CSS gives help and hope during Covid closures
CSS gives help and hope during Covid closures People unable to pay their bills. Grandparents suddenly asked to provide childcare for grandchildren. Parents wondering how they would pay this month’s rent. Families struggling to put food on the table. They all found a...
19 UP moms graduate from college
19 UP moms graduate from college When Tyresha Riquelmy-Yankton was first accepted into the Uplifting Parents Program (UP) in 2019, she was hesitant about the mentoring that she would be asked to do twice each month with an UP mentor. “At first I thought, ‘I don’t need...
Prosperity Initiative Perseverance
Per·se·ver·ance: noun Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Tenacity. Determination. Resolve. Resolution. Dedication. Endurance. Commitment.You could add Anna Castillo’s name to that dictionary definition. Twenty years after...
UPLIFTING PARENTS helps single parents succeed
UPLIFTING PARENTS helps single parents succeed: Applications close March 14 Determination. Hard work. And the support of her Uplifting Parents mentor. Kaitlyn, the single mother of a 3-year-old toddler, credits those three ingredients with helping her earn a ...
Adoptive Families Needed
I grew up in a big family with three siblings and over twenty cousins. I was very blessed to have two parents who loved each other and each of their children. They were positive role models that I wanted to be like for my own children one day. Holidays, birthdays,...
CSS OFFERS FASD PARENTING 101 CLASSES
Monae Johnson has been parenting children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder for the past 16 years, but the FASD Parenting 101 class at Catholic Social Services she attended recently was still a great reminder that there’s always something new to learn, or relearn,...
You were made to do HARD things
Shortly before she graduated from college this spring, Anna Haydock got the chance to paint an inspirational sign as a gift for her 2-year-old daughter.Its message reads: Beautiful Girl, You were made to do HARD things, so BELIEVE in yourself “I made it...
Uplifting Parents Program participants like to have some fun too!
Earning a college degree as a single parent is hard work, so the Uplifting Parents Program likes to add some fun to the process with fantastic family activities planned and led by the program’s Peer UP Advisory Council. One recent Peer UP activity included...
Lakota Circles of Hope Partners with Rural American Initiatives
Lakota Circles of Hope prevention curriculum is now being offered to students in Rapid City middle schools thanks to a partnership between Catholic Social Services (CSS) and Rural America Initiatives (RAI). Ateyape Wicozani, a RAI program, staff received...
The Third Time’s a Charm for Uplifting Parent’s Participant Dani Hersrud’s College Success
Dani will graduate with a surgical technology degree from Western Dakota Technology in May, about 20 years after she first enrolled as a college student. Her second college experience came in 2011, following a stint as a U.S. Army medic, when she earned a...