BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--On Dec. 13, Catholic Social Services (CSS) opened a new office in Doraville on the grounds of the Catholic Mission of Our Lady of the Americas at 5918 New Peachtree Road, next to the Doraville MARTA station.

Father Richard Kieran, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, blessed the office, which will be known as the Doraville Multicultural Center.

CSS decided to open the center at the Doraville mission because many CSS clients live and work in the area. Staff members from CSS programs based at the Catholic Center in midtown Atlanta, such as Counseling Services, Community Connections and Multicultural Services, will schedule regular office hours at the Doraville site.

Doraville is also the site of many collaborative efforts among area non-profit organizations, according to Pam Buckmaster, executive director of CSS. CSS Community Connections program is working with Sheltering Arms, Save the Children, and the United Way to help residents meet needs in the area of child care.

CSS counseling program's bilingual counselors, and a volunteer bilingual counselor, will meet with Spanish-speaking clients at the Doraville office. The counselors will work at the new center in response to requests for counseling services from Father Carlos Garcia-Carreras at Our Lady of the Americas, from Father Kieran, Atlanta Legal Aid and Mercy Mobile Medical, who have highlighted the need to address the issue of domestic violence in the Doraville-Chamblee corridor. CSS immigration program staff will also sponsor periodic information sessions on changes in immigration law and welfare reform at the center.

The Doraville Multicultural Center is the fourth office sponsored by CSS Multicultural Services program. The other offices are the Southside Community Center at 570-D Burroughs Street; the Tri-Cities Community Center at 532 Cleveland Avenue, SW, Bldg. 43; and the Cobb Multicultural Center, on the grounds of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 4300 King Springs Road, Smyrna. These centers are located in areas where many of the program's clients live and work. Multicultural Services is designed to help those new to America to become self-sufficient as soon as possible after their arrival.

The Doraville center is unique because it involves more than one of the CSS Atlanta programs in its outreach, according to Buckmaster. It is expected that people will be able to receive many kinds of practical, problem-solving assistance at the center in addition to having the opportunity for professional counseling, she said. Some typical problems for newly arrived immigrants are cultural adjustments, problems at school for children of immigrants and the need for translators in critical situations such as legal matters.