The Poor and Destitute

Catholic Welfare Services
This has been the backbone of the Church’s charity efforts since 1959. Catholic Welfare Services conducts a number of projects to help the poor and needy, including:

Five homes for the aged and destitute: Villa Francis Home for the Aged, St Joseph’s Home, St Theresa’s Home, St Vincent Home and Gift of Love Home

Society of St Vincent de Paul
One of the best-known Catholic charities, the society uses monthly collections from all churches to provide direct help to the poor and underprivileged of all religions for the past 50 years. It provides monetary assistance and food rations to those in need and also befriending services. With a pool of 16 honorary physicians and 638 members they assisted more than 1,700 families and 4,000 needy beneficiaries.

Prisoners

The Roman Catholic Prison Ministry
This ministry offer befriending and spiritual support services for prisoners and their families during the incarceration as well as their aftercare needs. Provides counselling and fellowship services that help promote their human and spiritual development.

People with HIV/AIDS

Catholic AIDS Response Effort (CARE)
CARE volunteers battle stigma as they reach out to help people with HIV and AIDS and their families, especially those who are abandoned, marginalised or destitute. The team provides befriending, counselling and support through various programmes, as well as shelter to those with nowhere to go.

Families, Youth and Children

Family Life Society
The society’s focus is on promoting understanding and respect for family and family life. It also promotes respect for human life in all its phases, according to Church teachings. It helps individuals, couples and families through a variety of programmes and activities.

It is active in pro-life, parenting and school family education, runs hotline and counselling for pregnant girls and women and youths in crisis. Established programmes include: Choice, Catholic Engaged Encounter, Marriage Preparation, Natural Family Planning, Couples for Christ, Retrouvaille, Beginning Experience and the Couple Empowerment Programme.

Canossaville Children’s Home
The Canossian Sisters care for young children and adolescents who are at risk, who lack parental care or family support. The home has room for up to 30 children, and they stay from six months to several years. The sisters also run a Student Care Centre for children from single-parent poor families and others.

Morning Star Community Services
This family-centred group formed in 1999 aims to strengthen and enrich family life through education programmes, workshops and camps for parents and children. It runs school-based social work programmes, a prison service to help inmates and their families, and various other counselling, outreach and support services.

Marine Parade Family Service Centre
It runs a comprehensive range of social services helping individuals to realise their own potential; empower families to increase their functionality; and nurturing the community to strengthen its bonds. It serves the residents in the districts of Marine Parade, Joo Chiat, Geylang Serai and Mountbatten. It also runs other programmes and projects as follows:

Cyber-Counselling for the Youth – provide young people who are not yet ready for, or have no access to face-to-face counselling with an alternative means of communicating with counsellors and also enhances teenagers’ abilities in handling relationships at home and in schools.

Good Life at South East – promotes productive ageing among the mobile and healthy elderly through activities to educate them on how to look after their holistic psychological and physical wellness as well as inter-generational and racial community participation programmes.

Christian Family and Social Movement (CFSM)
CFSM believes that the family is the basic building block of a good society and a good nation. In working towards building good Christian families, CFSM assists all family members to live and fulfil their various roles in the family, work place, community and nation.

Migrant Workers

Archdiocesan Crisis Coordination Team (ACCT)
Formed after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, this is the Church’s disaster response team. It manages the Disaster Aid Fund. set up in 2006 will enable the Church to act more speedily when a disaster occurs.

Jesuit Refugee Service Singapore (JRS)
This is an international Catholic organisation dedicated to helping refugees and forcibly displaced people. Formed in Singapore in 1999, it has helped people in Thailand, Indonesia, East Timor, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. Members work with parishes to raise awareness of the plight of refugees, and organise talks, masses and visits to refugee camps.

People with Medical Needs

Catholic Nurses Guild of Singapore (CNG)
This association of nurses promotes professional and spiritual growth of its members, who also participate in many Church activities to help the sick, handicapped and elderly.

Catholic Medical Guild (CMG)
Catholic doctors come together to interact and find ways to practise medicine as a Christian vocation and promote the Culture of Life. Members examine social and ethical issues in the light of Church teachings and also conduct humanitarian missions overseas together with other organisations.

People with Legal Needs

The Catholic Lawyers Guild (CLG)
CLG serves mutual support and encouragement among lawyers for the sanctification of their professional work, as well as the provision of legal assistance to the Church and persons in needy cases.