbon-cutting day,” says Casper. “Her two little boys had come in as babies when they first came to St. Elizabeth. And now they were little boys running around playing in their own yard.”
‘Going forth and providing’
St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities offers more than the Women and Children Emergency Shelter and ASH program that Marrero benefited from.
Those housing options, as well as the agency’s Domestic Violence Transitional Housing, maternity home and offices are all located on a one-block campus.
The agency also offers a Domestic Violence Rapid Rehousing program; Adoption Bridges of Kentuckiana, an adoption agency licensed in Indiana and Kentucky; Marie’s Blessing Distribution Program, providing free mom-and-baby items to those in need in the community; counselors for Catholic schools in the New Albany Deanery; and a Supported Living Program for adults with developmental delays in Clark and Floyd counties.
“We simply would not be who we are without our volunteers,” says Casper. Volunteers served 5,750 hours across all of the agency’s programs last year, with an average in-kind equivalent of about $250,000 annually, he says.
Marrero calls those volunteers “angels, even if you’re just here talking to some of the women in the shelters or just helping them cook a meal. Because a lot of days, that was the highlight of our week.
“You don’t understand,” she continues, her eyes tearing up. “That goes a long way. When you’re in that dark place and they just come to you, it’s like seeing an angel. It may just be another day in your week, but for us, it has a lasting impression.”
Still, it costs the agency nearly $1,700 a month per person housed at the Women and Children’s Shelter and the Domestic Violence Shelter.
And with an overall annual budget of slightly more than $2 million, financial support is imperative to ensure “that our doors are open and that we’re able to meet the needs of our local community,” says Casper.
The agency receives money “from earned income, to government grants, to donations,” he explains, with the archdiocese’s United Catholic Appeal making up “about 10% of our revenue support.”
He pauses to reflect on this year’s appeal theme, “Go Forth.”
“Every Sunday when I attend Mass, when Father says, ‘Go forth,’ he means to go out and live and preach the Gospel,” says Casper. “St. Elizabeth is a perfect example of the Church, God’s Church, going forth and providing for those in need. …
“Not everybody can be hands-on and work on our campus. But everyone can ensure that our services continue to meet the needs of our community by going forth and contributing.”
‘You’re Jesus’ hands and feet’
Despite the undeniable costs to offer its many services, the help SECC provides “is priceless,” says Marrero.
“You’re Jesus’ hands and feet, and that’s literally because you’re not just telling me I’m going to get better,” she says.
“You’re not just giving me a coping mechanism. You’re actually holding my hand through this process. And [SECC] can affect future generations. That’s just priceless.”
Priceless, too, was the “shift in mentality” Marrero gained.
“Nowadays, I can definitely say that I’m just mentally stronger,” she says. “They are so supportive, and I could see myself as empowered to move forward.
“And being able to pay for housing on my own—that is super empowering for a woman with two children, especially when you feel alone at first. … I’m in a much better place—mentally, emotionally, spiritually.”
Not that all is smooth sailing.
“Life still throws things at me,” Marrero admits. “It’s a process.”
But thanks to SECC’s help, she says there “is nothing life is going to throw at me that I can’t make it through.”
Because with St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities, it’s not just about “the fish I need to eat today,” she says, but also about providing “the fishing pole [and] showing me how to fish so I can eat forever.”
(For more information about St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities in New Albany, go to stecharities.org. To donate online to the United Catholic Appeal, go to acrossthearch.org/uca/give-now-form.) †
Related: See more stories from our special section highlighting ministries supported by United Catholic Appeal
