(From Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri)Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri, Inc. (CCSOMO) was recently awarded $100,000 as a national finalist in the 2020 Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) Innovation Challenge. CCUSA is a 167-member network of social service agencies that serve the vulnerable across the United States.
The Challenge awarded $1 million divided equally among three agencies, each the winner of their category based on the size of the agency as determined by the number of employees. CCSOMO competed in the mid-sized agency category against Catholic Charities of San Diego and Catholic Charities of West Virginia (the category winner).
In the large category were Catholic Charities of Cleveland, Spokane, and Santa Clara County, respectively.
In the small agency category were Catholic Charities of Central Texas, Evansville, and Omaha, respectively.
In a surprise announcement during a livestream with viewers across the nation, CCUSA CEO and President Sister Donna Markham, PhD, commended the six national finalists: “Not only have you all done incredible work, not only have you conceived a project and have begun to execute it, you have been able to garner the energy and creativity to make a pitch in the middle of a pandemic, and so I thought, we can’t let six of you go with nothing, so we decided we’re going to award each of the six $100,000 to help you use that for matching grants and help you get on your feet with these and keep helping the people of God who need so much help these days.”
The award money will be used to further develop the CCSOMO’s social enterprise, Purpose Home Repair & Plumbing (Purpose) in Joplin and its free pre-apprentice construction training program. Purpose conducts home repair and plumbing fee-for-service in the general marketplace.
As a social enterprise, its business model is designed to make a social impact. The innovative purpose of Purpose Home Repair & Plumbing is to lift people out of poverty who typically experience high barriers to employment.
Purpose Home Repair & Plumbing is a general contractor that uses generated revenues to help fund its free 16-week pre-apprentice construction on-the-job training program. Long terms plans are to replicate the program in Springfield in 2021.
CCSOMO Senior Vice President for Operations John Lunardini outlined the significance of the award, “CCUSA’s funding is going to allow us to host three free pre-apprentice classes over the next year in Joplin, beginning this year.
"Through this program we are going to be able to train and place skilled workers into the construction industry where they can earn a living wage and be successful. When people hire Purpose to repair a home, they are doing more than that, they are helping our mission -- Repairing Homes, Rebuilding Lives in Southern Missouri.”
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