Garden City native hired as social worker for Catholic Social Service

GREAT BEND -- Catholic Social Service executive director Debbie Snapp has hired Garden City native Pattie McGurk to serve as a social worker at the Great Bend CSS office.

Employed in the field of social work for 25 years in numerous capacities, McGurk said that she feels like she has come “home”. She was previously employed with Catholic Social Service for nine years, and left her position in August 2002 due to family responsibilities.

“I’m very excited about returning to Catholic Social Service and about my new responsibilities,” she said. “I’m especially excited, however, about the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program through the Federal Government’s Infant Adoption Training Initiative.”

One of McGurk’s responsibilities will be to provide the Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program to health care professionals across the state of Kansas.

“Heidi Meerkatz, Catholic Social Supervisor, provided ‘Infant Adoption Awareness Training’ in 2006 through the Spaulding Foundation for Children,” McGurk said. “Because of Heidi’s excellent presentations in 2006, the Spaulding Foundation for Children awarded Catholic Social Service the grant to become the ‘lead agency’ for the Infant Adoption Training Initiative for the state of Kansas. This is a program sponsored by the federal government to train health care workers in Kansas on presenting adoption as an option to pregnant women. Heidi has new responsibilities and is, therefore, handing off the ‘Infant Adoption Awareness Training Program.’”

McGurk will also serve as the coordinator for The Benefit Bank in the Diocese of Dodge City. The Kansas Benefit Bank, when fully developed, will allow social service agencies, congregations and community groups to help low-wage working families, seniors, and others access crucial economic and employment supports.

In the coming months, “The Kansas Benefit Bank will be moving forward in three phases,” McGurk said. “Phase One, in May and June 2007, will include HealthWave and Medicaid applications. Phase Two, tentatively scheduled for September 2007, will include food stamps, childcare subsidies, utilities assistance and voter registration. Phase Three, in January 2008, will include Kansas income tax returns and homestead refund.”

McGurk will be working to establish partnerships with other Benefit Bank sites and to provide information for those interested in being a counselor/volunteer at possible Benefit Bank sites at parishes across the 28 counties in the Dodge City diocese.

She will take on other responsibilities as agency needs arise.

McGurk has been married to her husband, Mike, a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, for 25 years. The couple has two children: Patrick McGurk is a student at Kansas State University, and Devin McGurk is a student at Sterling College.

McGurk received her bachelor degree in social work at Wichita State University. She and her husband lived in Kodiak, Alaska prior to moving to Great Bend in 1983.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to return to Catholic Social Service, as I have such great respect for Debbie Snapp, Executive Director, and all of the Catholic Social Service ‘family’.”

“I’m very pleased to have Pattie back with us,” Snapp said. “She’s always been an asset to Catholic Social Service. We expect that to be the situation with this position.”

Snapp said that McGurk’s hiring offers CSS the opportunity to provide an advocacy role with the Benefit Bank, “helping with the mission of CSS to be concerned with the poor. We’re also really pleased to have the opportunity to advocate adoption as a positive option.”

If anyone is interested in learning more about the Kansas Benefit Bank or in becoming a counselor/volunteer, contact Pattie McGurk in Great Bend at 1-800-692-4087 or email pmcgurk@cpcis.net .