Catholic Charities Day Center opens doors for the unhoused in Imperial County
EL CENTRO — The Catholic Charities Day Center is a newly opened facility in Imperial County for unhoused community members, offering a place to meet basic needs during the day and access resources necessary to overcome barriers.
Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego (CCDSD) CEO Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor said this is the first center of its kind for the unsheltered community in Imperia County.
Pajanor said that the day center’s soft launch was on Wednesday, February 15 and Catholic Charities are expecting to do a grand opening in April of this year. The Imperial Valley Press toured the center facilities for an inside look on Tuesday, February 21.
“Many times, the unhoused, the unsheltered, the ‘ traditional homeless’ as we call them, are not prepared to go into a permanent sheltering environment, or even a temporary sheltering environment,” Pajanor said. “We’ve got to meet people where they are.”
Pajanor said this center is an entry point where Catholic Charities can meet them, create a relationship and develop trust, and show the various resources available to the unsheltered in the county.
Pajanor said that Catholic Charities has day centers in downtown San Diego where some clients are initially reluctant to get into a shelter, and get convinced as they create a rapport, a trusting environment, and a relationship with the service provider.
“We’re hoping that through this process we can then move people on to being permanently sheltered and off the streets in the Imperial County,” Pajanor said.
The center operates
365 days a year from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., he said.
The new Day Center offers access to a restroom, showers, and laundry facilities. It provides morning coffee, a light breakfast, a hot-nutritious meal at lunchtime, and a takeaway light meal at the end of the day.
Pajanor said that the day center’s kitchen can serve up to 400 meals a day.
Community members can access personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies, and optional case management focused on health and safety, identifying and overcoming barriers to obtaining housing.
Pajanor said CCDSD are working on outreach within the unhoused community to let people know about the services and resources offered at the Catholic Charities Day Center.
“All those folks in the community will know there is a safe place to go for them not only to get fed, take showers, use the restroom, and do laundry but also get connected with other resources,” Pajanor said.
Per their website, since the establishment of the Diocese of San Diego in 1936, the role of Catholic Charities has been “to provide social welfare programs, witness to the scriptural values of mercy and justice, and advocate for the poor and vulnerable within the diocese. Catholic Charities, while evolving over the past 100-plus years, has remained faithful to its original mandate: assist the child, the family, the immigrant, and the marginalized.”
“The name is Catholic Charities, but we don’t discriminate anybody by race, religion, gender, or any other means,” Pajanor said. “Everybody is welcome, and we don’t try to evangelize or make people convert.”
“We accept who you are and we are here to see and provide that service to you because we see you as a fellow human being, and that’s what we want to do,” he said.
The Catholic Charities Day Center is looking for volunteers who want to give back to the community with their time, talents, or donate items such as clothing or food.
For more information on volunteering at Catholic Charities Day Center, email volunteer@ ccdsd.org.