History

A History of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Yakima


This history has been provided by Fr. Thomas C. Champoux, former Executive Director of Catholic Charities and Catholic Family & Child Service from 1975 through 1996.  Since 1996, Fr. Champoux has served a Chairman of the Catholic Charities Board of Trustees

Catholic Charities is people helping people.

Its history has been written by the hundreds of board members, foster parents, caseworkers, Knights of Columbus, St. Vincent de Paul Society members, house parents, board members and committee members who have served the agency since its beginnings. In the Diocese of Yakima, it began with the vision of late Bishop Thomas Gill, of Seattle.

In the summer of 1949 Father Gill organized the Yakima Children’s Bureau as a subsidiary of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Seattle.

After working for one year, the Board obtained the support of the Community Chest and Phil Brocking was hired as Executive Secretary of the office. The agency then received official approval from the State Department of Public Assistance to become licensed as a childcare agency.

When Yakima became a diocese, in 1952, the Corporation of Catholic Charities of Yakima was formed, with the Diocese’s first bishop, Bishop Joseph P. Dougherty as its first president.
 

In its early years, one social worker and a secretary staffed the Children’s Bureau.  The Bureau maintained its operations only through the help of the Bishop, the Sisters of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the efforts of the Board, St. Paul’s parish, several local physicians and the aid of the Community Chest.

By the fifth year of its operation, the Bureau was servicing the Tri Cities and Wenatchee and had placed 73 children in adoptive homes.

  
 

Father Desmond Dillon was appointed Director of Catholic Charities and Administrator of Catholic Family & Child Service in March of 1959.  The Knights of Columbus began their special association with Catholic Charities on December 8, 1959.  They sponsored the first annual Bishop’s dinner for Catholic Charities and raised $6,000.  They enabled the agency to liquidate many outstanding debts of long duration.  There were several such dinners sponsored by the Knights and many of the parishes.

By 1962, Kathleen McCormick, the first resident caseworker in Grant County, began work with Catholic Family & Child Service - Moses Lake.  That office was move to Ephrata in 1964.

Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba and, in 1962, which was also the beginning of the unaccompanied Cuban Children’s program.  The agency signed a contract with the Catholic Welfare Bureau in Miami, and brought 172 refugee Cuban children to live in foster homes in the diocese.  This program was to continue for more than 10 years.

By 1963, there were four social workers in Yakima, two in Wenatchee; two in Richland, one in Grant County with three out-reach workers, and the house parents of Villa Madonna, all under the direction of Father Dillon.

An office was opened in Ellensburg in 1964.  It remained in use until 1974, when financial considerations made it necessary to service Kittitas County from the Yakima office. Grandview was picked as the site for new office in 1965.  That same year, Portia House, a group home for teenage girls, was started. Teen House for boys was open in 1966.

Father Michael Ryan had been assigned to the School of Social Work at St. Louis University in 1964.  Catholic Charities funded his education and that of Miss Marguerittee Jett and two other laypersons. In 1966, Father Ryan received his Masters degree in Social Work and was appointed Administrator of the agency under Father Dillon.  Miss Jette returned in 1967 to begin her work with the agency.  By 1968, Father Dillon began other duties in the diocese and Father Ryan became Director of Catholic Charities.

In 1969, Betty Hunziker came to the agency to direct Casework Services in Yakima as well as the other Catholic Family & Child Service branch agencies.

While 1968 and 1969 saw a peak in adoptive placements, there was a rapid decline in adoptions in subsequent years and in September 1971, the Villa Madonna was closed, due to lack of use.  The use of private homes became the method by which the agency cared for unwed mothers.

It was during these years that great financial stress affected and shaped Catholic Family & Child Service, resulting in cutbacks in staff.  There was also a shift of focus in the agency’s service areas.

In 1970, Youth Homes Associated was incorporated, and control of Portia House and Teen House was shifted to the new agency. Catholic Charities could no longer afford to operate the homes.  Youth Homes obtained federal funding and expanded its group home program.  By 1972, Catholic Charities no longer maintained these programs.

In 1974, Joanne Gardner began her work with the Catholic Family & Child Service -Wenatchee office.  That same year, the Catholic Family & Child Service - Richland office, together with Pasco’s Catholic Family office (operated under the auspices of Catholic Charities of Spokane) and the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court, began a special foster home project.  It was federally funded and the objective was to recruit and train foster parents to care for difficult teenage children.  Under the direction of Harriet Davis, that project continued through 1976.

In September 1974, Father Thomas Champoux returned from training in psychotherapy at the University of Detroit.  He began work as a marriage counselor with the agency. In 1975, he was appointed Director when Father Ryan resigned.

During that year, Catholic Charities sponsored 120 Vietnamese refugees that were brought into the diocese for resettlement.

By 1976, the largest program in operation is the foster care program.  Family service, adoption and maternity care are also part of the programs offered by Catholic Family & Child Service. Custody evaluation and pre-marriage counseling are new elements of the agency’s service array.
 

In 1978 the Yakima office of Catholic Family & Child Service became a licensed mental health agency, to serve “disturbed” children and adolescents.  While the staff continued to focus on out-of-home placements, there was a new thrust toward counseling children before they might be removed from their homes.

