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Helping Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan · It's A Grand Life

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to It's a Grand Life, where our mission is to be a voice for grandfamilies and kinship caregivers everywhere.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Did you know that in the United States alone, there are 2.3 million grandparents raising their grandchildren?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: 2.3 million.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Grand Life is committed to making a difference for those kids.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's why we have the podcast, a Facebook group, and the Grand Fund.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: The Grand Fund, which is a 501c3 which was launched in June of 2024, provides financial assistance to grand families, including shelter, food, clothing, and household needs.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Grand families are in every neighborhood, in every city, every tribe and territory nationwide.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: If this is you or someone you love, we're here for you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: And we welcome you to join us on this mission.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Our goal is to offer hope and resources to help you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can also join our Facebook group, just search for it under It's a Grand Life.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And your reviews, comments, and sharing of our podcasts help us reach others that need assistance.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to another episode of It's a Grand Life.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, my name is Craig Nash.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: We'd like to welcome you to another It's a Grand Life.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I believe you're absolutely going to be blessed today.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: One of my dear friends, Paul Propson, the CEO of Catholic Charities, is with us today.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: And Paul and I go way back to our healthcare days when I met him when he was running Covenant Community Care and serving low-income folks all over Metro Detroit.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: And now he's at Catholic Charities, and we've got to find out about that transition and how things are going.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Paul, welcome to It's a Grand Life.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, Craig.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good to have you on today.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And could you just uh tell our listeners how did you end up at Catholic Charities?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a great question.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I I know that you don't go, this isn't one of those long form podcasts, so I can't fully answer your question, but you know, I I'm here because uh when I was in college, I volunteered at a summer camp in Detroit, the Joy of Jesus Ministry summer camp.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I was a camp counselor for uh a number of, I mean, a cabin, I guess, of of uh 12, 15 uh uh boys from the city who had so many more challenging life experiences than anything I had had at that age.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I was really moved by their um their courage, their energy, uh, their their spirituality, their faith, uh, their personal stories.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when the summer was over, I really wanted to get involved in the city and just make my life in Detroit, working to make the world a better place.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I went down there and uh the good people at at Joy of Jesus Ministries recognized I was a kid who needed some seasoning.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they said uh they said, go away, get something valuable and bring it back to Detroit.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: That was hard to hear as a young man who thought I had all the answers.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: But in the end, in in spite of myself, I did uh go away, get a master's degree in business administration, uh, found my way to working in a health center, uh faith-based Christian health center on the south side of Chicago, developed fundraising skills and uh some management skills, and was invited to come back to run Covenant Community Care, a small Christian health center in Detroit, where I met you and uh your wonderful brother-in-law and family uh who helped us to grow Covenant Community Care and make it uh the great health center it is now.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: While I was working there, I met the folks from Catholic charities.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And being uh a Catholic who grew up here in uh in uh McComb and Oakland County, I thought, well, if there's a need there, I might be able to help make it better, make the place uh, because there there was a there they were they were challenged, and I thought I'd learned some things.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And also in healthcare, you get to do a lot of things, medical, dental, and such, but you don't get to do food, you don't get to do housing, you don't get to do uh uh uh mentoring and tutoring and some other things that I also had a heart for.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So this gave me an opportunity to do some of those things.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: That that makes so much sense.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: So was that Eddie Edwards, Pastor Eddie Edwards?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was Eddie Edwards, too.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: He had so much energy, didn't he?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, just an amazing uh Christ follower.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that's uh it's such a small world that he had such an impact on your ministry and the and the and uh and leading you to get some some great uh seasoning.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's just just wisdom.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But no, he was so you never know, you know, with every word you say, you know, God doesn't let it fall to the ground without uh achieving its purpose.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Reverend Edwards and and Dave Gamlin over there who gave me direction, gave me the direction I needed, even though it meant not not having a volunteer.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It meant they they they helped me become better equipped to help in the city.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: So they live very open-handedly, and every anybody who knows the city of Detroit knows that about uh Reverend Edwards and the wonderful work they did at Joy of Jesus.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: But um, well, tell us a little bit about the mission and scope of Catholic charities.