Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley

Our Beliefs include:

? We express our Christian values and traditions of the social gospel by upholding the human dignity of those we serve.

? We are committed to providing caring, professional, quality services inclusive of those in need.

? We are committed to innovation in solving community problems.

? We are committed to the preservation and strengthening of families

? We believe the cornerstone to effective social service operation is partnership and collaboration.

? We are committed to fostering individual responsibility and social consciousness.

? We are committed to operating within our resources and to finding ways to add to these resources as additional service needs are identified.

CSSMV, an affiliated agency of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, exists to advance the human dignity and welfare of those people in need by providing comprehensive social services in response to the teachings of Christ and the Catholic Church. The agency is committed to extending God?s love for the human family by assisting people to live more fully and freely, to accept God?s love for them, and to share it with others.

Our staff support our mission, while at the same time respecting the values of those we serve.

The community needs far outstrip our capacity to respond. This fact, combined with the need for responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to us, requires the following priority setting process ?

1. The family is a significant priority as a basic and evolving society unit.
2. The individual person is created in the image of God with innate dignity and worth. The individual requires both acceptance and challenge to grow.
3. In our concern for the individual and family, we challenge the institution and structure of society that surrounds and affects them.
4. As resources are limited and can be maximized in cooperative and coordinated action, our services are developed and offered in a coordinated manner to maximize resources and shared values.

Professional staff are expected to act in accordance with the Code of Ethics of their professional organization, National Association of Social Workers or other nationally recognized professional organization.

As a member organization of Catholic Charities USA, CSSMV agrees ?

1. All policies, programs and practices shall support the sanctity and dignity of human life from the moment of its initiation until death, the value and integrity of the human person, the sacredness of the union of man and woman in marriage, the value of people?s social relationships to one another and to community, and the central role of the family in human life and in society.

2. It will reach out to help those who are suffering and shall adopt, in the allocation of limited resources, a preference for serving the neediest and most vulnerable members of the community.

3. It will acknowledge and support the right of all people to set and pursue their own life goals, within the limits to the common good, whereby they can freely enter into participation with others in order to fulfill their common human potential and contribute to the building of a more humane community.

4. It will identify itself to the pluralistic community as a mechanism by which the Church community seeks to fulfill its obligation for achieving the social mission of Charity and Justice and it will seek full support and participation of the Church as the people of God through representation on policy-making Boards of Directors and advisory committees, through cooperation as appropriate to the mission of the agency and through the involvement of volunteers in the programs of the agency.

5. It will collaborate with other individuals, groups, and social agencies on issues, policies and programs compatible with a Christian value system, and in the interest of achieving the fullest measure of charity and justice.

6. In all its policies, procedures and practices, it will be faithful to Biblical values, the social teaching of the Church and the code of Canon Law.

7. It will function faithfully within the mission and structures of the diocese with proper respect for the role of the Diocesan Bishop.

8. It will assure conformity with relevant civil law in its governance and, at the same time, it will hold itself free to seek peacefully to change oppressive civil laws.

9. It will seek to realize in action the virtues of charity and justice in all relationships with staff, volunteers, the people served and the larger community.

10. It will recognize confidentiality as a living principle within the agency and establish policies and procedures to assure protection of the privacy of the relationship established with its clients and other relevant bodies.

11. It will hold itself fully, consistently and publicly accountable for its program and fiscal operations, and seek objective certification that it meets those standards of quality in its performance that have been established for the field of social service, through accreditation and licensing, as appropriate.

12. It will support and advocate for those freedoms and structures in society that contribute to pluralism in social welfare and cooperation between public and voluntary sectors.

13. It will subscribe to and advocate for the principle of subsidiarily with its concern to leave the highest degree of freedom to the individual that is consonant with the common good, to recognize the family as the primary institution for meeting human needs of its members, and for active, vigorous meditating groups and voluntary organizations in society with particular reference to the parish as a caring community.

14. In conformity with Catholic Social Teaching, it will support the legitimate, necessary and important responsibility of government for programs essential for the general welfare.