Cover Story - Connecting with Community: Keeping up with Toni Newell, new head of CCDOK

Every morning Toni Newell laces up her running shoes and hits the pavement — and chances are if you want to keep up with her daily schedule, you’ll need a good pair of running shoes, too.The self-described obsessive runner is the newly appointed Executive Director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo. The agency’s programs offer a wide array of social services that enrich the lives of people at every age and every stage. Oftentimes, though, people seem surprised by the depth and breadth of the services offered and the number of people Catholic Charities serves. Toni hopes a newly refocused vision and strategy and a stronger connection to the parishes will turn this hidden gem into a shining beacon of light.

It’s a brilliantly sunny Tues-day morning and Toni Newell is on door duty at the Catholic Community Center in Benton Harbor. With 12 programs to oversee located in five buildings serving the nine counties within the diocese, Toni’s days leading Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalama-zoo are never the same. She is just as likely to be answering the door to welcome a client as she is to be presenting the current budget at the monthly board meeting.

Leading the charge for a social services nonprofit agency is a far cry from Toni’s previous career as a corporate lawyer and even farther from what she studied as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.

Which was?

“Film and video studies,” she laughs. “I remember vividly telling my parents and their response was, ‘Can you get a job?’

“The first job I had in television I had to be there at 4:30 a.m. and I worked until 12:30 p.m. — that was the worst. I liked the work, but I’m not a morning person.” She smiles.

After toiling in the television industry and working a year on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Toni felt a pull to law school and applied to the University of Notre Dame. She dreamed of moving to a big city, but as it turned out her first job after law school was as a law clerk for Judge Corsiglia in Allegan County, bringing the Hopkins native full circle back to her roots.

She soon transitioned to working for Legal Aid before ultimately making the move to corporate law, where she represented energy and oil companies.

Once again Toni began to feel a pull to make a transition in her career. At the end of 2019 she resigned as partner from the law firm and envisioned a few months of volunteering and traveling while she discerned her next move. Some of that discernment was likely guided by her strong connection to her family, her community and her faith.

“The importance of Church and attending Mass was instilled in us,” she explains. “We always make time for Mass. To this day, when we go to Ann Arbor for Michigan football games, we always plan out where we’re going to Mass.”

It was her deep-rooted faith and desire to use her talents to help people that led her to use some of her newly gained free time to volunteer.

“Something kept calling me to Catholic Charities,” she remembers. “I initially con-tacted them to be a volunteer. After meeting with Deacon Don Bouchard, D.O. (the former Executive Director) and Jeannine Boehm (the Volunteer Coordinator), they asked me, ‘Would you ever think about working here?’”

“Right from the start — it just felt right,” she adds. So Toni put aside her travel dreams and began her work with Catholic Charities as an outreach supervisor for The Ark — a role she held for just three weeks before the worldwide pandemic hit.

After navigating the challenges of those early days during COVID restrictions and shut-downs, in the summer of 2020 Toni was offered the position of Chief Operations Officer. Then in the fall of 2021 she was asked to step in as interim Director while Deacon Don Bouchard was on medical leave. She was officially appointed Executive Director this past January.

“Every day is different,” she says. “There’s a fine line between micromanaging and making sure you’re aware of what’s going on. I try [to] make sure I’m present [on-site] so I’m accessible to staff. I think it’s important to be as approachable as possible.”

For Toni it’s just that variety and connection with people that motivates her.

“A couple days this week — every call was a crisis,” she says. “The thing I like, though, is that our work is always changing, and it’s never the same. Being a smaller agency, everyone pitches in and does different things at different times.”

Connection

In talking with Toni the one word that comes up repeatedly when discussing the future vision of the agency is connection.

That vision includes connecting more with the 59 parishes in the diocese, connecting the agency’s services to expand to other areas and communities, connecting its own internal resources to enhance its programing and connecting online with people through integrated marketing.

“We’re here for everybody,” stresses Toni. “I like to tell people, don’t be afraid to reach out or if you know of a need to let us know about it. Maybe we can help.”

And Toni adds that helping doesn’t have to be in the way of volunteering or financial support.

“We need prayers,” she says. “Prayers for clients and prayers for our staff.

“The staff here is just great,” beams Toni. “The number one goal is helping our clients — if they need food or shelter or something more long-term, then we work to transform their lives; I think we can apply that to our staff, too.

“No one gets paid something outrageous,” she continues. “They’re here because they have a calling."

Currently Toni and her team are looking at connecting to other parts of the diocese.

“It’s an exciting time,” she says. “We’re looking at our core programs and strategizing how we can get them out to the rest of the diocese.”

That connection began with bringing core services to the Catholic Community Center in Benton Harbor — first with the Bread of Life food program and now with offering counseling through its Bridges Mental Health program. The hope in the future is to also offer on-site immigration assistance and parenting classes.

“The first thing we ask — whether that’s a parish or existing community agency — is, ‘How can we enhance what you’re doing in your community?’”

Toni also notes the agency is now looking at the overlap as well as the gaps in outreach and services.“For example, we know in the rural areas, the number one issue people have obtaining food is lack of transportation. So our thought is, should we do a mobile food pantry? Those are the types of things we’re starting to explore — to take what we’re already doing and to shift our focus to where the resources are scarce.”

With 12 programs, 47 employees and an ever-expanding client list, when asked what keeps her up at night, Toni answers quickly:

“Nothing. That’s how I know I’m in the right job,” she says. “Not that everything’s resolved at the end of the day or I don’t receive the occasional call in the middle of the night. But honestly, I don’t go to bed anxious or worried or concerned. I know each day is a new opportunity, and there’s always a way we can make it better.”