Our names are Karen & Scott and our family was the beneficiary of Catholic Charities' Marian House services. We recently moved to Colorado Springs from another state, and our situation went from bad to worse. Within a month, we found ourselves on the verge of being homeless. Scott had a medical emergency and a lady at the clinic referred us to Catholic Charities' Marian House. That's the day our lives began to change.
We had never been to a soup kitchen before and didn't know what to expect. Our apprehensions quickly disappeared as soon as we walked in the door. Mary, the volunteer in charge of the Family Room at the Marian House, invited us in, got us settled and made us feel welcome. The food and the hospitality were great. All the staff and volunteers talked to us like we were "real people", and gave us the support we had been looking for. We were able to get temporary housing through an associate agency, Marian House Community Outreach secured a van for our family of 6, the Life Support Center gave us clothes and diapers, and the soup kitchen staff made sure we left with milk, snacks and fruit for our family. They gave us the tools we needed to move forward.
Today, we have our own apartment which Marian House Community Outreach helped us furnish. Scott has a full-time job, and Karen is preparing to go to school to get her degree in Social Work so she can help families, just like Catholic Charities helped our family.
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