Programs

Counseling

Professional counselors offer help in areas such as depression, anxiety, marriage and family issues. Insurances are accepted for services and we also offer a sliding fee scale based on household net income.

Specialized counseling for those who have experienced or who have been affected by an abortion is provided through Project Rachel 1-866-3RACHEL (1-866-372-2437).

Immigration

Important Announcement those seeking Immigration Services!
USCIS is increasing their fees.  We are offering help, Catholic Charities is reducing our fees.
Please schedule a Zoom meeting with a Catholic Charities caseworker by calling 610-435-1541, Ext. 333.

For those interested in immigration services:
Important notice for those seeking immigration services.
USCIS will increase its fees. To help them, Catholic Charities will be reducing their fees.

Please make an appointment by Zoom with your Catholic Charities worker by calling 610-670-0296 or 610-674-0285, you can also contact .

Catholic Charities has been designated by the Department of Justice (formerly the Board of Immigration Appeals) since 1989 to provide accredited legal services by trained practitioners. We can provide efficient and low-cost immigration services. Not everyone is authorized by law to assist you with Immigration matters. We Are! There is no need to travel to Philadelphia when Catholic Charities is here in your community.

Catholic Charities staff and volunteers reflect the ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity needed to serve the increasingly diverse and expanding immigrant and refugee constituency.

Our Services

• Consultations
• Family petitions
• Adjustment of Status and Consular Processing
• Travel Documents
• Replacement and renewal of lost/stolen and expired Alien Registration and Employment Authorization cards
• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
• Employment Authorization
• Temporary protected status
• Asylum
• Waivers of Inadmissibility
• Non-Immigrant Visas (“K”, “T”, “U and “V”)
• Representation at USCIS Interviews

Contact Information

• Phone: 610-435-1541
• Email: 

Ombudsmans Program

“Advocate for those who can’t, support those who can, and ensure all long-term consumers live with dignity and respect.”

The Ombudsman Program is designed to support and empower consumers by resolving individual complaints involving long-term care service, while working to improve and enhance the long-term care living system for the residents and their families.

Long-term care ombudsman make themselves available to take a message of concern forward and help to resolve it on behalf of care-dependent elderly.  Ombudsman are client driven and client directed.  As the consumer’s advocate, they act on the wishes of the client.

Adoption Search Services

Reasonable fees are charged for search services. Services provided to those who were adopted through Catholic Charities, Diocese of Allentown and include:

• Non-identifying information summary for adoptees within the limits of the Pennsylvania law
• A search to locate birth parents or an adult adoptee
• Reunion services to reunite birth parents and adult adoptee
• Counseling to birth parents and adoptees as needed

Gatekeepers

What is The Gatekeeper Program?

The Lehigh Valley Gatekeepers Program is a collective community approach to connect at-risk older adults to appropriate services, in order to keep them living safely and independently.

• We make these connections by training area businesses and organizations to recognize possible “seniors in need” and educate employees on how to make a report to the Gatekeeper Program.
• In the past 5 years, the Gatekeeper Program has trained over 140 local businesses and organizations to:
  • recognize warning signs and red flags that indicate a senior may need some help or support
  • understand the protocol for obtaining information for reporting
  • report their concerns to the Gatekeeper Program

Please contact Catholic Charities at 610-435-1541 for more information and to schedule a training for your organization. Learn more about Gatekeeper Trained Organizations (GTO’s).

Our Commitment to Businesses

The Gatekeeper Program begins with a commitment to respect your company’s preferences and processes for reporting a concern.  Many of your employees may already have recognized concerns with seniors, but did not report the concerns; possibly due to a lack of knowledge about how to make a referral or concerns about liability and company policy regarding sharing customer information.  We work with your organization to overcome barriers to reporting and allow your employees to become comfortable with making a report when necessary.  Additionally, all reports to the Gatekeeper Program are kept confidential.

The Gatekeeper Program will offer as much training to your organization as is needed to accommodate departments and schedules.  The length and details of the training sessions also are customizable. Once initial trainings are complete, you can schedule a refresher Gatekeeper training periodically or include it in your company’s orientation for new staff.

