About Us
DAYTON CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT
We do not accept drop-ins, and visitation by appointment only is limited at this time due to COVID pandemic. If you are homeless and need immediate help, please call or email for assistance. We can set up a Zoom conference call for you that we may meet with the immediacy of face-to-face.
To contact us, please
Click Here to book a Zoom meeting
Call us at 937-938-5784
Email us at Stephen@Catholic-ITV.net
About Us
The Catholic Worker Movement supports personalism, commutarianism, decentralized society, life, care for creation and distributist economic theory. Our means are prayer, nonviolence, the works of mercy, manual labor and voluntary poverty. Our sources are the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as handed down in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, with our inspiration coming from the lives of the saints. Established in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Marin, today there are 226 Catholic Worker Movement communities throughout the world. Our communications projects are designed to promote the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Our Catholic intentional community was the outcome of a 24-month JustFaith Ministries Catholic Social Teaching formation process, where we were introduced to the Catholic Worker Movement. With the assistance of Corpus Christi parishioners, in 2005 we founded our Dayton Catholic Worker community upon a belief in the necessity of personal conversion, a transforming spiritual experience, confession, restitution and service to others. Marianist priests and brothers are our spiritual advisors and friends. Our prayer life is ordered by daily Mass and the 12 Step process of reconciliation. The Catholic Worker Movement is meant to encourage Catholics to live the Works of Mercy.
Catholic Workers are voluntarily poor. Our rule is that we can not live beyond the means of the least among us. We rent a HUD subsidized apartment, take the bus, bicycle, wear second-hand clothes, shop online, cook for ourselves and share a common prayer life. There are two of us left. We are both disabled. Our SSA disability incomes, with a little bit of help from our benefactors, and nonprofit CITVN Coop business net operating income has floated the boat for 16 years.
The Dayton Catholic Worker Movement operated for eight years two houses of hospitality, located in a poor Dayton OH inner-city neighborhood, for 12 homeless men and women in recovery from addictions. But, the Catholic Workers got old, some died and those of us left could no longer keep up with the work. So, as in all things, eight years ago our community adapted to carry out our mission to serve homeless citizens in Dayton, Ohio.
Social Services for the Homeless
Our goal is to transition homeless people from the streets and homeless shelters to homeless solutions services providers, addiction treatment centers, peer-supported sober houses as scarce beds become available, public welfare systems and subsidized housing. We assist those capable of working with resume writing, job search and small business startup. And, we assist the mentally ill and physically disabled with application for Social Security Disability determination and free SSA Representative Payee services.
About half of our homeless guests in recovery from addictions have been felon re-entry (ineligible for HUD subsidized housing, though we do push back on public housing authorities and project owners who attempt to justify the over-inclusion of criminal past based on attenuated health and safety concerns or prior evictions, without reasonable consideration for the severity of prior convictions or for undefined unreasonable lengths of time since past criminal activity or eviction) and the other half have had a co-dependent mental illness. They are the chronically homeless (homeless for more than a year), the least likely to survive in local homeless shelters and public welfare systems. 1-in-8 chronically homeless mentally ill people commit suicide. Dayton has had one of the highest rates of heroin overdose in the nation. We see Christ in them. They are our teachers. Our purpose in life is to learn how to love.
Our community presently associates with eight local sober house communities, develops funding for indigent beds, functions as a social services coordinator for homeless people seeking abstinence-based recovery solutions, and provides peer advocacy for homeless people who are experiencing difficulties in obtaining housing, government and nonprofit social services and need need help communicating with local homeless solutions providers. We are currently opening in 2021 a new sober house on Deeds Avenue in Old North Dayton for seven homeless women in recovery from addictions. There are no other Level-1 peer-supported sober houses for women in Montgomery County, Ohio.
CITVN Coop provides no-interest revolving 1-year loans for people in recovery who want to start a six-resident peer-supported democratic Oxford House sober living community. We also offer to fully furnish a new Oxford House. Over 80% of sober house guests achieve sustainable faith – measured as one year of continuous abstinence from drugs and alcohol. It’s love that cures addictions.
