Howdy, my name is Ciara and I had the incredible opportunity to serve immigrants and refugees at Casa Juan Diego as a Catholic Worker Volunteer. Casa Juan Diego was founded by Mark and Louise Zwick in 1980 following the Catholic Worker movement which was created by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in New York. It was founded to serve immigrants, refugees, and homeless people in the Houston community.
Casa Juan Diego is a non-profit organization that functions as a house of hospitality in the catholic worker movement. They receive immigrants and refugees from all over and provide shelter, food, clothing, transportation, and they have a clinic that can provide basic medical needs. Casa Juan Diego also has a sick and injured program to help immigrants who permanently or temporarily cannot support themselves with rent and personal care products. They also helps immigrants and unhoused individuals with their food distribution.
I decided to volunteer at Casa because I wanted to help immigrants. I did not know the extent of how they helped immigrants but I knew that I wanted to help any way that I could. I wanted to understand the immigration process, I wanted to hear the stories of immigrants, learn about different cultures, and improve my understanding of Spanish.
In my first month, I was living in a temporary house due to construction of the shelter with two Venezuelan immigrants and one Catholic worker who I was shadowing. The catholic worker showed me what I was supposed to do, which was helping the other volunteers at the Sick and Injured house every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I assisted with giving personal care products, bookkeeping checks that needed to be voided, and giving away metro cards. When I was not at the Sick and Injured house I was helping with the clinic when it was closed. I cleaned the clinic twice a week, sorted patient files, organized the “pharmacy” room, and pick-up medicine from a pharmacy in a grocery store for patients of the clinic.
I also help the immigrant women at the house arrange Lyft rides to appointments and other destinations. When the volunteer I was shadowing left temporarily new volunteers came. They were a couple and I helped train them. Wednesday on our lunch break all of the volunteers and Louise came together to have a discussion about social, political, and catholic social teachings. One of the discussions was about Pope Leo’s encyclical about worker’s righs and AI impact on society.
After construction was completed at the shelter, my responsibilities expanded. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays remained the same but Tuesday Thursday and Saturday I helped make the bags for the food distribution. I did not get the chance to help distribute the food bag to the immigrants but I did have the chance to give away sandwiches and water to immigrants and unhoused people that came by. When Casa Juan Diego resumed accepting immigrants, I learned to conduct intake interviews and made rooms for newly arrived women and children we received. After 5 pm I closed the shelter and set the chores for the women and volunteers that stayed in the shelter.
I was also given the opportunity to observe an asylum application being completed which gave me insights into the legal challenges many immigrants face daily. One of the most meaningful experiences I had during this co-op was shadowing a house visit for the Sick and Injured program. These visits allowed me to check on immigrants that received rental assistance from Casa Juan Diego and living in group homes. During one visit, I documented a woman’s experience and living conditions and prepared a report on her behalf. Experiences like these helped me understand many challenges immigrants face other than legal issues such as housing insecurity, neglect, abuse, health concerns, financial hardships, and people taking advantage of immigrants.
As a Global Studies major, this co-op helped me learn more about culture and what immigrants face while living in the United States. It also gave me the opportunity to practice Spanish and learn how to communicate with people from different backgrounds. Being able to live and work with immigrants taught me things that textbooks and classroom discussions alone could not. Most importantly Casa Juan Diego taught me the value of having compassion, adaptability, and to serve others. Every day was an opportunity to learn. I saw how small acts of service can make a meaningful impact in people’s lives. My time at Casa Juan Diego strengthened my commitment to public service and deepened my understanding of the community I hope to work and serve in the future. To learn more about Casa Juan Diego or give donations please visit cjd.org
