St. Joachim convent
to get new tenants

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Though the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary moved out of St. Joachim’s convent in June, the property is expected to have new tenants by late spring.
Catholic Social Services is progressing with its plan to use the convent, at 1509 Church St., as a community-based home for 16 dependent girls between the ages of 12 and 17.
The convent’s layout, with individual bedrooms for the girls, is ideal for such a home, the agency’s deputy secretary, James Amato, told the Frankford Civic Association earlier this month.
Catholic Social Services is a non-profit, multi-service agency with centers throughout Philadelphia. CSS strives to strengthen families by offering a variety of comprehensive, coordinated services for dependent, delinquent and at-risk young people. The primary mission is to serve those who are most vulnerable or in need of family-support services.
It has provided foster care for at-risk youth for more than 150 years at St. Vincent’s Home in Tacony, St. Francis-St. Joseph Home for Children in Bensalem, and in St. Gabriel’s Hall in Audubon.
The transitional, community-based home for girls would continue the theme of meeting the needs of families and children.
Amato and St. Vincent’s Home administrator Rick Pytlewski, as well as its former administrator, Joe Laboritano, stressed to the civic association that the home is not a drug-rehabilitation facility, nor are the girls court-adjudicated delinquents. The teens are dependents of the court who lack proper guardianship at home, the civic group was told.
The girls, who are referred to CSS by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, may have a history of truancy and curfew and would come to St. Joachim’s from across the city, especially from areas where poverty rates are higher, Amato said.
The girls would receive a full array of services, and social workers would reach out to a girl’s family to help resolve issues. A supportive counseling service is part of the program. The girls also would receive life-skills training, designed in particular to possibly reunite them with their families or prepare them for independent living and attend school in the community.
The average length of stay would be about six months.
"Living in a community makes it easier for transitioning, getting into habits they need to return to their family or independent living," Amato said.
He and his colleagues told the civic group that the community need not worry about adequate staffing to care for and supervise the girls.
"This is a state-licensed program with regular inspections, standards and mandates — one staff member to eight children. We always do better than that. There also is always an overnight awake worker on staff," Amato said.
The civic group seemed supportive of the home but asked that the CSS representatives return when engineers have completed plans for the project.
CSS also met with the St. Joachim Parish Council in August. Members were very receptive to the proposed home, according to its pastor, the Rev. Steven Wetzel.
"I’m so excited. Whenever you have Catholic Social Services in a parish, it’s such a powerful force just by its presence —- not only to the parish but to the community of Frankford," Wetzel said.
"It will help our parish with anchoring the neighborhood, helping to bring a vision of hope." ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com