Our Nonprofit Business Model
The Dayton Catholic Worker Movement operates the 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit Catholic Internet Television Network Coop, Inc. (CITVN COOP) to produce and distribute documentary videos focused through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching and broadcasts live stream webcast events. Our 256,000 CITVN subscribers include ethics professionals from 12 academic disciplines, pastors and Directors of Religious Education in over 16,000 parishes, and over 20,000 professors at 196 Catholic universities located in 76 countries. And, we serve the business and communications needs of seed stage entrepreneurs, artists and nonprofits. Our arts documentaries and global live streaming events have included expositions at the Dayton Art Institute, Geneva Switzerland based Globethics, London School of Economics, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Louvre Museum, Vatican, and interactive videos for event documentary, sales enablement, corporate communications, and training.
CITVN COOP is an Ohio nonprofit cooperative business owned and operated by former homeless people who are in long term recovery from addictions. We are fully self-supporting. In keeping with Catholic Worker principles, we do not accept impersonal government, corporate or philanthropic grants. Our primary source of revenues are our own personal incomes, the net operating income of our nonprofit cottage industries and small donations from Catholic universities, religious orders, parishes and local benefactors who wish to be personally involved in our community.
100% of CITVN net operating income is dedicated to providing sober house funding and finance options, social services coordination for homeless people seeking abstinence-based recovery solutions, and peer advocacy for homeless people who are experiencing difficulties in obtaining housing, government and nonprofit social services.
CITVN COOP is a member of:
SIGNIS – World Association For Catholic Communication
Inter Mirfica Global Catholic Media Network
United Nations Civil Society Organization
Catholic Peacebuilding Network
National Catholic Council on Addictions
Our Commitment to Social Justice
Those of us left have a responsibility to seed the next generation of entrepreneurial businesses to sustain families.
The Dayton Ohio region has downsized over the last 40 years with the relocation of major corporate employers and the impact of technological change. Wright Patterson Air Force Base remains the largest Dayton regional employer of 32,000, mostly engineers and logistics professionals supplying the R&D and acquisition needs of the United States Air Force.
29% of Daytonians lived below the poverty line before the pandemic. The heroin epidemic is rampant and Dayton Ohio has led the nation in overdose deaths per capita. The average hourly wage earned by Dayton-area renters this year is $12.86, which is nearly $2 short of the wage needed to afford the fair market rent of a two-bedroom apartment without exceeding 30% of income.
The Dayton Catholic Worker Movement is a visible sign that the character of our region is defined by how well we treat of the least of our citizens. Though never without problems to be solved, I am pleased to report that there are a great number of Daytonians who care deeply and get personally involved in the lives of the poor. Our purpose in life is to learn how to love.
We participate in the responsible nonviolent protest of war and systems of injustice. We participate in our local 12 Step communities. We attend Archdiocese of Cincinnati peace and social justice events. We are a supporter of the Dayton International Peace Museum.
Volunteer Opportunities
We kindly ask those who can to join me in voluntarily contributing to the CITVN nonprofit $360 each month to pay the costs of an indigent bed in a local sober house, although any amount is most welcome. Our benefactors receive an underwriter banner and prayer each day for your special intentions.
Those who wish to learn or possess marketing communications, website development, documentary video and webcast production, tax preparation and bookkeeping skills or working as a peer advocate with homeless people in recovery from addictions are most welcome to volunteer their time and talents. I am fairly certain that in the practice of the Works of Mercy, the soul I am probably saving is my own.
To discern if this ministry is what God is calling upon you to do with some of your time, talents and resources, please call (937) 938-5784 or email me at Stephen@Catholic-ITV.net
Cooperation Among Coops
In keeping with Catholic Social tradition, the practices of social transformation integral to the Marianist charism and Cooperative Principle 7 - Cooperation Among Cooperatives, we advocate and support the efforts of the Mission of Mary Urban Development Cooperative.
