Religious Communities
"Out of traditions of the past, we find meaning for the present and hope for the future, responding as our founding sisters did to the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs of God's people..."
-- Sr. Mary Denis Maher, CSA, Ph.D.
Certified Archivist
For more than 150 years, the
Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine and other congregations of Catholic women religious have served
America’s most vulnerable residents. Their ministries of health care, education and social service are significant, faith-based resources that strengthen a community’s capacity to help those most in need.
The Foundation’s primary geographic focus for Religious Communities grants is Northeast Ohio, which it defines as encompassing the Dioceses of Cleveland and Youngstown. In addition, the Foundation builds awareness of the enduring impact of women religious and their ministries beyond this region.
The Foundation is pleased to announce the traveling exhibit,
Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America, produced by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is coming to the
Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage from May 9th to August 28th. A project supported by this Foundation at its earliest stage, the exhibit's first run at the Cincinnati Museum Center attracted more than 50,000 visitors who learned about the tremendous contributions of women religious throughout American history to today.
Rare artifacts, poignant photographs, compelling video and first-person accounts tell the stories of pioneering women who established schools, hospitals and other enduring institutions and continue to work for peace and social justice. Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America, will travel to Cleveland directly from its appearance at The Smithsonian to open at The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, OH on May 9, 2010.
To date, key sponsors of the Cleveland presentation include Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, Notre Dame College, Ursuline College/Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, National City/Now A Part of PNC, Cleveland Clinic/Marymount Hospital, the Cleveland Foundation and Mt. Sinai Foundation.
Catch a look at the exhibit in
this video or see it for yourself as it tours museums across the United States through 2012. (Below left, two Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, Regina Fierman (center) and Joan Gallagher (right) tour the exhibit in Cincinnati.)
WOMEN & SPIRIT is a project of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The Conference has more than 1,500 members, representing about 95% of America’s 68,000 women religious.
Collaboration for Ministry Initiative
Now in its seventh year, the Collaboration for Ministry Initiative (CMI) encourages partnerships and networks among women religious and between women religious and their lay partners. The effort grew from Foundation-supported research conducted in 2001 that identified collaboration as an important strategy for strengthening and sustaining ministries.
CMI currently supports research on the ministries of women religious in
Cleveland and its inner ring suburbs by Rob Fischer, Ph.D., Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty & Community Development at
Case Western Reserve University.
This research is looking into the impact of the Diocesan reconfiguration process on these ministries and the Sisters’ vision and challenges for these ministries as they move forward.
CMI also supports active collaborations of congregations such as the Collaborative to End Human Trafficking, in which six congregations work together to build awareness and expand resources on the issue of human trafficking in
Ohio.
The Sisters of Charity Foundation also collaborates with the
Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina in its parallel initiative for women religious in that state.
Saint Ann Legacy Grant Program
This grant program honors the legacy of
Saint Ann Hospital and the Saint Ann Foundation which merged with the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland in 2006. These grants recognize that Foundation's vision of being a resource for ministries of women religious, particularly those that improve the lives of women and children. The smaller Saint Ann Legacy grants support capacity-building and program needs.