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is there's a very wide uh Yeah.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we are Catholic we are Catholic charities of Southeast Michigan.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there may be a Catholic charities in almost every part of the country because the Catholic Church uh is in every part of the country.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so it's organized by dioceses, and our diocese here in Southeast Michigan is Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, St.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Clair, and La Pierre County.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So those six counties.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's where our governing board, because we have an independent governing board, uh, helps us to organize charitable work in those six counties.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So some people, when they hear Catholic charities, they think we're a foundation.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're not a foundation.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're a service provider.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: We we we help do the work.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we ask for donations like a lot of other charities.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we need it because we do a lot of good work.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's really nothing in the area of um helping others, loving your neighbor.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: That wouldn't be something we'd be interested in.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But we're not doing everything.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the things we have traditionally done over almost a hundred years would be foster care and adoption work, um, would be mental health counseling and and then substance use counseling.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: We do that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've gotten very involved in food programs now.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we help a lot of people uh get uh get monthly food assistance from our food pantries and we do home delivery, which is something I want to tell uh some of your listeners about.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um we do uh adult daycare, which is a wonderful program to help uh to help people uh who who are caring for a loved one who needs full-time attention, full-time care.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the caregiver might have a job or be raising children as well, or otherwise um just needs teammates to come alongside them.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So our adult day programs are a great place to help people who are caring for loved ones who need round-the-clock attention and care.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's see.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and we have some wonderful uh programs for uh our uh immigrant brothers and sisters who are finding their way in this country, job training, ESL training.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we have done refugee resettlement.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh anyway, I probably left a few things out, but those are the major programs.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And do you help your uh um uh immigrant members?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Do you help them with legal issues and getting Yeah?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: We do we do.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: We have a uh a legal clinic which helps to reunite families.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes people are here and they have uh status in this country, but they they are separated from their family members and they can bring mom or dad over or bring a child or an aunt, you know, to join them.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes people come here with the proper status and their status, they lose their status or their status uh changes, and they need advice on what to do.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of unscrupulous attorneys out there, but our attorneys are um wonderful, uh wonderful um Christian people who who love their neighbor and they're just trying to help people follow the law.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: That is absolutely terrific because that's that's the other side of this whole immigration issue.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: We need to find a way to keep folks that because we we have a lot of jobs where we need some help and what have you.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And most of the immigrant folks that I've met are just wonderful folks that want to make a difference and they love America and and Yeah, one of my favorite stories that I heard uh most recently was from the uh uh the volunteer Marshall, who uh uh who runs the tax uh preparation work uh for our our uh program there because we help uh immigrants file their taxes.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you don't have a social security number, you can pay taxes using an ITIN number.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this uh Marshall was telling me about um one of our our um our folks who came in and paid a thousand dollars in taxes and celebrated because they were able to make a contribution in this country.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um Paul props that we don't hear enough stories like that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: That that's a great story.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's and so tell me a little bit about the food distribution program.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's it, and you've got that and where where do you distribute the food?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Can anyone get the food?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's that's a great question.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it is one of the ways that God has been growing us and and and uh yeah, sometimes growing you feels like being stretched, stretching us.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it it was it came out of the misfortune of COVID, you know.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh I remember that Thursday or Friday when the schools all shut down in Michigan, and you became it became clear that it's gonna be a while.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we started, I went to the grocery store because I was like, oh, we better stock up.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I I came home and I washed my groceries.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But but then after bringing all these groceries in, I asked myself, how are the seniors that we help uh in our adult day program or in uh we have a lot of senior volunteer programs, uh how are they getting their groceries?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they many of them don't have cars.