Mission of Mary Cooperative is investing in the inner east side of Dayton by transforming vacant land plots into vegetable gardens and
partnering with our neighbors to sustainably develop our community. The organization was born out of a community of Lay Marianists living and serving in our poor East Dayton OH inner-city neighborhood. We were confronted with two pressing issues facing the neighborhood -- abandoned land and limited access to fresh, local produce. Their solution? Transform uncultivated green spaces into vegetable gardens and share the harvest with our neighbors. In 2009 they planted a single garden. Today they manage a network of six zero net energy urban farming plots growing 65 different varieties of fruits and vegetables and operate the Urban Sustainability Learning Center.
Cooperative Principles
1. Open and Voluntary Membership
Membership in a cooperative is open to all persons who can reasonably use its services and stand willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, regardless of race, religion, gender, or economic circumstances.
2. Democratic Member Control
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. Elected representatives (directors/trustees) are elected from among the membership and are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote); cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner.
3. Members’ Economic Participation
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital remains the common property of the cooperative. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative; setting up reserves; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
4. Autonomy and Independence
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control as well as their unique identity.
5. Education, Training, and Information
Education and training for members, elected representatives (directors/trustees), CEOs, and employees help them effectively contribute to the development of their cooperatives. Communications about the nature and benefits of cooperatives, particularly with the general public and opinion leaders, helps boost cooperative understanding.
6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives
By working together through local, national, regional, and international structures, cooperatives improve services, bolster local economies, and deal more effectively with social and community needs.
7. Concern for Community
Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies supported by the membership.
AIMS AND MEANS OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT
The aim of the Catholic Worker movement is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ. Our sources are the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures as handed down in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, with our inspiration coming from the lives of the saints, "men and women outstanding in holiness, living witnesses to Your unchanging love." (Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer for holy men and women)
This aim requires us to begin living in a different way. We recall the words of our founders, Dorothy Day who said, "God meant things to be much easier than we have made them," and Peter Maurin who wanted to build a society "where it is easier for people to be good."
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When we examine our society, which is generally called capitalist (because of its methods of producing and controlling wealth) and is bourgeois (because of prevailing concern for acquisition and material interests, and its emphasis on respectability and mediocrity), we find it far from God's justice.
--In economics, private and state capitalism bring about an unjust distribution of wealth, for the profit motive guides decisions. Those in power live off the sweat of others' brows, while those without power are robbed of a just return for their work. Usury (the charging of interest above administrative costs) is a major contributor to the wrongdoing intrinsic to this system. We note, especially, how the world debt crisis leads poor countries into greater deprivation and a dependency from which there is no foreseeable escape. Here at home, the number of hungry and homeless and unemployed people rises in the midst of increasing affluence.
--In labor, human need is no longer the reason for human work. Instead, the unbridled expansion of technology, necessary to capitalism and viewed as "progress," holds sway. Jobs are concentrated in productivity and administration for a "high-tech," war-related, consumer society of disposable goods, so that laborers are trapped in work that does not contribute to human welfare. Furthermore, as jobs become more specialized, many people are excluded from meaningful work or are alienated from the products of their labor. Even in farming, agribusiness has replaced agriculture, and, in all areas, moral restraints are run over roughshod, and a disregard for the laws of nature now threatens the very planet.
--In politics, the state functions to control and regulate life. Its power has burgeoned hand in hand with growth in technology, so that military, scientific and corporate interests get the highest priority when concrete political policies are formulated. Because of the sheer size of institutions, we tend towards government by bureaucracy--that is, government by nobody. Bureaucracy, in all areas of life, is not only impersonal, but also makes accountability, and, therefore, an effective political forum for redressing grievances, next to impossible.
