Written Testimony of

Patrick J. Raglow
Executive Director, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Inc.

to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education
The Honorable Tom Cole, Chairman

Dear Representative Cole and the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee
on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education,
Thank you for your service to your constituents and all Americans in your work to pursue
public policy that strengthens communities and expands opportunity across this great nation. I
am Patrick Raglow, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma
City, a 501(c)(3) human services organization rooted in our Roman Catholic faith.
In 2014, we served more than 16,000 Oklahomans across 46 counties of Central and
Western Oklahoma through 16 different social service programs. Of those 16,000 Oklahomans,
the youngest client is not yet born in our Crisis Pregnancy Services, and our oldest client is 94 in
sponsored Senior Housing. Last year, 76 percent of the clients we served earned less than
$15,000 per year.
Yet these statistics, as powerful as they are, represents only one experience of the more
than 160 agencies across the Catholic Charities USA network, each one serving their local
community with a variety of service programs tailored to meet specific needs and realities. Some
of these agencies receive extensive support from federal, state and local government, while
others, such as my agency, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, rely
significantly more on local support from their faith and service communities.
On behalf of those we are privileged to serve and Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, I want to thank you for granting me this
opportunity to discuss these different approaches across our network taken in the work we do
alongside or as part of U.S. government programs to strengthen families, respond to those
affected by natural disaster, care for children and seniors, and, in general, serve those in need.
This committee has difficult choices to make regarding how to allocate admittedly large
sums of hard-earned taxpayer dollars across an even greater sweep of pressing needs. You are
challenged with competing constituencies, well-informed and well-intentioned or not, and a
sound-bite and caricature-ridden coverage of the choices you face and the decisions you make.
In this climate, your opportunity to constructively engage with others of good will on
how to best steward taxpayer resources, while ensuring that policy and funding decisions first
consider those who are without and which acknowledges their dignity, is limited. I believe that
we can and must move past rhetoric where one side is characterized as all they want to do is
throw money out the window while the other is characterized as wanting to throw Grandma
out the window. Neither caricature is accurate nor serves the common good. The serious
challenges facing us warrant a healthier discourse.
I hope to suggest a different lexicon for the discussion. Instead of whether we should, or
should not, spend limited resources on those in need, perhaps we can look at how and why we
should choose to do so. For the socially conscious, and I count myself among you, it is not

merely a matter of allocating money. If money were the only ingredient necessary to address
need in our society, need would have long since been addressed. For the fiscal conservatives, and
I count myself among you, federal resources are an absolutely critical component to addressing
societal need. These resources are both critically necessary, and yet, regardless of amount, they
will always be insufficient. Societal needs cannot be served without necessary dollars, and
dollars alone, of whatever magnitude, will never be enough. As a society, we have an undeniable
obligation to serve those poor in our midst, but that obligation calls us to do so with todays
resources and not those of future generations. We should not trade one injustice for another.
Although a laudable goal, I do not believe or proclaim that we can truly end poverty.
For if we ended poverty today, it would begin anew tomorrow, through loss of a job, a house
fire, a tornado, cancer, death or divorce, or any of a thousand life-altering circumstances that
often impoverish those affected. So I dont try to end poverty. What I do believe is that we can,
and must, mitigate the worst effects of poverty on individuals subject to it, and shorten the time
individuals experience poverty, and this, this we do every day.
This is where the network of local not-for-profit service agencies, such as local Catholic
Charities agencies in communities all across this country, comes in. Each Catholic Charities
agency is itself a good steward of its resources, whether from the federal, state or local
governments, or from local foundations, business communities, or individual supporters. Each
Catholic Charities, like many other reputable, similar local agencies, knows its community, its
needs and composition, its network of service providers and its neighborhoods. Some Catholic
Charities operate with budgets over $200 million, others with under $200,000.My own agency,
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, operates normally with a budget of
approximately $5 million.
Across the network, some Catholic Charities agencies rely heavily on federal or state
funding, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit-funded facilities, and many more. Others eschew such
funding, preferring to use community resources given them to complement those services funded
by the government. In each case, however, the local Catholic Charities positions itself to secure
funding in the manner best suited to the sensibilities and needs of its community.
Furthermore and this is the heart of the matter each Catholic Charities seeks to engage
those it serves in a relationship to best address the conditions which brought the client to us, and
not merely transfer resources to cover immediate needs. By in a relationship, I mean case
management, and ideally intensive case management, to join with our clients on a path to selfsufficiency, toward ends which draw from the clients own resources and talents, aspirations and
objectives.
Case management is not about adding to their circle of friends, nor is it about
proselytizing. We serve others not because they are Catholic but because we are; in other words,
clients do not have to attend services to receive services. Recognizing the dignity and gifts of