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and at that time it wasn't that common to do DoorDash and all that.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I'd never done it before.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're low income, you can't just spend$25 uh during surge pricing just to get the delivery.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and we and we had about a dozen people with nothing to do because nobody could come to get adult day services because they were on lockdown because it was dangerous and such.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we said, well, we need to be useful.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: We what has God given us?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: What can we do?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, in fact, Bank of America called and said, Hey, uh, you know, we want to support the work of Catholic charities during this difficult time.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And our people said, we want to buy groceries and we want to deliver them to the homes of the seniors who used to come to us.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we started to do that, and it took off, as you can imagine, because uh, and what the one of the best parts about it, Craig, was the people who would deliver the groceries, say now we're talking April of 2020, yeah, or May of 2020, or June of 2020, when they would arrive and ring the bell, and uh the person this because we only delivered to to uh uh people over 65 or people of low income, the person who answered the door w would often say, You're the first person that I've seen this month.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's sad, but it's also a sign of how important it is that we who have something share it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's just sharing your voice over the phone or over Zoom at that time.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when we would answer the call from people who needed food and needed help, sometimes they would talk to our um our staff person for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it would be about housing or something, medical care.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: They just needed a connection.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So our we call that our senior outreach program.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you can uh participate in our senior outreach program uh if you're in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb County.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are programs like it uh in other places that I encourage people to look into.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Who who helps seniors?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some some in here in Michigan, you know, the uh the area agencies on aging would work with this kind of stuff, um uh meals on wheels kind of things.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just important to have connections.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you never know, you you build you build your resilient base of of supporters for what you're doing.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you have a bigger crisis, some of the things you've connected yourself to still are there.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So don't don't live on the edge.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ask for help.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you live in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb County, you can come to us at Catholic Charities.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would go to CCSEM.org and learn about our food programs, senior outreach program in particular.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what if you're a Lutheran?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Can you be part of the Catholic?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, Craig, most folks aren't Catholic.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we've become accustomed to helping all of our neighbors as we always have.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you're taking this idea of love your neighbors yourself.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: You're taking it literally.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it doesn't matter what denominational badge you wear.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's wonderful.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or of course, uh, those who haven't uh uh who are not Christian believers as well, and and naturally uh this is really how um this is what Jesus commanded us to do is to love our neighbor.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's the Good Samaritan story about, except loving the person who you most would think uh isn't your neighbor?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about Jesus' story about the Good Samaritan is when he's asked, Who is my neighbor?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: The person asking says, Who do I really need to help?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus answers is, Well, if you were stranded on the side of the ditch, just having been beaten up, now who do you want to think of you as your neighbor?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he turns it around and doesn't say who do I need to help?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, who would you like to help you?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody and anybody.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: I need to help, right?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh that that's just such a great story.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And as you're describing the food distribution program, which is just amazing, and and that's a relatively new ministry of Catholic charities, right?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: You weren't doing that.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, have you thought about having uh deacons or priests go to meet the seniors in their home?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because it the ones that are talking to you for 10 to 20 minutes, sounds like they need some ministry.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I I think that's great advice.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we we have uh seminarians from Sacred Heart Major Seminary volunteer at our Center for the Works of Mercy on Woodward in Detroit to help prepare the food boxes and such.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but they aren't going out to the homes yet.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess we're still training them.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, also one of the things the Catholic Church uh uh teaches about us is uh the priesthood of all believers, you know.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um as you would well know, Craig, uh Jesus uses everyone.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know there are a lot of priests out there who think uh and care and pray for their uh their nieces, nephews, and cousins, and they know it's not gonna be them that gets through.
