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Eden Prairie's Pax Christi continues long tradition of fighting poverty, homelessness
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By Paul Wahl - Sun Newspapers
Allison Boisvert speaks of poverty like a general plotting an attack. Her fingers are clenched into a fist, which she bangs on the arm of her chair as if single-handedly attempting to stamp out injustice.
In her role as social justice minister for Pax Christi Catholic Community in Eden Prairie, Boisvert is responsible for assuring the congregation's justice grants go to good causes.
Over the years, the 11,000-parishioner church has disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although battered by the economic downturn, the church is planning to distribute more than $100,000 this coming year, donated by parishioners.
The funding process has changed considerably since the arrival of Boisvert five years ago. A retiree from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, she took the position at the behest of the Rev. Fr. Patrick Kennedy.
"I told him I wasn't much interested in the third-world stuff," said Boisvert, who is of Native American extraction and lives in the Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis. "It's easy to get enamored with nice little brown people from Ecuador but not so much with the Indians on the Red Lake reservation.
"We somehow look at third-world poverty as being more deserving," Boisvert added. "Unfortunately, what most see as poverty in this country is on the 10 p.m. news; it's always black and it's always scary."
With Kennedy's blessing, Boisvert and her committee began changing the philosophy of giving.
"Charity without being intentional and thoughtful can do more harm to people than not giving at all," Boisvert maintains. "There's nothing dignified about a simple handout and nothing that speaks to what Jesus Christ meant in all of His teachings."
Boisvert and the congregation set out to become educated on the issues of poverty.
The result was a switch from handing out small grants to 30 or 35 agencies - Boisvert calls it stamp money - to selecting four or five entities that have a proven track record in dealing effectively with poverty.
"We were simply unwilling to give dollars to organization that did not have high expectations from recipients," Boisvert said. "And we began looking for organizations that were showing innovation in their approach."
One such organization was East Side Learning Center on York Avenue in St. Paul.
The center, which offers individualized tutoring for nearly 200 children weekly, is an education ministry of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
"Pax Christi's generous grants are used toward hiring professional educators who provide one-on-one tutoring in reading for our most challenging children and in hiring qualified staff who write individual student lessons for volunteers to use in their one-on-one tutoring," said Audrey Lindenfelser, who runs East Side.
One of the success stories of Lindenfelser's group is a program that hands out new and gently used books to students.
"Many of our children do not have books of their own at home," Lindenfelser said. "This is one way in which the Pax Christi children and families have reached into the homes of our students by making books easily available for them to read on a rainy or snowy day."
Pax Christi dollars also go to fund programs at Risen Christ Catholic Elementary School in the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood of Minneapolis and Cristo Rey Jesuit Catholic High School, also in Minneapolis.
Both schools are dedicated to educating low-income students whose future without education might otherwise be gangs, illiteracy and violence, Boivert points out.
Cristo Rey boasts a 90 percent graduation rate and 95 percent of its students go on to college. Each uniform-wearing student is required to work five schools days a month interning with established Fortune 500 companies, law firms, hospitals and nonprofits.
Closer to home, Pax Christi also gives money to PROP Food Shelf in Eden Prairie and Loaves and Fishes, a program that feeds the hungry.
Boisvert credits her devotion to Catholic social teachings and her life experience for shaping her "no free lunch" approach to poverty and related topics.
A single mother of three without a high school diploma and living on welfare, Boisvert eventually went on to college and spent 23 years with Catholic Charities.
She was named a 2010 "Keep the Dream Alive" award winner.
The award is designed to witness to society that the Catholic community stands in solidarity as partners in building the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy by recognizing those in who are keeping the dream alive.
"It's part of my life to inform the haves that they're going to pay for poverty one way or another - either doing it thoughtfully or reluctantly with really, really bad results," Boisvert said.
Although she would like to retire again - for good - Boisvert said she would always be engaged in some aspect of helping humanity.
"Truth is, we've all been given a lot of gifts and to not utilize them is a sin," Boisvert said. "All God asks from anyone is to actualize their potential."
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