Bishop helps Gerard Place, Parish Family 21 celebrate new East Side Community Partnership

Parishioners from the Diocese of Buffalo’s Parish Family 21 will soon be welcomed to take advantage of existing and future programming at Gerard Place, through the newly announced East Side Community Partnership.

This new partnership was formally launched with a special Mass held Saturday, May 11 at the Gerard Place Community Center, located at Bailey and East Delevan Avenues in Buffalo. Bishop Michael Fisher was the lead celebrant of the Mass.

“My brothers and sisters, it’s such a joy to be with you this morning,” Fisher said at the start of Mass. “Particularly as we come together as our East Side community, along with the good work that is done here at Gerard Place.”

A Senior Club already exists at Gerard Place, which now hosts 15 various programs serving the neighborhood. The plan to open services to members of Parish Family 21 comes following a recent conversation involving leaders and stakeholders.

“We talked with Father (Robert) Gebhard, who came to me and said ‘I have all these East Side parishes, and they all have seniors of course. How can we bring everybody together to really go after a community who want to do similar things, but also go after some funding together?’” said Zapfel.

The first event under the East Side Community Partnership will be a health fair, hosted by the Gerard Place Community Center, on Friday, August 9 from 10 a.m. until noon.

Fr. Gebhard, the administrator for Family 21, says there was agreement at the recent meeting to start this partnership slowly and plan events one at a time. But there are many ideas for collaboration and services.

“In our conversations we talked about the possibilities, what it might be like to develop some kind of cooking classes maybe, or something on nutrition, healthy eating, different kinds of recipes,” Gebhard said. “Things that other people might need, especially our seniors. Funeral planning, financial planning, long term care planning. What about social events, just bringing people together to have some kind of fun?”

During his homily, Bishop Fisher acknowledged and praised the commitments to faith and community by those in attendance, suggesting that while these may be seen as anxious times in the local Catholic community, they are instead “exciting” times during which the faithful may think more with hope.

“This initiative of coming together as a community of faith, I think is a time of great hope for all of us. And you’re a part of that,” the bishop said. “You’re a part of bringing hope to our people, into our church this day. I feel very blessed and privileged to be a part of it with you.”

Gerard Place, named for the former St. Gerard Parish which stood on the same land, opened in 2000 with the help of twelve Congregations of Women Religious in the diocese. The initial services offered were the assistance of homeless families. It is estimated that 350 families have been served over the past 24 years. Programming later expanded to include literacy education, food distribution, job training, and support services for new and expecting mothers.