• 17:15
  unknown: Right.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be the neighbor who gets through.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: The person who reaches us with a message about uh God's love is usually someone who we didn't expect because we put up our defenses against everyone we know is gonna preach at us.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're really only open to the stranger we meet at the grocery store or the hair salon because we're like, they don't have a hidden motive.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: If they're being good to me, if they're telling me about God's love, well they must really believe it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: But you guys at Catholic charities, you're not just telling people about God's love, you're modeling it.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: And and that makes such a huge difference.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't care if if someone's Catholic or not, you're just trying to love your neighbor as yourself.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: I just love that.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and um so what would you say, uh, Paul, is the best part of your job?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um seeing people uh grow and thrive, and oftentimes it's uh we we we were able to uh do our first housing development for uh affordable housing and for people who were formerly homeless.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we opened last year.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've seen people who um maybe have dealt with addiction, maybe they have dealt with um other disabilities.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes with that comes an isolation from their family members.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe it's rejection, sometimes it's it's them that's doing the rejecting.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: But they're isolated and they're and they're homeless and until we were able to provide some housing and some case management and uh caring uh supportive uh peers that we bring to the residences at St.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew on the east side.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh it's connection, you know, it's human connection, but it's nice that there's an apartment and if it's well furnished by the Capuchins.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: They they paid for all the furnishings for the uh the new uh apartments.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So seeing individuals who are um delighted that they've made new friends and that they they see the new beginning, you know, every one of us can look back at the low point in our life and say, you know, I wasn't sure I was gonna get up the next morning.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't sure I wanted to get up the next morning.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when you see someone who you know sees that new day and they're ready for it and they feel blessed, um you can see it.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: You you see that sparkle in their eyes because they have that they have that hope.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: They they kind of feel um the worst is behind me, and I can uh I can take on the future because I have people around me who care about me.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we do that in the housing program, we do that in the adult day program.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we see that with oftentimes in that program you have people we're helping on a day-to-day basis who have dementia.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we encourage you, if that's what you're dealing with in your home, to go to ccsem.org and find out about our adult day programs.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and again, if you're listening from another part of the country, there are adult day programs where there are people like there are Catholic charities who they want to play cards, they want to dance, they want to celebrate birthdays, they want to celebrate St.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Day.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we got a saint for everything, Craig.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we almost every day is Saints' Day.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, we have we have fun, yep, and we celebrate the dignity of the human person.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So our our some of our neighbors who come to us in the Adult Day program actually are able to participate in making it a better experience for others.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And some, it's the time when they are most able to have fun themselves.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So again, you know, we we just want to have see people have joy, uh, have have the life uh enjoy, you know.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, uh a game that you might have life and have it in abundance.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and again, because we give, we give of ourselves, we give food, or we give time, or we give housing.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um people respond with gratitude and delight and that sense of um of community.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I like to see.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I like to see that interaction.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I I like to see it in our people who do the volunteering and the the staff work as well, because nothing makes you happier than when you are helping someone else.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's uh of course, that's uh definitely our belief here in It's a Grand Life and And you know, our focus is on grandparents who are raising their grandkids.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you uh uh that the Catholic charity supports grandparents raising their grandkids.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and how would you suggest that some of our listeners could get plugged in, whether they're in southeast Michigan or all over the country?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, again, first thing I would say is uh you're not alone.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are people in your community that care about you, whether it's a Catholic charities in your part of the country or whether it's another organization, often faith-based, who has because a lot of times at the faith-based organizations you have people who are they're they're just in it for you.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: They they do it because they are uh called by God, they feel that call and they want to make themselves a gift.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So uh mental health counseling and substance use counseling that we do at Catholic charities is something that maybe uh the the grandparent needs.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anxiety and depression are so common if you're struggling with that and you're caring for your grandchild, your grandchild's gonna benefit if you're getting counseling.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to carry that burden alone.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um but maybe it's the the adult child uh who's the who's the parent of the grandchild who needs some substance use treatment or counseling.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: So Catholic charities can be an asset there.