--In morals, relations between people are corrupted by distorted images of the human person. Class, race and gender often determine personal worth and position within society, leading to structures that foster oppression. Capitalism further divides society by pitting owners against workers in perpetual conflict over wealth and its control. Those who do not "produce" are abandoned, and left, at best, to be "processed" through institutions. Spiritual destitution is rampant, manifested in isolation, madness, promiscuity and violence.
--The arms race stands as a clear sign of the direction and spirit of our age. It has extended the domain of destruction and the fear of annihilation, and denies the basic right to life. There is a direct connection between the arms race and destitution. "The arms race is an utterly treacherous trap, and one which injures the poor to an intolerable degree." (Gaudium et Spes)
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In contrast to what we see around us, as well as within ourselves, stands St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrine of the Common Good, a vision of a society where the good of each member is bound to the good of the whole in the service of God.
To this end, we advocate:
--Personalism, a philosophy which regards the freedom and dignity of each person as the basis, focus and goal of all metaphysics and morals. In following such wisdom, we move away from a self-centered individualism toward the good of the other. This is to be done by taking personal responsibility for changing conditions, rather than looking to the state or other institutions to provide impersonal "charity." We pray for a Church renewed by this philosophy and for a time when all those who feel excluded from participation are welcomed with love, drawn by the gentle personalism Peter Maurin taught.
--A decentralized society, in contrast to the present bigness of government, industry, education, health care and agriculture. We encourage efforts such as family farms, rural and urban land trusts, worker ownership and management of small factories, homesteading projects, food, housing and other cooperatives--any effort in which money can once more become merely a medium of exchange, and human beings are no longer commodities.
--A "green revolution," so that it is possible to rediscover the proper meaning of our labor and our true bonds with the land; a distributist communitarianism, self-sufficient through farming, crafting and appropriate technology; a radically new society where people will rely on the fruits of their own toil and labor; associations of mutuality, and a sense of fairness to resolve conflicts.
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We believe this needed personal and social transformation should be pursued by the means Jesus revealed in His sacrificial love. With Christ as our Exemplar, by prayer and communion with His Body and Blood, we strive for practices of:
--Nonviolence. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matt. 5:9) Only through nonviolent action can a personalist revolution come about, one in which one evil will not simply be replaced by another. Thus, we oppose the deliberate taking of human life for any reason, and see every oppression as blasphemy. Jesus taught us to take suffering upon ourselves rather than inflict it upon others, and He calls us to fight against violence with the spiritual weapons of prayer, fasting and noncooperation with evil. Refusal to pay taxes for war, to register for conscription, to comply with any unjust legislation; participation in nonviolent strikes and boycotts, protests or vigils; withdrawal of support for dominant systems, corporate funding or usurious practices are all excellent means to establish peace.
--The works of mercy (as found in Matt. 25:31-46) are at the heart of the Gospel and they are clear mandates for our response to "the least of our brothers and sisters." Houses of hospitality are centers for learning to do the acts of love, so that the poor can receive what is, in justice, theirs, the second coat in our closet, the spare room in our home, a place at our table. Anything beyond what we immediately need belongs to those who go without.
--Manual labor, in a society that rejects it as undignified and inferior. "Besides inducing cooperation, besides overcoming barriers and establishing the spirit of sister and brotherhood (besides just getting things done), manual labor enables us to use our bodies as well as our hands, our minds." (Dorothy Day) The Benedictine motto Ora et Labora reminds us that the work of human hands is a gift for the edification of the world and the glory of God.
--Voluntary poverty. "The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge and belief in love." (Dorothy Day) By embracing voluntary poverty, that is, by casting our lot freely with those whose impoverishment is not a choice, we would ask for the grace to abandon ourselves to the love of God. It would put us on the path to incarnate the Church's "preferential option for the poor."
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We must be prepared to accept seeming failure with these aims, for sacrifice and suffering are part of the Christian life. Success, as the world determines it, is not the final criterion for judgments. The most important thing is the love of Jesus Christ and how to live His truth.
Sainthood Cause for Dorothy Day