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Sister Carol Weber, OP, speaks from the heart as she thanks the Flint Jewish Federation on behalf of the people she serves for the Don Riegle Award.

September 27, 2024, Flint, Michigan – Sister Carol Weber, OP, Co-founder and Executive Director of St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center, was one of three recipients of the 33rd Annual Donald Riegle Community Service Award in recognition of her “outstanding leadership in improving the well-being of the Greater Flint Community.” The award was presented by the Flint Jewish Federation during a special program on September 12, 2024, at the Flint Institute of Arts.

The award is named for Donald W. Riegle, Jr., a former senior United States Senator representing Michigan. Known as a “champion of Soviet Jewry,” he retired after serving in the Senate for three terms and 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also recognized during the evening were David Gibson and Carol Hurand. 

Proceeds from the annual event have been donated to Jewish Community Services to resettle 415 people from the former Soviet Union and Russian-speaking Muslim families from Uzbekistan.

“It was a beautiful experience,” Sister Carol said, noting the program was open to all. The program included talks by a rabbi and a Protestant minister, a performance by a harpist, hors d’oeuvres, and the award presentation. Sister Carol and the other two award recipients received a certificate of special Congressional recognition from U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) and paintings.

Sister Carol was accompanied that night by family members and by Sisters Mary Priniski, OP, her Chapter Prioress, and Theresa Mayrand, OP, who also is in ministry at St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center. 

“I accepted the award on behalf of the people who trust us with their lives,” Sister Carol said during an interview after the program. “I’m just an instrument. The award was for people who change their lives – for those who do extraordinary things in the community.” She said she thanked her family and her religious community “for being there and for their support – not just that night but always.”

Sister Carol founded N.E.W. Life Center with the late Sister Judy Blake, CSJ, with whom she served for years as Co-director. The N.E.W. Life Center has had a tremendous impact on the lives of the people in Flint, Sister Carol said. Its 2023 impact report stated that the food pantry served 300 families per month; eight literacy learners earned GEDs; 854 people visited the eye clinic; nearly 1,000 people received Christmas gifts and food; and 122 pregnant women or mothers of children six months and younger attended the Center’s baby showers. 

In addition, through the Resilient Communities initiative of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, the Center works with other organizations in the Resilient Women program, which offers “unwavering support” to women who have been in abusive relationships or difficult situations. The program offers counseling, employment preparation, on-the-job training, and services such as childcare that could eliminate barriers to employment for the women.

“Many of them have gotten jobs,” she said. “Many have been able to get housing. But most important is they’ve grown in their own person and their own self-esteem, that they don’t have to take [the abuse] they’ve been receiving. They’re able to go beyond the hurt and the abuse.”

Sister Carol was quick to point out that the Center relies on its partnership with other organizations and individuals to offer its many programs. “We do a lot of partnering,” she said. “We don’t do any of this on our own.” The Center receives about 12 large grants from foundations but also has a “really good, substantial donor base.”    

Whatever programs or services people receive from the Center, they come into a place that offers respect and a sense of welcome. “We train our employees [so] that anyone who walks through that door is received without judgment,” Sister Carol said. “We’re a center of second and sometimes third chances.”

Sister Carol not only respects the people who come from the Center but values the lessons they bring. “I’ve learned from them what it’s like not to have what I have, even family support,” she said. “Everyone’s story is critical to them and I need to listen, not only to what they’re saying but what they’re not saying. I’ve learned that everyone really wants to be heard and they want someone to just spend time with them. Personally, I’ve learned to trust God a lot more.”

 

Left: Sister Carol Weber, OP, displays Shepherdess, a painting she received from the Flint Jewish Federation. Right: From left are Sister Carol Weber, OP, David Gibson, and Carol Hurand, 2024 recipients of the Donald Riegle Community Service Award.

July 12, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Adrian Resilient Community Initiative – approved in 2022 by the 2016-2022 General Council – is making a difference in the lives of youth who live in Adrian’s Historic East Side. 

The initiative, Growing up Resilient: The East Adrian Youth Resilience Collaborative, focuses on connecting participating youth and their families in East Adrian and the two Hispanic neighborhoods on the outskirts of Adrian with available community resources to expand literacy and family education and to connect the families with the resources they need. 

The plan includes developing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs housed at the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee and creating an Adrian Dominican Sisters Youth Learning Center and computer lab, to be housed in Ebeid Learning Center of ProMedica. This healthcare system encompasses southeastern Michigan and northern Ohio. 

Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and the general public heard more about the initiative and its progress during a Lunch and Learn program offered June 12, 2024, at Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

“Our intent was not to duplicate efforts but to work collaboratively with other groups” to meet the needs of youth in the marginalized Historic East Side of Adrian, said Jennifer Hunter, Chief Operating Officer for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and Co-chair of the Adrian Resilient Community Initiative Committee with Sister Sharon Weber, OP. 

The committee compared the population of the East Side with those of the rest of Lenawee County to determine the needs of the youth and families in that area and discovered several disparities. For example, 30% of East Adrian households are below the poverty line, compared to 11% in the rest of the community. 

Their discovery “formed our committee’s vision: a collaborative initiative among community members to provide youth in East Adrian with an opportunity for age-appropriate education and assistance in overcoming barriers,” Jennifer said.

Cody Waters, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee, spoke of the various programs offered by the club. Programs offer children the opportunity to develop in the areas of character and leadership, health and sports, academics, art, and career development.

In particular, Cody spoke of the organization’s summer camps to offer children a safe place while they experience art and enrichment in reading and mathematics. In the club’s peer-to-peer program, he said, older students help younger students improve their reading skills. 

Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee also relies on volunteers to help the children. “We want kids to enjoy what they’re doing and we want volunteers to enjoy it,” Cody said. “Relationship building is the key thing. Our team is trying to come up with different ways to get more mentors into the building.”  

Frank Nagel, Director of Community Impact for ProMedica, spoke of the healthcare system’s practice of screening patients for social factors that put them at a high risk. “When we have a patient at high risk for food insecurity, we can see at a ZIP Code level how these factors are taking place,” he said. People in Adrian’s ZIP Code, 49221, were in the “top five” of geographic areas with the need for greater resources, he said.

ProMedica first established an Ebeid Neighborhood Promise in Toledo “to address the gaps people have in attaining the resources they need,” Frank said. With the power of collaboration in Adrian, he said, “we can make sure that people are empowered to make lifestyle changes” that would improve their lives.

Lynne Punnett, Manager of Community Resilience for the resilience initiative in Adrian, said the Ebeid Center in Adrian has, since September 2023, been offering programs in areas such as financial literacy, home ownership, and parenting.  

This summer, the Ebeid Neighborhood Promise of Adrian is offering a six-week Literacy Pop-Up program in Adrian. For six mornings in June and July, children will be mentored as they focus on reading, writing, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Lynn said. Volunteer mentors include godparents, community members, and six Adrian Dominican Sisters.  

Partnership with the Adrian Dominican Sisters has “catalyzed this work … and brought us to a whole new level,” Frank said. “The power of this collaboration and partnership has been a humbling experience. I look forward to seeing the progress that is made because of our partnerships.”      

In late Spring, Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee publicly recognized the initiative by bestowing its Blue Door Award on the Adrian Dominican Sisters. “Through their generosity and steadfast support, the ‘Blue Door’ to our Club has been opened to so many local youth, and with the establishment of this new mentorship initiative, their impact on our Club and youth throughout the county will remain for decades and decades to come,” said Sara Herriman, Director of Development and Community Relations. 

“It was wonderful to be honored by and to partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee, an organization that has served the youth of our community so well for many years now,” Sister Sharon said.

“We were honored to be notified that the Adrian Dominican Sisters were being awarded the Blue Door Award by Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee,” Jennifer said.

•    Growing up Resilient is one of six initiatives developed by various regional groups of Adrian Dominican Sisters in response to the Congregation’s 2016 Resilient Communities Enactment. The other initiatives are:

•    Developing Resiliency in the Community of San José, Preravia Province, Dominican Republic. This initiative supports the construction of a technical school to offer training to local residents in fields needed by the local community.

•    Creating a More Resilient Immigration Community in McKinley Park (Illinois). The proposal is to establish a Comprehensive Adult Education Hub at Aquinas Literacy Center in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood to offer GED instruction and literacy programs in the areas of computers, finances, the environment, and civics.

•    An investment to construct a second building at the Dominican School of Angeles City in the Mining barangay, Province of Pampanga, Philippines.

•    Affordable Housing as a Platform for Education Equity and Community Resilience. In partnership with Mercy Housing Northwest (MHNW), the initiative calls for extra in-house academic programs and social opportunities for children and their families in affordable MHNW housing projects to help them succeed academically.

•    The Empowering Resilient Women Initiative provides women in Flint, Michigan, who suffer from abuse with the resources they need to gain control of their lives, support for their families, and develop stronger communities.