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh or maybe it's a child, right, who's dealing with lots of issues.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a, you know, many people uh that I care about very much are uh go to counseling at Catholic Charities because it's just something we need.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh life is very complicated and um mental health services are are almost everywhere if you will ask for help and seek help.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's very important.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think the adult date programs we offer are very important if you're caring.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: So take a grandparent who's caring for their grandchild, but also caring for their spouse.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now that spouse could be at an adult date program like ours, so that the the the the caring grandparent can care for that child and the spouse, and sometimes the child's at school, and sometimes the spouse is in adult date, and it and you are not oh you might be you might be able to go to this the you know, I was gonna say the spa, but you might just be able to put your feet up for a minute.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Make dinner, you know, yes.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Go to church.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: This was the other thing I wanted to say, and it's not really what we do, but it's what every grandparent raising a grandchild should do, is go to church.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because in churches we have communities who share uh the this this um they in the in churches we have communities of people who share the vision for your life that Jesus shares, that you should be uh that you should be uh flourishing, that you should be uh uh in community, that you should have friends, that you should have supporters.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: You you you you need to have someone you can call upon to help if you gotta go to the doctor.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, churches have been a big part of American society and making us one of the greatest countries or the greatest country that that there is ever has been.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if we stop going to church, we're not gonna have the strength that our parents had.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think being finding a great church community is very important to being a great grandparent.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not a great grandparent, but an excellent grandparent.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: The uh the the nice thing about the mission and vision of Catholic charities is that's really what I think is the calling of the church to love your neighbor as yourself.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: It you're not talking about the government coming in and doing these things, you're talking about all these parishes and all these believers all over Southeast Michigan, the six counties you talked about, really reaching out and just being a blessing to fellow Americans who really need it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: And in the when I talk to folks that run um grandparent organizations across the country, they all tell me the number one problem is mental health.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Mental health issues, behavior health challenges for grandma, for the grandchild, and for the son or daughter who's having challenges raising their own child.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: And you you address that head-on, you address housing, you tick all the boxes for what grandparents are wrestling with.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I just commend Catholic charities for that and your open-handedness.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's absolutely wonderful.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: We need all the denominations, uh all of the community of faith to join hands with Catholic charities and be a blessing to our fellow Americans.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: We've got an epidemic out here.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: 2.5 million grandparents are raising their grandkids.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: 80%, 80% are struggling financially.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: They did not plan to raise one to five grandkids, and any grandparent that you and I know would never say no to their grandkids.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: So um, I just love the work that you're doing.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, what so the advice that you have for grandparents is go to church and take your grands to church.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, definitely.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, and and get get help.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, get the help you need.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes you find that help in your neighbors at church, but sometimes you need to pick up the phone.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for example, here in Southeast Michigan, we have United Way 211, and and it's also a website, so it's a phone number, 211, but it's also a website, uh, you put in United Way 211, and you can find all manner of of help of organizations that are set up to help you, and and um, you know, as a giver, right?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh everyone is both in need of help and has something to give.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a grandparent that's giving to your grandchild, um, God bless you, there are people who want to give to you.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who want to support you.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they've they've been making donations to Catholic charities to another organization just to meet the need that you have.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta find out about it.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um it it uh it is the work of the whole community, just like you know, you as a grandparent are are uh making a gift of yourself, but other people want to make a gift of themselves to you.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you it gives us joy, everyone who's in the Catholic Charities community, when we find our niche in your life.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so how could Catholic charities knit a grand life partner to improve the lives of grandparents?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, one thing that you did mention that I think is important, I didn't mention it, but you did, is is uh uh foster parenting uh and adoption does require uh the state in some way.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So an agency like Catholic Charities, which is a faith-based agency, can help you interact with the state in a way that suits maybe helps you uh as a grandparent accomplish what you need to accomplish in terms of raising that child.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there are there if you're low income, or I shouldn't even give that there in many situations, there's financial assistance that's due to help with that child's uh uh you know foster parenting.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh that may and and parental rights might need the you know the attention of the state.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: So our our office, our licensing office, uh uh or our other work we do at Catholic Charities could be your first phone call, um, at least to help get advice.