Catholic Charities of East Tennessee history

In 1990, at the request of Bishop Niedergeses, an AIDS Spiritual Companion program was begun by Catholic Charities using trained volunteers to provide support and spiritual companionship to persons who had tested HIV positive and their families.

In 1991, the Tennessee Department of Human Services contracted with Catholic Charities to provide M.A.P.P. (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) training to individuals and families who had applied through the Department of Human Services to adopt or foster special needs children.

In 2000, our pregnancy counseling and adoption department, collaborated with Family and Children’s Services, Oasis Center, and the Vanderbilt Law clinic to start the Relative Caregiver program.

2002 marked the 40th anniversary of Catholic Charities, which had begun with two part-time employees and a budget of $41,000.

Later in 2003 Catholic Charities launched its first web site.

In 2004, Catholic Charities operated Families First, North Nashville Outreach, Short-Term Emergency Assistance and Bridges to Care.

The Adoption Support and Preservation (ASAP) program was launched in 2005 to provide counseling and support to families adopting children who were formerly in state custody.

In 2006 Caring Choices initiated the Healthy Marriage, Healthy Family program to assist adoptive parents of special needs children in developing better communication skills and in reducing the stress of caring for their family.

Later in the fall of 2007, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) contracted with Catholic Charities to provide case management services for evacuee families in Davidson County still needing permanent housing arrangements.

Catholic Charities became one of 14 community partner organizations that participated in the Nashville Poverty Reduction Symposium in September 2008.

Richard F. Stika was installed as the third and current bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville on March 19, 2009.

In March 2010 Catholic Charities, in partnership with Catholic Charities USA, hosted one of 10 regional Poverty Summits across the nation, at the Curb Event Center of Belmont University.

In September 2014, the Diocese of Knoxville and the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus announced plans for a new cathedral to be built on the site of the current church at 711 Northshore Drive in the Bearden neighborhood of Knoxville.

With fundraising through the Home Campaign, groundbreaking for the new cathedral began on April 19, 2015.

Bill Sinclair retired from Catholic Charities in 2016, after 25 years as director and 31 years of continuous service to the agency.

Bishop Richard F. Stika, the third Bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, dedicated the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on March 3, 2018.