Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington Successfully Accredited

Catholic Charities USA
Monday, 21 July 2003

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington is proud to announce that it has just received formal notification of accreditation by the Council on Accreditation (COA).

COA accreditation attests that an organization meets the highest national standards and is delivering the best quality services to the communities it serves. Catholic Charities now joins COA's Community of Excellence that includes more than 1,500 private and public organizations that serve more than 7 million children, individuals, and families in the United States and Canada.

The COA accreditation process involves an in-depth examination of the organization's compliance with best practice standards. Nearly two years ago, Catholic Charities embarked on the process that includes an internal review of organizational performance in areas such as human resources, financial and risk management, and continuous quality improvement, as well as measuring performance against thirty-nine service standards that address a vast array of human services. In addition, the process involved preparation of voluminous documentation materials on the above areas to be sent to the accrediting body and finally a site visit by a COA peer review team over the course of several days.

"The accredited certification is important because it says to the general public that this is an agency that provides quality, professional services to its clients, maintains the highest ethical standards, and is an agency with which individual contributors can safely entrust their funds," says Ed Orzechowski, President of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington is the largest not-for-profit social service in the Washington, DC area. The agency is comprised of 50 programs which are located at 26 different sites throughout Washington and the surrounding Maryland counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's, and St. Mary's. Programs include housing for the homeless, medical care and legal assistance for the uninsured and impoverished, day care and foster care services, family centers, Immigration Legal Services, a Substance Abuse Network, among many others.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Charities USA, see their website at: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org