CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ATLANTA INC
Providing Help. Creating Hope
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
For families at the lowest levels of the income distribution, average annual income has not changed substantially in value since 1966. Twenty six percent of children in Georgia are in families considered poor by Federal standards, another 23% are low income. We are dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in families so they can live self-sufficiently. We believe that charitable assistance that leaves the poor as they are is not sufficient. Our vision is for families to gain the knowledge, skill and jobs needed to live independent, self-directed lives.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Immigration Legal Services
CCA provides low-cost, quality legal immigration services to more than 6,000 clients annually. A multi-lingual staff specializing in immigration law provides comprehensive immigration legal services to help eligible individuals and families obtain their permanent legal status, assist clients with the naturalization process, and provide legal representation during deportation proceedings. We specialize in assisting survivors of domestic violence, abandoned or neglected foreign children, detained clients, and victims of trafficking and crimes.
Refugee Resettlement Services
Catholic Charities Atlanta provides Refugee Services to refugee families arriving in the metro Atlanta area. The extensive resettlement services are designed to help refugees achieve economic and social self-sufficiency within their first six months in the United States.
CCA also provides needed support services in the areas of employment, home management, crisis intervention, financial literacy and medical assistance to refugees who have been living in the United States for less than five years.
The Refugee Services department also includes a program to serve unaccompanied children who cross border into the United States. Services are designed to ensure that children are released into safe environments and have access to educational, healthcare, and legal services while they are in immigration removal proceedings.
Counseling Services
Counseling for yourself or a family member may be the most significant decision that you will make. Relationships, both within our family circle or in other areas of our lives, can greatly impact our growth, happiness, and our sense of security. Consulting a qualified, professional therapist to assist in overcoming life’s problems can be an important decision for you or your family.
Our community-based outpatient mental health and counseling services focus on the challenges families and individuals face in dealing with life transitions, unexpected tragedies, and mental health issues. The goal is to help clients gain the skills to effectively manage their issues and improve the client’s ability to cope with life’s challenges.
Housing Counseling
Catholic Charities Atlanta Family Stabilization Services helps families move toward self-sufficiency. CCA’s bi-lingual staff helps families to stabilize their current living situation, providing services intended to help them achieve self sufficiency. One major component of these services is our housing counseling program.
Services in our Housing Counseling Program include Foreclosure Intervention, Financial Literacy, Pre-purchase Counseling, and Homebuyer Education Seminars.
Case Management
Case Support is a service to facilitate coordination, communication, and collaboration with clients, providers, ancillary services and others in order to achieve goals and maximize positive client outcomes based on individual and family assessments.
Some of the services include Benefits Screening and Information & Referral.
Offered in English and Spanish, CCA staff helps families to stabilize their current living situation, providing services intended to help them achieve self-sufficiency.
Educational Services
Learning how to speak and read English is essential to thrive in the United States. Catholic Charities provides English Language instruction classes at multiple locations throughout Atlanta. Our ESL and citizenship classes provide a key component for integrating into American society for both immigrants who have recently arrived and those who have been in this country for several years.
Parenting Education
Catholic Charities Atlanta’s Parent Talk Program serves to educate, strengthen and support pregnant and parenting families to raise their children in a safe and healthy environment so that they may achieve their full potential.
We serve a diverse mix of clients (adults and teens), that are high-risk expectant parents, new parents and other caregivers/guardians raising infants. Services focus on family support, child development, and early interventions.
All services are provided in the client’s home. Family preservation services are provided to families to prevent removal of children from their home or prevent re-entry into foster care.
Veterans Support Services
Georgia is home to 777,858 veterans. In a recent study, 58% of veterans surveyed in Georgia reported experiencing homelessness after their departure from the military. Sixty-five percent report income less than $20,000 and 71% do not receive income from either pensions or retirement. Reintegrating into civilian life after serving in the military is often an overwhelming experience.
Catholic Charities Atlanta’s AmeriCorps Peer Navigator program, offering case support services to Georgia’s veterans, rises to meet these challenges. This is a free program for military members, veterans, and their families to connect to resources in their local community that help them to meaningfully improve their lives and accomplish their goals.
Where we work
Awards
Fred Gray Social Justice Award 2013
John Marshall Law School
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Average number of dollars per person served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Hours of volunteer service
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our mission at Catholic Charities Atlanta is to provide supportive services that help our clients achieve self-sufficiency. Our team has been working with vulnerable populations for over 60 years, our goal is to leverage our experience, services, and partnerships to move families out of poverty once and for all. Catholic Charities ensures that vulnerable individuals can attain economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their children through programs designed to develop critical life skills, provide education and access to employment, address their well-being and ensure the family has basic food/shelter security and safety.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategies are to establish case management practices to help families achieve self-sufficiency. Our approach is to assess a family’s situation then create an individualized service plan with them, and then support all aspects of their lives through that plan with an end goal of making them self-sufficient. The service plan that is created covers educational issues and transportation. Childcare and food security. Mental and physical health. Financial literacy instruction that helps clients learn money management and work from a budget. And the occasional need for emergency aid as needed.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Catholic Charities Atlanta has a comprehensive collection of services needed to assist families on their path to self-sufficiency including, Financial literacy and financial coaching; Mental health counseling and group counseling; ESL classes; Work pathways and job readiness training; Public Benefits and VA assistance. We have a core of social workers who are skilled at Case Management and partnerships that expand our capabilities and ensure resources needed are available. We also have a client information system that enables internal referrals and expedites external referrals.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have just finished our new strategic plan and aligned the organizations goals and objectives to this approach. We have set up a case management group that will define and formalize our process. The new case management methodology will be tested over the course of the next year. Our first set of self-sufficiency indicators have been defined and we will work to implement them over the course of the year to track success and prove our approach. We will then evaluate our progress, make necessary changes and expand the program.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
-
Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Catholic Charities Atlanta (CCA) serves a diverse population. The agency serves veterans, refugees, immigrants and low-income individuals located throughout the State of Georgia.
-
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences
-
Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ATLANTA INC
Board of directorsas of 10/07/2022
Mr. Mike Dowdle
CPO Commerce
Term: 2020 - 2023
Gregory Hartmayer
Archdiocese of Atlanta
Mike Flanagan
Great Southern Bank
Jean Ann McCarthy
Vanessa Russell
Catholic Charities Atlanta
Mike Dowdle
CPO Commerce
Rocco Testani
Eversheds Sutherland
Steve Crim
C&S Specialty Underwriters, LLC
Jen Daniels
Flying Laboratories, LLC
Kricket Harrison
SMARTS Success, Inc.
Jeff Hogan
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
Justin Howard
Alston & Bird, LLC
David Markert
Brightree, LLC
Jack Nichols
Retired CFO
Albert Assad
Atlantic Consulting Solutions
Jay Ferro
Clario
Sandy Ho
Carter's
John Hunt
Stokes Wagner
Carolyn Johnson
Canonbury Homes
Ralph Williams
Heagney Logan Group
John Riordan
Retired
Bernard Shlesinger III
Archdiocese of Atlanta
Katy Walker
Walker Group
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data