Corporate and household budgets aren’t the only ones feeling the strain of the weakened economy.

Charitable organizations are also stretching dollars to cover increased needs. That includes the Diocese of Phoenix’s Charity and Development Appeal, which funds more than 70 community agencies and diocesan parishes, schools and ministries.

With the appeal getting underway Jan. 31 and little sign of improvement in the economy, the need for prayerful and financial support of the CDA has never been greater. This year’s target is $10.2 million.

“The CDA has always impacted our community by supporting so many who are in crisis,” said Ric Serrano, who is co-chairing this year’s appeal with his wife, Davonna. “Today’s economic environment means that our seniors and families who need food, jobs and hope for the future have growing needs.”

Agencies in crisis

Paul Martodam, CEO of the CDA-backed Catholic Charities Community Services, has experienced that need firsthand.“

The number of people that we’re unable to help is about triple what it was several years ago before the economic decline started,” Martodam said.

The agency provides an array of services including its housing and emergency services program. It’s one of many that have been hit hard by the failing economy.

Some 1,750 people throughout Arizona received aid through Catholic Charities’ housing and emergency services program last month. Martodam said staff members were forced to turn away another 1,500 because Catholic Charities ran out of resources to help clients with mortgages, rent and utility bills.

“We have a growing number of people who have been past donors or volunteers and are now looking for assistance,” Martodam said. “These people feel terribly ashamed to even come forward and ask for help.”

This group of clients has become so common that Martodam has held training sessions in various regions to help sensitize staff to the client’s situation.

“The need is just tremendously great and growing and the resources, unfortunately, are shrinking,” Martodam said.

Catholic Charities has been forced to close three transitional housing units and reduce the amount of emergency assistance provided to each family.

“And that’s just terribly difficult to do in a time like this,” he added.

Other CDA-supported agencies such as the Foundation for Senior Living are facing the same problems.

The foundation fields 600 calls each month from adult children and other family caretakers seeking referrals, information and assessment of their elderly and sometimes ailing parents. Clients are either senior citizens or younger adults with disabilities living on a fixed income.

That means they often have enough money to cover the basics, but struggle when home maintenance and repair issues arise. The foundation’s home improvement program uses CDA money to make simple household repairs.

Other clients find that it’s no longer safe or desirable to live at home and don’t know where to turn.“Americans don’t plan ahead very well,” said Guy Mikkelsen, president and CEO of the Foundation for Senior Living. “We’re kind of reactive, especially in health care, senior care and so on.”

The agency also uses CDA funds to provide scholarships for adult day care facilities, offer counseling and care options, and research referrals to similar services nationwide.

It also stocks a pantry to supply clients with emergency food.“

A lot of seniors are running out of food at the end of the month,” Mikkelsen said.

Administrators at Paz de Cristo Community Center in Mesa are also finding themselves dealing with more and more clients without food. Numbers for the soup kitchen’s daily evening meal service, which the CDA supports, have been consistently high. In 2008, it fed 400 more guests than in 2007.

Paz de Cristo’s emergency food box program also saw greater demand. It gave out 2,000 more food boxes last year compared to 2007.

St. Joseph the Worker, a job service agency that helps the homeless and other low-income individuals achieve self-sufficiency, also felt the impact of the economy. It saw a 60 percent increase in new clients in the last fiscal year.

CDA funding provides job seekers with the necessary work tools, licenses and uniforms to be employable. It also helps them with transportation and housing assistance. But securing meaningful employment is the agency’s greatest challenge these days.

Job competition is so fierce that St. Joseph the Worker has begun supporting temporary, seasonal or part-time employment.

“While our core focus is to teach people to secure full-time, permanent employment, right now we are encouraging any kind of work as the next right step,” said Amy Caffarello, executive director of the agency.

She added that employed clients sometimes continue visiting the office seeking a second job to help make ends meet. CDA funds provide essentials to job seekers including work tools, licenses, uniforms, transportation and housing.

Parish support

Some parishes are also struggling to make ends meet.

Fr. Greg Schlarb, vicar of stewardship and pastor of St. Anne Parish in Gilbert, knows the vital role parishioner support plays in paying the bills and supporting parish life. That need is increasing, he said.

“Our parishes and missions need every parishioner’s support to meet the spiritual needs of our community family,” Fr. Schlarb said.

Sometimes, when the parish family is small, even that isn’t enough.

St. Francis of Assisi Parish in the copper mining community of Bagdad serves 25 families. Weekly collections aren’t enough to support daily operations and general upkeep.

That’s where CDA funds help out. Without it, these families wouldn’t have regular access to the sacraments or religious education.

The same is true for Catholics who worship in the two parishes and nine missions on the Indian reservations. Money from the appeal covers what weekly collections can’t, including priest stipends and travel costs.

“Without the CDA, there would be no sacramental or priestly ministry in the Native American community,” said Franciscan Father Dale Jamison, director of the Office of Native American Ministry.

Monies also support St. Peter Indian Mission School which needs help paying for textbooks, insurance, maintenance, utilities, the bus and salaries.

“What we can do through the CDA will change lives within our community,” said Davonna Serrano, co-chair of the 2009 CDA. “We are all part of Christ’s family and we need to respond to our community not just from our abundance, but from our substance.”

Fr. Schlarb agreed.

“The CDA is a total parish effort,” he said. Fr. Schlarb knows it’s possible to help even when there are so many in need and resources seem scarce.

He looks to the Gospel story of Jesus feeding thousands from just five barley loaves and two fish as an example. The input was little, but the output was abundance, he said.

That’s what CDA will do with the monies raised — ideally $10.2 million — during the 2009 appeal.

If everyone gives a little bit, Fr. Schlarb said, they can make a large difference in thousands of lives.