What helps a child develop into a secure adult? For the past year,  our Post Adoption Resource Center has been exploring this question  with foster and adoptive families through a model called Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®). TBRI® explores how early life experiences affect brain development, relationships and attachment, as well as how we can…

My wife and I (Deacons can be married before being ordinated) recently celebrated one of those parental milestone moments, our older daughter graduated from college last month! Those are times when parents often reminisce about when their child was younger. (For my daughter’s sake, I won’t share any embarrassing childhood events.) But thinking back to…

Season 4 at the La Crosse Warming Center is done. March 14 was our last night of the winter season. Any season we can provide 2,614 nights of shelter to 161 different men and women is a good season. A season where no one froze to death, though, is a great season. It was a…

Exciting things are happening in Prairie du Chien! We welcomed Clarissa Oehler to our volunteer staff. She is a bilingual volunteer who is working in our Immigration Department. She just finished her sophomore year at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, majoring in Spanish and minoring in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and…

Alleluia! We continue in the Easter season rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus. Finally, spring has arrived and the countryside is greening-up, the trees have unfurled their leaves, graduation parties are popping up like dandelions, and we’re preparing for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Every individual has the capacity to teach us something. For individuals with developmental disabilities, this capacity arises during those experiences that are ordinary – sitting down for a meal, going for a walk in the neighborhood or participating in a community outing. It is during these experiences that one begins to realize the sacred that…

Did you know the day before Mother’s Day is known as Birthmother’s Day? It’s not a holiday marked on calendars or recognized by society in general. At Catholic Charities, we encourage adoptive families to honor their children’s birth mother on this day. Although each relationship looks different from family to family, this is a great…

He is risen! Alleluia! As we celebrate the risen Lord during this Easter season, we can reflect on other “resurrections” we experience at Catholic Charities.

Alleluia! Christ is risen; truly, He is risen! That Easter greeting offers all of us hope, encouragement and perseverance. We know the struggles that so many people face. We know the power of despair. We also know the power of the Resurrection. We know the power of God to bring hope out of despair. We truly believe that even though we…

The liturgy on Good Friday is rather solemn and stark. We make our way to Calvary and embrace the mystery of the Cross. Our churches are bare, with no flowers or decoration; we utilize only the things that are necessary. Good Friday is the only day that we do not have Mass. The liturgy of the Celebration of the…