Why be Involved?

Becoming a Gatekeeper Trained Organization (GTO) increases the social responsibility profile of your business while building and nurturing relationships within your community.  Research finds that the higher an employee views their organization’s corporate citizenship, the more committed they are to the organization and their work.  It also affects team member morale, spirit, and pride; trust in their employer, and willingness to recommend their employer as a good place to work.  You can help to retain your customers while helping them retain their dignity, health and independence.  Therefore, your business can help contribute to the viability of the community in which it is a part.

Risk

There is no adverse consequence to your business or your employees in becoming at GTO.  We take great care to understand your company’s policies on reporting customer information and to integrate your policies into our training.  Every call is confidential, and the Older Adult will not be able to link the referral from your business or specific employee.

What happens after a report is made?

When making a report, your ONLY responsibility is to let us know that there may be a problem.  A Geriatric Social Worker at Catholic Charities will then contact the senior in need within 3 business days and offer assistance. Because of your anonymous call, help is on its way.

Pandemic Stress Counseling

The world is experiencing a pandemic situation for the first time in many, many years. Most of us have never had to deal with the current situation we are living in. We are all adjusting to the rapidly changing way of life and experiencing many emotions – fear, stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness… and the list goes on.

Catholic Charities would like to help you cope with any stress/anxiety you may be feeling. Our counselors are here to assist you in any way they can by listening and helping you to learn to address the many emotions you may be experiencing. We will navigate through this situation together.

You can speak with a counselor via a phone call or virtual chat, using Zoom. There will be no charge for the first four sessions with a counselor. If additional sessions are needed, payment arrangements will be discussed at that time.

It’s important to remember WE are all in this together; YOU are not alone in how you are feeling.

Please contact our office at 610-435-1541, ext. 334 or email to schedule an appointment.

Divorce Support Group

The Divorce Support Group is an educational and support meeting with a Catholic emphasis.  You will learn how to heal from the hurt of divorce and find hope for the future.

When:  Wednesday Evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Begins October 7th, 2020

Where:  Cathedral of St. Catherine of Sienna, Parish Center
1825 W. Turner Street, Allentown, PA  18104

To Register:  Call Lisa Taylor, LCSW at 610-435-1541, ext. 319

Cost:  $25.00, covers the 13 week program

*Please register by September 30th.

**Social distancing & wearing of masks will be required.

Project Rachel/Rachel's Vineyard

If you, or someone you know, has had an abortion…

Project Rachel (http://hopeafterabortion.com/) offers post-abortion reconciliation and healing.  Specially trained priests and/or counselors can assist anyone suffering from the aftermath of an abortion.  The Project also sponsors Rachel’s Vineyard retreat weekends and staffs a hotline at (866) 3RACHEL or email at .

Visit the website Hope After Abortion (http://hopeabortion.com).

Rachel’s Vineyard  – An intimate spiritual journey for anyone seeking healing after abortion.In a safe, supportive, non-judgemental environment you can focus on this painful time in your life and enter into the process of healing.  Through scripture readings, guided meditations and activites flowing from the meditations you can experience God’s compassion and forgiveness.  The next retreat is July 23-25, 2021, please see below to reserve your place at the retreat.  

For registration information for this Rachel’s Vineyard retreat contact: Carol Swavely
Call 1-866-3RACHEL (Toll Free) or 610-435-1541, ext. 373 or email .

 

Prayer for Healing

Eternal Father,
Source of all mercy and love,
our of love for us you sent you Son,
and willed that blood and water
flow from his side to cleanse us of sin
and restore lost innocence. 

Hear the cry of each woman who mourns the loss of her child to abortion.
Forgive her sin, restore her to your grace, and still the terror of her heart with a peace beyond
all understanding.  Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of all tenderness and our Mother, strengthen her faith in you.  Give her the consolation to believe that her child is now living in the Lord, who conquered sin and death, and who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God , forever and ever.   Amen.
Text by Msgr. James Moroney