A Hub of Giving

My full name is Katherine (Katie) Moran. Originally, I am from Nebraska, but I now work at Catholic Charities in Kansas.

I’ve been here for a year, and I started as a Match Grant coordinator. The Match Grant program is a government funded program that has money and provides more intensive case management for families. Then the Reception and Placement (RNP) coordinator position opened up. I was recommended for that position, which oversees the Reception and Placement case managers. We currently do not have a housing coordinator though, so I’ve been doing way more with housing than with managing my case managers.

I got involved with this work starting with the Peace Corps in Rwanda. I graduated from college and was around twenty-three or twenty-four when I did it, and I was there for two years. It opened so many things in my mind and all of my preconceived notions and perceptions of everything were turned upside down. That really inspired me to spend a lot of my twenties traveling, and I received help and was guided through all of the over thirty-two countries I went to.

There’s so many roadblocks that even an American hits. Anything that involves paperwork with the government can be a nightmare, especially if you’re not from here, if you’re unfamiliar with the culture, or if you can’t speak English.

I have always had a passion for volunteering and helping others, and the people who work here at Catholic Charities are kindred spirits and such hard workers. Even though I work with an agency that has a title with a lot of perception to it, Catholic Charities has eliminated that preconceived notion, and you can see that this has nothing to do with church. It has more to do with the point of helping others, and just making sure that other people are comfortable, safe, happy, and have what they need to become self-sufficient.

The things I like about this job are that it’s human and it fulfills the same thing that happened when I traveled. I love being humbled and I love being reminded of other perspectives, and this was constantly happening to me back then. My brain was working differently and I was afraid that I would become this average American, where it’s like you are complacent. It shifts my thinking to where I can never say that I would do something better. I can never say that I would never do that, or that I would never act this way, because you just don’t know. And I think constantly being reminded of that keeps me where I want to be as a person as opposed to other people that I see.

As for the past year, the populations I work with the most in Kansas City come in waves. It would be waves of people that are Burmese, maybe from refugee camps in Thailand, Syrian people, the Afghan community, Africans from Rwanda that have been raised in refugee camps either in the Congo or Tanzania, or refugees that are around Rwanda but don’t identify as Rwandese. Back in October, we had over sixty people arrive in one month, and they were all Arabic speakers from Syria, Jordan, or other places. I think that refugees like this and other newcomers are received really well in Kansas.

When working with landlords here in the case of Kansas, I don’t get a sense of them feeling overwhelmed, as opposed to those in other cities or border places. I’m starting to find certain veins of landlords who love the idea of receiving a family and who feel like they’re giving back, but it’s still also contributing to their business model. That’s been really unexpected, based again on a preconceived notion of what their opinions would be.

It’s lovely to find certain landlords that are really wanting to be a part of the situation, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the avenues I’ve found to receive and house refugees. It would be disheartening if some were discriminatory, but there are landlords who really feel good because they are giving somebody a chance. It’s a population that really wants to provide for these families, and they’re not just putting them in a box and making a bunch of assumptions without even giving them a chance.

My problem solving skills are unique, so when I have to negotiate with landlords and talk with them, I really feel that I understand where they’re coming from. I’m not going to negate their fear, opinion, or perception of the situation. You’re either going to work with me or you’re not, and it can either be a conversation or it can’t, so I think I’m a little bit of a salesperson in that realm. Generally, I’m an obsessive problem solver. I think that’s why I was so good at traveling. There’s just constant problems. And you have to really be able to dictate what’s a real problem and what isn’t, or what needs to happen immediately and what doesn’t.

There were times when I would put in the work to find a house for an individual, but they wouldn’t like it because of the neighborhood. They didn’t want their children to go to the schools there. That was just their preconceived notion and what they were told, but in reality, being able to get a house for them at all based on their family was so difficult. And that’s what made me go into deep, deep, deep reflection, because it challenged me as a person. Thinking I put someone in harm’s way and for them to come here and still feel unsafe — it’s horrible to me. I felt what they were feeling, and that was difficult, because you want them to get to a point where they can breathe. You don’t want them to come here and think that they still have to carry through.

I handle it by internalizing it, and I really have to process it. It’s like me really having to check my emotions and feelings at the door and not take it personally. I have to make more of an effort so that I can come back to these families and tell them, “This is the only option we have, but the schools are safe. You only have one year that you need to be here, and as soon as you get a job with proof of employment and can represent yourself with your social security number — all of the things that landlords need — you’re free to find another house in another neighborhood.” It’s really just about helping them focus on giving it a year, and explaining the current situation of their housing.

Some of my own perceptions have changed as I’ve gotten more involved in this work.

I wish there was a self-sustaining program that’s constantly ongoing with people like this who want to contribute for a summer, or for a month, or however long. Something where people can give money, or donate items like good quality blankets and sheets, or chairs and couches.

It can be any kind of physical help, too. When I started in my position, a lot of things have been happening with people living out of hotels, sometimes for months, while they’re waiting for housing. It was my first huge success in this job having case managers pick people up from the airport and take them straight to their house. We have three case managers, but they’re already doing so much, so we need volunteers who have that extra time and extra ability to just drive.

Sometimes a family needs to go to the grocery store or to the doctor, and transportation is a huge deal, but it gets pushed aside a little bit because there’s someone that needs to be taken to the Social Security office or something like that. We need a network where people can be available to drive to different places for families, and we could have somebody different do it every day.

If you just want to give money and feel good about yourself, that’s good, because we need it. If you just want to give blankets and feel good, we need that, too. If somebody wants to give something, they can, and it can be anything they want. It doesn’t have to be specific. That’s something that I wish we had more of — a hub of gifts. A hub of giving.