Debbie Snapp named Executive Director of Catholic Social Service

Snapp will become Executive Director of Catholic Social Service of the Diocese of Dodge City. Snapp has served CSS for 19 years, 15 of those years as Program Director. Father Ted Skalsky, who has guided CSS for 20 years as Executive Director, will become Advisor to the Director.

"Together, Father Ted and Debbie have provided leadership for nearly half of the 41-year history of Catholic Social Service," said Bishop Ronald Gilmore, in making his appointments of Snapp and Father Skalsky.

"My current appointments will assure continuity for this agency that gives structure and organization to our desire to fulfill the Lord’s command to love and to serve especially those who are so often seen as the least of our sisters and brothers."

CSS is Catholic Charities for Southwest Kansas. Its mission is to provide quality services to people in Southwest Kansas. CSS, motivated by Catholic social teaching, strives to ensure that the way is open for all people to have access to resources, services, and opportunities.

"Catholic Social Service seeks to serve in love and for justice," said Snapp in accepting her new appointment. "From its beginning, CSS has focused greatly on the child, the very one the Lord placed in our midst and urged that we welcome as we were welcoming him. CSS has placed more than 600 local children with adoptive families, provides foster care, and offers a special Teen Moms program. But there is no work of love or service for justice that is beyond the scope of CSS."

"Catholic Social Service was begun in 1965 by Bishop Marion Forst to organize, facilitate and support the loving efforts of our diocese and the commitment of our Church to justice," commented Father Skalsky, as he assumes his new advisory role with Snapp.

"I am grateful for my long involvement with this vital aspect of our diocesan life. Our recent efforts to advocate for immigration reform orchestrated through CSS is just another example of ensuring that people have the opportunity to make their own contribution to the larger community. I appreciate the fine staff with whom I have been associated over the years who have enabled projects such as a shelter in Garden City, a crisis center in Great Bend, and a state-wide adoption awareness campaign to take hold and even to take on lives of their own. I have especially appreciated how CSS gives full expression to our commitment to the sanctity of every human life. Debbie has been a part of that and will continue to provide sure leadership."

CSS serves the 28 counties of Southwest Kansas out of its offices in Dodge City, Great Bend, and Garden City. CSS is soon initiating a service to help families address addictions and behavioral health concerns, as well as "Rachel’s Vineyard" and "Project Rachel" that address post abortion and sexual abuse trauma.

"Debbie and Father Ted have served CSS exceptionally well as we have struggled to maintain our financial viability, stay focused on our mission, and seek to be of authentic service," said Mike Stein, President of the CSS Board of Directors. "We appreciate them, their gifts, and their commitment to charity and justice. We are grateful that they will continue to serve our agency."

CSS coordinates local disaster response efforts of the diocese and is the local contact for the national Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CHD).

CSS has been instrumental in the development of Forest Place, a home for troubled youth in Great Bend; Sommerset Place, a low to moderate income housing facility in Great Bend; Family Crisis Center in Great Bend; Emmaus House, a facility providing emergency assistance with food and shelter in Garden City, and 40 senior citizen centers and 28 senior nutrition sites. Except for Sommerset Place and the Family Crisis Center, these facilities and programs are now operated independent of CSS and are administered by local non-profit organizations or governmental bodies.

Snapp becomes the seventh executive director to lead the agency. Others who served in this post were: Father Walter Weiss, Ann Forester, Father Gilbert Herrman, Father Lisle Pottorff, Alice Humphreys, and Father Skalsky.