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: So again, uh our um our our website to get that information on how to reach us is at ccsem.org.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's Catholic Charity Southeast Michigan.org.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's one way is some grandparents are gonna need some expert advice or even an agency like us to get involved in in the making things right for their their grandchild.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um also uh we know many people in our senior uh outreach program who are getting food assistance, um, and they may be raising their grandchildren.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were not aware of that, uh, or we might be aware of it, but we were not aware of its grand life until recently, which is that uh, as you've mentioned, Craig, some folks who we come into contact with first, we can send your way to be able to get some of those um charitable gifts that are necessary for some of those crises that people run into, because uh, as we know, raising a child can be very expensive.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I would say, I have seven children myself, I didn't mention that yet, so I'm very grateful to my uh wife Jennifer, who who has made it possible to get these children from where they are to a couple are now married.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can make the announcement that I will be a grandparent.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: I am a grandparent.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: My uh my uh oldest daughter's baby's being born in July, and we celebrate uh little baby Emma's life already.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but uh, you know, it it is it is expensive um to raise a child, but it doesn't have to be as expensive as some of the statistics make it out to be.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um and and it you don't have to do it alone.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and the child is, as you all know, worth so much more than any dollar sign could ever account for.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where the joy is with those little ones.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still behind all you listeners who are grandparents.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have not seen my grandchild yet.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh it's gonna be life-changing, but uh uh Paul Propson, we can't thank you enough for being on Instagram Life.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: And just want you to know you have an open invitation anytime you want to come on, and you've got a new program going with Catholic charities, we want to know about it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: I personally had no clue with the the the breadth and width of Catholic charities, and I'm sure my uh our audience had no idea as well that we all thought you're probably a foundation collecting donations.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: But uh knowing you the way I do over all these years, you are hands-on, you you see a need, you want to jump in and in Jesus' name make a difference, and we just salute what you're doing.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, if if you're brand new to Catholic charities and you're in Southeast Michigan, you gotta go to CCSEM.org and just look at all that they offer.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you you may be a card-carrying Methodist.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Give them a call.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, because they want to they want to serve the underserved.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, we just thank you so much for the the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus that you guys are doing, you and your team, and uh it has just given me nothing but great joy this morning to hear about this wonderful ministry and doesn't surprise me knowing you.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: But do you have time for one short story?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely we do, yes, sir.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: I uh as a young father, I was in my uh family room looking out my window at my two children playing outside in the snow.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, one of them went down the sled and tipped over and got snow all up in their face, and I would run out there, right?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't run out because I saw my older daughter was going up to my son to clean off his face and give him a hug, and he cried on her shoulder.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And these are little kids, you know, five, five years old, three years old, whatever.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I had this moment of discovery of God's joy, because nothing gives God more joy, I'm convinced, than seeing one of his children care for another one of his children when they're suffering, right?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and so as you were mentioning, whoever, whoever you are, wherever you come from, uh you have something to offer and you have something you need.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And at Catholic Charities, we have something to offer and we have something we need.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we need a lot of volunteers.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to do that, we come out to ccsm.org and learn about how you can volunteer.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it gives God more joy when it's one who's Catholic and one who's Methodist, or one who's Baptist and one who's Presbyterian.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we cross over that division, it gives God more joy than when we do it for the one who's just like us.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So let's give God joy.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's reach out across boundaries and let's love one another.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, either I have to take up an offering or we've got to end the bobson.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for being our guest here on It's a Grand Life, and look forward to hearing about the next adventure at Catholic Charities.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: But uh I know you've been such a blessing to our audience, and thank you for joining us today.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, Craig.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was a pleasure and a privilege.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us today for It's a Grand Life.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Grand Life provides vital content, regulatory updates, and subject matter experts that are committed to supporting the 2.4 million kids and their caregivers from every neighborhood, every city, every tribe and territory nationwide.
• 35:12
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• 35:18
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• 35:23
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• 35:26
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• 35:32
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• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a suggestion for a future episode, please reach out to us.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: But we'll see you next time for another It's a Grand Life.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us.