their humanity, Catholic Charities agencies seek to serve others in ways that elevate each clients
ownership of his or her situation and its path forward, providing tools and skills while connecting
the client with available resources. Catholic Charities agencies do this in full collaboration with
other community providers such as the Salvation Army, Regional Food Bank, City Rescue
Mission, and many others. There is plenty of need present in our communities; service providers
need not compete with one another. Case management seeks to use all available resources as a
means to address immediate unmet needs, while also using those resources as a bridge to
relationship, for it is in relationship that we connect the individual to society and society to the
individual.
Relationship through case management stretches federal and other resources by
connecting explicitly with the client, drawing on his or her insight and talent, and challenging the
client to employ his or her own gifts on a path to self-sufficiency with dignity. Case management
addresses informational poverty that often leads to financial poverty. It connects individuals with
agencies, programs, examples and tools to first chart and then follow a path to self-sufficiency.
Properly executed, case management prevents duplication of service and coordinates effective
service approaches from multiple agencies to strengthen each client's progress toward selfsufficiency. At its best, case management is client-centered, client-empowering, and ultimately,
client-releasing.
Allow me a few examples that illustrate the game-changing power of case management.
Shortly after the Great Recession, I was associated with a food pantry program that served 125
clients a day, Monday through Friday, in a very hard-hit community. It was a fabulous program
in many respects: clients were treated well and with dignity, they could select their preferred
protein, vegetable, grain, dairy, and even donated desserts, all from a clean, store-like
environment. They were allowed to select food their family would actually eat, not simply accept
whatever happened to be in the bag that week. It was, in many respects, an excellent and wellrun program that ensured those at risk of going hungry could reliably access food. Yet I noticed
that two and a half years later, too many of our clients were still returning monthly to participate
in accessing our food pantry. We had done some things incredibly well, but we had, in
retrospect, failed to address the conditions that had brought that family to us, and help them to
succeed such that our food pantry supplies were no longer needed.
At the other end, I witnessed the success of that agencys welfare-to-work program,
which coupled the resources available through multiple sources with intensive case management.
Staff empowered clients through efforts including budgeting, skill and resource development,
child care, and housing support, all time-limited and structured so as to have the client
increasingly responsible for their own needs, and ultimately transitioning to self-sufficiency. The
program boasted an 86% success rate incredible.
In like fashion, one of my Oklahoma colleagues, Mr. Rodney Bivens of Oklahomas
Regional Food Bank, has launched an initiative to partner with Catholic Charities, the Salvation

Army, and other service providers to use food as the resource to other resources, or as Ive
characterized earlier, food as the bridge to a relationship. There is no better food bank operation
in the states in my opinion, but Rodney understands that in addition to assisting individuals,
families, and, most importantly, children with food, we have to address the conditions that bring
them to the Food Bank. To paraphrase Rodney, he wants to feed the line
while partnering with agencies like mine to shorten the line.
These first two items are related: First, the need for intensive case management, and
second, the critical role the federal government plays and must play in meeting needs of those on
the margins of our society. While dollars are not the only solution, they are nonetheless
necessary for that solution. Individuals rarely have a relationship with the federal government
but they do have relationships with their neighbors, with church families, school groups and
organizations, and the like. Local agencies do create and sustain working relationships with those
they serve, leveraging government resources to accomplish what resources alone cannot and
could not ever build. I submit that pairing the resources with relationship is essential to
improving lives, and therefore to meeting the intent of the allocation in the first place.
One final note I've mentioned above that agencies like Catholic Charities often work
closely with federal agencies and resources in the services through which we engage our
communities. We are pleased to work in concert with our government to address those least
among us. Like all Catholic Charities agencies across the country, Catholic Charities of the
Archdiocese of Oklahoma City provides help and hope to all in the Catholic tradition of service.
Catholic Charities recognizes the God-given dignity of all persons, whether client, staff, or
contributor. In the scope of our more than 16 service programs across 46 counties of Central and
Western Oklahoma, we serve all persons in accordance with that dignity, regardless of race,
religion, creed, or gender. Recognizing the dignity of all persons is the cornerstone of our
service.
We serve because our agency is Catholic, not because our clients are Catholic. Our
clients are not required to affirm Catholic values. Catholic Charities does not require our clients
to accept Catholic teaching in order to receive services. While Catholic Charities recognizes,
respects and complies with applicable civil law, we expect equal respect from our federal
government, our state and local communities, and those we serve, that we not be asked to affirm
views, take actions, or hold positions which are at odds with Catholic values. Please consider this
simple request as you create or consider legislation to allocate resources to address need in our
communities.
Your work as our representatives at the federal level is a great responsibility, as you
weigh how to steward federal resources in ways that will strengthen society, advance the
common good, and create opportunity for all. In your discussions around appropriations, I ask
that if you err, err first on the side of those in need, and when doing so, to favor those programs

and approaches that offer strengthening relationship opportunities through case management or
similar along with the resources your decisions will make available for that purpose.
Thank you for your consideration of these matters, and for your service to all Americans.
Respectfully,

Patrick J. Raglow
Executive Director
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Inc.