Also, a new immigration counseling service was begun in the Lower Yakima Valley.  This would continue until shortly after sweeping changes in immigration law would take place in 1986.

Significant staff changes took place in these years, as Joyce Bansmer retired from the Grandview office in 1979, Anna McDonald from the Yakima office in 1981, Madoline McNamara from the Ephrata office in 1982 and Harriet Davis from the Richland office in 1983.  JoAnne Gardner, Wenatchee, also left the Agency (1980) for graduate school.

Madoline McNamara would return to work at Catholic Family & Child Service of Moses Lake and did retire in 1999.  Today the Moses Lake agency holds an annual dinner in Grant County and the Madoline McNamara Community Service Award is given annually in honor of her dedicated, selfless work with Catholic Family & Child Service.
 

New staff arrived to serve in place of those who had retired. In January 1982, the Volunteer Chore Service was started in Yakima to serve the frail elderly. Some 56 churches were to participate that first year of volunteer service. The program connected Catholic Charities of Yakima with the other Catholic Charities agencies in the Archdiocese of Seattle and Diocese of Spokane. After some years, the Volunteer Chore Service Program expanded to all Catholic Family & Child Service agencies.

In 1982, Catholic Charities became involved in food distribution to the needy.  Our representatives sat on several FEMA boards which distributed large sums of government money to food banks and other emergency resources.

A Moses Lake Office of Catholic Family & Child Service was reopened after being closed for several years.  Previously, Ephrata had been the primary location of the agency serving Grant County.
   

By 1984, the staff had grown so large that a Branch Director was appointed for each office, except Yakima.

The Child Care Nutrition program in Yakima County began in 1984. Thousands of children in licensed child care homes are served daily.

After years of growth at Catholic Family & Child Service of Yakima, the agency was forced to relocate in April of 1987, after then Bishop William Skylstad had decided to find a use for the empty buildings at the former Carroll High School. In 1989, the Carroll Children’s Center was opened.

After 22 years of service to Catholic Charities and Catholic Family & Child Service, Fr. Thomas C. Champoux is assigned to full time ministry at Christ the King Parish in Richland, Washington, in 1996. 

It was in 1996 that Betty Hunziker, the Catholic Family & Child Service Yakima Director retired. Under her leadership, the agency grew tremendously in it provision of mental health services and child welfare services.

A new entity, the Catholic Charities Board of Trustees was formed by then Bishop Francis George, OMI and charged with reforming Catholic Charities and Catholic Family & Child Service.  A search is conducted and in December of 1996 and John L. Young was appointed Executive Director.

Over the next few years, Catholic Charities methodically developed a strong central administration for the network of Catholic Family & Child Service agencies.  Catholic Charities developed a central accounting office providing full financial services to the network and began providing fund raising support as well as human resource services to the agencies.

 

In 1998, the Diocese of Yakima Housing Services was incorporated after Catholic Charities acquired its first affordable housing development in Chelan, Washington.
Casa Guadalupe, a development of 36 affordable year-round apartment units was the first farmworker housing project for the new corporation.  Soon thereafter, DYHS bought a three-bedroom house in Yakima that became the St. Martin de Porres residence for young developmentally disabled adult men.

In 1999, Mario Villanueva was named as the first Director of the Diocese of Yakima Housing Services.

That same year, Susie Tryon, is appointed Agency Director of Catholic Family & Child Service of Wenatchee.

In 2001, DYHS dedicated San Isidoro Plaza in Granger, a 26-unit affordable farmworker housing development.
   

In 2001, Judy Bunkelman became the Agency Director for Catholic Family & Child Service of Moses Lake.

In 2002, Maureen McGrath was appointed Agency Director of Catholic Family & Child Service of Tri Cities.

In 2003, New Life Villa, a 26-unit development with an additional 10 units dedicated for migrant farmworkers was opened in Mabton and Buena Nueva; a similarly configured development was also opened in Buena.  During the same year, construction on a new 45-unit development began in Mattawa.

 

After 30 of service as Manager of the St. Vincent de Paul retail stores, Frank McGree, the founding manager, retired and Tom Gehlen, long-time business manager for the stores became the Director of a new corporation: The St. Vincent de Paul Stores of the Diocese of Yakima.  The network includes stores in Chelan, Wenatchee, Ellensburg, Union Gap, Sunnyside and Kennewick.

In 2003, Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla, S.J., sixth Bishop of Yakima, accepts the recommendation of the Catholic Charities Board of Trustees to restructure the agency to formally bringing the Diocese of Yakima Housing Services and St. Vincent de Paul Stores under the umbrella of Catholic Charities, and creating a new governance structure. 

   

Also, in 2003, Darlene Darnell assumes the responsibility for directing the Catholic Family & Child Service network of agencies as a result of this organization.

In 2004, DYHS dedicates Villa Santa Maria, a 45 unit Farmworker development in Mattawa and starts construction of a new development in Warden. 

The future looks bright for Catholic Charities and the network of agencies.  The organizational changes of recent years will result in the ability of the agency to focus on its primary mission: Motivated by Christ’s love, we bring hope to life, particularly for those most in need.