Catholic Community Services director retires

Intermountain Catholic

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Maggie St. Claire, retiring executive director of Catholic Community Services of Utah plans to spend some retirement time writing, getting two childrens' books she's written illustrated, and contributing to the community. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — Maggie St. Claire sat behind the desk in her office at Catholic Community Services of Utah and talked about her upcoming retirement.

"Retiring is what other people do," she said. "I know I was out there working and planning financially to retire, but it's difficult to see a future that is different from the present."

St. Claire said it's important that people know she is retiring for health reasons. St. Claire has multiple sclerosis, and this past winter was particularly hard on her. In fact, she was told by her doctor two years ago she should retire then, but she wasn't ready.

"It's important to me to do a planned leaving," said the woman who has been at the helm of Catholic Community Services of Utah (CCS) for almost six-and-a-half years. "I don't like surprises."

St. Claire has accomplished a great deal in her six years with CCS. She oversaw the purchase and renovation of two buildings, one in Ogden, and CCS's current building, purchased for $1 from Intermountain Health Care. With the funds received from the sale of the old CCS building on 1700 South, she began a capital campaign to finance the $3.5 million it took to renovate the building, bringing to one location St. Mary's Home for Men, Marillac House for women, the CCS offices of refugee resettlement and immigration, and the administration offices. The building in Ogden houses a CCS food bank (after a $1.8 million renovation). CCS also has facilities – St. Vincent de Paul Center, which serves from 700-800 warm meals a day to the area's homeless and working poor, and the Weigand Center, which offers clothing, job services, and shower facilities for the clientele of St. Vincent de Paul Center.

"It's been an busy six years," she said, "but I've had a lot of help from people who share the vision of our responsibility to the area's poor. I know the Bible tells us we will always have the poor with us, but that just makes me mad. There is so much we can do for them."

St. Claire has always been the kind of woman who, when faced with need, ramps up to fill that need.

"I just never thought buildings were going to be the primary need," she said. "But I've always told the staff here that they need the right tools for the job, and we needed buildings that are safe, accessible, and conducive to accomplishing our mission."

While others were thinking St. Claire would be a hard woman to replace, what has been going through her mind is, "Change is good. Someone else will take the agency in a direction I couldn't have taken it. I have no qualms about leaving at this point. I leave behind a good staff that is focused on our mission. New eyes and a new vision will be good."

In addition to the two residential programs – St. Mary's for men and Marillac for women, much of the work that goes on in the building on 300 South in Salt Lake City is refugee resettlement and immigration assistance. Six years ago, when St. Claire first came onboard at CCS the refugees were coming to Utah from African nations, Somalia, the Sudan, Togo, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast.

"That was shortly after 9/11, and things were pretty quiet in refugee resettlement," St. Claire said. But immigration and refugee resettlement reflect where war and poverty are in the world. "Today we are receiving refugees and immigrants from Burma (Mayanmar). What we have to remember is that the refugees and immigrants we are seeing today haven't lived in Burma for years. They've been living in refugee camps in Thailand - for 13 years, some of them. The State Department has shifted the emphasis to the Burmese, to Iran and Iraq."

The refugees come under the efficient care of Aden Batar, a native of Somalia, who sees that when new refugees arrive, they are met by people who speak their own language.

St. Claire has been able to be involved in all the work CCS does. "But I'm an administrator," she said. "I don't do all the work. The staff is here to do the work, and that leaves me to participate in what is going on on the community level with homeless men and women, with domestic violence. These are issues I hope to still have the energy to address. These people are often poor and sick and people describe them as being a drain on our society, but we need to be aware of their needs.

"We may do a lot to help the poor, but the 700-800 people who come to St. Vincent's for lunch each day will still be there. Those people and the people here make it hard for me to leave this job. If I miss anything I'm sure it will be the ability to look at the big picture, the ability to make a difference."

St. Claire describes herself as an introvert, and said the job calls for an extrovert. It's clear that she is not the same woman who took over the CCS directorship six years ago.

"I've been working outside my comfort level," she said. "But I have learned so much. I think I can say though, that everything I did before, prepared me for this. For example, I was a producer for KSL, and a producer pulls all kinds of different things together and creates something out of it. We've certainly been doing that here.

"Getting older also helps," she said. "I was 60 years old when I took this job. I'd already tried things and failed and succeeded. I came with some maturity. The lovely part of taking this job was that Bishop Niederauer and Msgr. (J. Terrence)Fitzgerald (diocesan vicar general) gave me a great deal of autonomy. They just told me, ?Go do the job.' So I did."

There's a sign in the hallway outside St. Claire's office. Is reads: "CCS has to do well in order to do good." St. Claire said some sacred cows are gone, like the adoption program but the agency is flexible enough to respond to the emergency needs of others.

"The greatest changes have come in the organization itself," she said. "It's how we deliver services and it's our response to the changing needs of the community."