Below is a list of the many ways in which Augustinian Friars and the many lay women and men we partner with are actively engaged in fighting systemic poverty throughout North America.
Locations Where Augustinians Are Actively Engaged in Fighting Systemic Poverty
British Columbia
Sacred Heart Parish (Delta, BC)
Conducts food drives and provides meals for migrants and the homeless.
California
St. Augustine High School (San Diego, CA)
Partnership with Border Angels to provide sustenance to immigrants and day laborers along the border.
Villanova Preparatory School (Ojai, CA)
All students complete 70 hours of Christian Service before graduation, including the annual Tribe Service Day involving service at 10 different locations.
Other California Initiatives
Partnership with St. Anthony’s Dining Room to provide food to the homeless (San Francisco, CA)
Illinois
Kolbe House Jail Ministry (Chicago, IL)
- Provides re-entry services to help those who are released from prison or jail obtain a fair second chance.
Providence Catholic High School (New Lennox, IL)
- Students are required to complete service hours as part of their curriculum.
- Work with St. Jude parish to collect food and distribute to those in need.
- Serve meals at Morning Star Mission.
St. Rita of Cascia Parish (Chicago, IL)
Maintains a food pantry and conducts weekly food distribution in response to COVID19.
Massachusetts
Mexico
Partnership with Casa Hogar La Gloria, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.
Oklahoma
Cascia Hall College Preparatory School (Tulsa, OK)
- Partnership with the community Food Bank.
- Volunteer with Emergency Infant Services.
- Volunteer with Morning Star Mission.
- Students complete a poverty simulation as part of their 10th grade retreat.
- Students take a course on the Church’s teachings on important social issues with close attention given to capital punishment, poverty, globalization, the media, and environmental stewardship.
- Sponsors a “Green Team” to pursue the efficient integration of eco-friendly practices into the school to educate and inspire students to make informed choices about care of the environment both on and off campus.
Pennsylvania
Augustinian Defenders of the Rights of the Poor (Philadelphia, PA)
- Weekly spiritual support meeting and annual retreats for those who were recently released from incarceration and/or suffer from addictions.
- The Mary, Mother of Captives pen pal program connects volunteers with incarcerated people who would otherwise not have anyone to talk to.
- Provide presentations to local high schools on the link between poverty, drugs, and mass incarceration to help stop the cycle of crime where it begins.
- Voices from Prison and the Edge newsletter provides a voice to the incarcerated who are not given a voice to share their experiences of incarceration.
Malvern Preparatory School (Malvern, PA)
- All students are required to participate in one Christian Service experience each year. In the summer before their senior year, each student participates in an intensive domestic or international experience to foster service-oriented leadership competencies.
SCI Phoenix Prison (Collegeville, PA)
Offers a degree granting program to inmates through Villanova University.
St. Augustine Parish (Philadelphia, PA)
- Food pantry and monthly donuts/coffee to the homeless.
- Provides a Healing Garden as a place of remembering, praying for, and reconciling those who have been harmed by violence in the greater Philadelphia area and beyond.
Villanova University (Villanova, PA)
- Annual Day of Service where over 5,000 people come together to perform service throughout the Philadelphia area.
- Students are invited during the fall and spring semester to participate in a Service and Justice experience involving a number of domestic and international service experiences.
- Provides one of the oldest prison degree-granting programs in the United States.
Other Pennsylvania Initiatives
Partnership with the Sisters of Charity Food Bank (Norristown, PA)
