Vision Statement

To provide opportunities and service that will address important issues for personal and community growth on matters of injustices, health, education and charity through resources, activities and community partnerships and/or collaborations.

The Aspects of Social Justice

The Peace and Justice Ministry focuses on social justice through these two aspects:  Social Service and Social Action

Social Service is giving direct aide to those in need such as; feeding the hungry, providing clothing to those in need, visiting the grieving, sick or the imprisoned or even sheltering the homeless.  Another name is Christian Charity.

Social Action is correcting the structure that caused the need. We also call this Social Justice. Through social justice we peacefully look at issues that plague our community such as unemployment, the value of life from the beginning of conception and throughout, discrimination, health care and other issues that are of concern to the community.

Vision of the Gardening Committee

To Create and sustain a community garden for the production of food for those hungry in body to provide constructive activities for individuals and families, encourage generational interactions, and a place of beauty for those hungry in spirit.

Our Goals are to:

• Create Safe Spaces for community interaction and fun across all ages, cultures and incomes;
• Create Local Sustainable Food Sources for Holy Savior Community, God's Food Pantry and those in need of nourishment.
• Create a Place Beauty by planting a variety of vegetables/fruits and developing a place to meditate and get spiritually connected to Mother Earth.
• Engage and Educate individuals and ourselves on Nutrition, Environment, Stewardship, Diversity and Cive Responsibility.
• Encourage cross-generational mentoring and friendships among youth, adults and a diversity of community members.

Health and Wellness 

To improve health and wellness across the life span.  We will provide information and screening regarding pertinent health issues affecting our community. Provide non-biased support and counseling to our community regarding medicare enrollment and prescription drug plan options to benefit our senior population.  To provide opportunities for health promotion in our senior population.  To continue our faith journey through reading and or discussion groups.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Sister Helen Prejean has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on the death penalty and helping to shape the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to state executions.  She travels around the world giving talks about her ministry.  She considers herself a southern storyteller.

Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph.  She spent her first years with the Sisters teaching religion to junior high school students.  Realizing that being on the side of poor people is an essential part of the Gospel she moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans and began working at Hope House from 1981 – 1984.

During this time, she was asked to correspond with a death row inmate Patrick Sonnier at Angola.  She agreed and became his spiritual adviser.  After witnessing his execution, she wrote a book about the experience.  The result was Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.  It became a movie, an opera and a play for high schools and colleges.

Since 1984, Sister Helen has divided her time between educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners.  She has accompanied six men to their deaths.  In doing so, she began to suspect that some of those executed were not guilty.  This realization inspired her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, which was released by Random House in December of 2004.

Sr. Helen is presently at work on another book - RIVER OF FIRE: MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY.