St. Joseph Parish in Holy Trinity to operate family literacy program

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
With the help of a grant, St. Joseph Parish in Holy Trinity and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity will enhance their already admirable service to the poor and underserved. 
The parish received a three-year grant made possible by a private donor to Catholic Extension to fund a family literacy program for low-income and immigrant families. Catholic Extension raises and distributes funds to support U.S. mission dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Mobile.
St. Joseph Parish will operate Florida-based Grace Place for Children and Families’ family literacy program. It’s an established, award-winning program which seeks to engage both parent and child to become partners in learning so the education environment can reach the home and parents can be teachers for their children
The Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity religious order serve St. Joseph Parish in rural Holy Trinity, about 20 miles south of Columbus, Ga., as well as Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Clio and St. Patrick Parish in Phenix City. 
Their ministry spans throughout the U.S. and Latin America and their mission is “to preserve the faith in areas and among people who are spiritually neglected and abandoned, especially the poor. Our chief effort is to develop the missionary spirit of the laity.”
According to St. Joseph Parish Parochial Vicar Fr. Ramon Flores, S.T., the religious order’s match with Grace Place was a perfect fit.
“The (mission) for Grace Place is putting faith in action and I think having this program … is a real blessing for the community because we are putting faith into action,” Fr. Flores said.  
“It’s an answer to my prayers, especially after getting to know the community and seeing how we can help this community better, not only to help them grow in their faith but also in their education and life.”
According to St. Joseph Parish administrator Elisabeth Donner, the goal is to have the program running in Holy Trinity by January with the hope of initially serving 20 families with children ages 2, 3 and 4 years old.
The long-term goal is to expand the program to Clio and Phenix City. It will include weekly classes, with families also working together at home. 
“That’s one of the aspects that drew us to the program,” Donner said. “The whole program is focused on helping parents be teachers for their kids and helping them read together and share together.”
Grace Place is based in Golden Gate, Fla., where it created the Bright Beginnings Family Literacy Program. Grace Place provides pathways out of poverty by educating children and families. It has provided academic and literacy programs for families for more than 15 years.
This will mark the first time Grace Place’s model has been used outside Florida.
“The focus of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity is serving the poor and underserved. That’s very much an interest of the family literacy program,” Donner said. “We realized all together we were a great match.”