Salina, Kansas – March 30, 2023 – Saint Francis Ministries finalized the sale of its Elm Street offices last week, bringing to a close an era has lasted nearly as long as the 77-year-old child and family services not-for-profit.
A few months ago, I arrived at Saint Francis from “Corporate America,” having worked in the private sector in everything from small local companies to a Fortune 1000 company. Often, it was like living in a Dilbert cartoon, right down to the pointy-haired boss and the evil HR cat - only not funny. It had never occurred to me that I would work in the non-profit world, let alone with children and families.
“Social worker …. Only because full-time, multi-tasking ninja is not actually a job title.” Most of us at Saint Francis can relate. After all, it’s a job like no other. It takes a special kind of person, one with a big heart, great passion, and vast reservoirs of hope.
College basketball’s annual March tournament has begun, and hopefully you’re brackets haven’t broken your heart yet. That said, we also hope you’ll take a day off and divert your attention – for just a little while – on Thursday to a different sort of Madness – Match Madness.
At Saint Francis Ministries, we have lots of respect for social workers. Because they form the front line in our service to children and families, we see first-hand the challenges and sacrifices they face every day in their efforts to support the communities in which they serve and the lives they hope to change.
As a former child in foster care, Kansas law provided for a college tuition waiver, and she took advantage of the opportunity if offered. She earned her bachelor’s degree in human development and family sciences, with a minor in conflict analysis and trauma studies from Kansas State University. Then she went to Oklahoma State University, where she earned a master’s degree in human development with an emphasis in child and family services. She wrote her thesis on single support for youth who grow up in foster care and served an internship with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in Washington, D.C. She also interned with the House Ways and Means Committee under chair Kevin Brady (R-TX). In short, she began to make a splash.
Every Tuesday, Alexandria Ware meets with a group of young people of color transitioning out of the foster care system. Together, they participate in group activities geared towards healing, advocacy, peer support, fun, and recreation, but mostly they talk. Alexandria’s primary purpose is to get to know them - and to help them know themselves, to discover their real selves. The group enables them to feel safe, supported, loved, and that they belong.
Every March, we get a bit excited here at Saint Francis Ministries. And while, many of us are indeed basketball fans, our anticipation has to do with a different sort of madness.
Created in 2016, the Saint Francis Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of Saint Francis Ministries, which means the fine folks working at the Foundation specialize in something called “development.”
Lubbock, Texas – February 13, 2023 – Saint Francis Ministries will host a grand opening and dedication of its new residential treatment facility on March 3 in the former Buckner Children and Families Services’ FYI Center, at 125 Chicago Avenue. The new facility will provide clinical psychiatric care in a small group setting to children and youth in out-of-home care.
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