Parish Outreach Ministry

Our Parish Outreach Ministry is based on the Church’s social teachings on charity and justice. Our vision is to identify the needs of people in our parish community and to find ways to meet those needs. We anticipate that some of the needs will be immediate; such as, food, shelter, clothing, companionship, transportation or medical care. Additionally, our attention will be directed toward the larger social problems that may be causing people to be in difficult situations. Volunteers of this ministry are also available to assist parishioners access the many county and state programs that exist.

We have established five teams under this ministry.

1. Transportation Team - provides transportation of parishioners to the doctor's office etc when they have no other means of getting around. This service is available for the occasional need of a parishioner that would otherwise not be able to make it to a doctor's appointment or to the grocery store or for other critical need trips.

2. Housing Assistance Team - Provides help to parishioners that are in need of assistance with existing housing issues such as paying of critical utilities bills or back rent. This team also assists with obtaining housing for people in need of housing.

3. Socialization Team - Contacts shut-in parishioners at least weekly via the telephone to determine if they are in need of any assistance and just to provide a friend for our parishioner to talk to. Members of this team also visit parishioners that cannot get out of their house for whatever reason. Our goal for this team is to provide companionship for our less mobile parishioners and to keep them informed as to what is taking place here at Our Lady's Parish.

4. Food Team - This team is involved with servicing the needs of our parishioners that need assistance in the area of food. We will assist with obtaining groceries from the grocery store and will be providing a hot meal each day to those who could use this service. The team volunteers are instrumental in securing the meals and for delivering seven meals each week to a shut in parishioner.

5. Governmental Services Team - This team works with parishioners to access the appropriate township, county and/or state agency that could best respond to their need. It could be with housing, money, employment, counseling, medical assistance, and substance abuse direction to name a few areas.

In the discussion phase are plans to expand this ministry in the future to include another team for providing handyman services for our senior parishioners.

If anyone knows of a parishioner of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church that is in need of help, please have them contact Deacon David Papuga at 856-235-0181 or papugad@olgcnj.org and the information will be handled with the strictest of confidentiality. Additionally, if any parishioner wishes to participate on any of these teams, please contact Deacon Papuga. This ministry is only as good as the people that participate in it. At this time, there is a great need for drivers in the township of Mount Laurel, especially in the Holiday Village area.

A unique aspect of the team approach to this ministry is that when you have several volunteers, each volunteer is never overburdened with having to respond beyond the time they have available to dedicate to this ministry. The work load is spread out quite nicely. Please consider donating some time to help our own parishioners.