
ST. PAUL'S
Episcopal
CHURCH
Generous Community · Enduring Worship · Gracious Welcome
Community Outreach Programs
Our Outreach offering for August is for Parents as Teachers (PAT), which is a free early childhood program. Parents as Teachers is offered to families who live in the Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth School districts, who have children aged birth to Kindergarten entry. The program offers Personal visits, Group Connections, and Resources. Personal visits are offered once or twice a month, depending on needs, and includes a developmentally appropriate parent-child activity, screenings, development centered parenting, and family well-being. In addition, we offer Group Connections for the whole family and weekly playgroups. Our role is to support families in their parenting. we use a research-based curriculum to deliver information. The only criteria to be in the program is to be a parent. Parents as Teachers is funded through a grant from the Kansas State Department of Education and works through the school district USD 453. Parents as Teachers is a national program that started in St. Louis, MO about 40 years ago and has been in Kansas for about 35 years. The Leavenworth/Fort Leavenworth program was one of the first offered in Kansas.
The October Outreach Program will be the DePaul Leavenworth Attainable Housing Program
Recognizing the great need for affordable, attainable, and sustainable housing, Leavenworth Attainable Housing began in May 2022 with one small house with one resident. In January of 2023, we joined DePaul USA, which is a national group working on homelessness. We now have nine houses and nineteen residents. We received a grant from the city for $600,000 to build two duplexes and buy and rehab 3-4 houses. We have purchased one house and are in the process of buying two more. We will start construction on the first duplex in September.
Our program has four pillars: Finance, health, community and housing. We have a financial advocate that works with each resident; we make sure the residents have health care with a private physician at St. Vincent’s clinic and that they have needed mental health care at the Guidance Center; we work on building community by bringing our residents together for a gathering once a month and encourage them to participate in various city events; the fourth pillar is the house itself. Our Housing Support Specialist meets with them each week in the home to be sure things are going well and that the house is being maintained.