What began in 1946 as a voluntary program has grown in the past 35 years into the agency known as Catholic Social Services, with divisions providing family and youth counseling, services to the elderly, the Hispanic community, the refugee, the woman in a crisis pregnancy and the parish community.

At its inception, Catholic Social Services acted as an information and referral point for Catholics in need of basic social services. Msgr. Cornelius L. Maloney was its first director.

During the 1950s, a separate child placement and family service program was developed under director Father Walter Donovan.

The synod held in Atlanta in 1966 reorganized the administrative and service structures of the archdiocese and, among the changes, set up the Department of Catholic Social Services as an unincorporated “umbrella” office, coordinating all social services. The first director of the office was Father James Scherer, who made it an effective liaison between the archdiocese and the other smaller agencies under its “umbrella.” Mrs. Julia Hogan became the director of Catholic Family Services and developed the agency’s professional expertise and its credibility in the larger community.

Father Jacob Bollmer was named director of the Department of Catholic Social Services in 1969, with a mandate to bring together the diverse social services that the diocese provided. A reactivated board, under chairman Clint Rogers, set five-year goals to accomplish that plan.

After a three-year negotiating period, the Department of Catholic Social Services and Catholic Family Services merged and became Catholic Social Services, Inc., in 1974. That union provided the basis for the present-day Family and Youth Services program, which embraces counseling for individuals, couples and families, and educational testing services.

The archdiocese began its program of refugee resettlement in the 1960s with Cuban families fleeing after Castro’s takeover. The current Immigration and Resettlement program emerged when Vietnamese families came to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Today the office works with refugees from many countries including Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Cuba.

The current office for Hispanic Services was also founded in the mid-70s to continue ties with that community and provide a point of identity between the Hispanic community and the archdiocese.

In 1974, a group of Adrian Dominican sisters met with Archbishop Thomas Donnellan to discuss possible ministries in Georgia. The result of that discussion and some early investigation was the development of Rural Social Services, located in Cumming. This pilot project co-sponsored by the archdiocese and the Dominican order has given rise to The Place in Cumming, where people from the rural community receive help in crisis and where their skills are developed and used.

In 1977, Services for the Elderly was formed to provide help for the elderly, by visiting their homes, arranging emergency home repairs and giving information, referrals and reassurance over the telephone.

Most recently, the Community Education Service was begun in 1980 to provide family life education to parishes and the larger community. The Crisis Pregnancy Service is included in this and is a volunteer program, developed jointly by Catholic Social Services and the Respect Life Office, that provides shelter, assistance and counseling to women undergoing a crisis pregnancy.