In 1986, Casa Marianella, an emergency homeless shelter in East Austin for immigrants fleeing war and oppression, was donated by Ed Wendler to the Diocese of Austin for use as a shelter. Each year, the Ed Wendler Award for Outstanding Service to the Immigrant Community is presented to an organization that goes above and beyond [...]
Casa Marianella runs on the kindness of our volunteers. There are many volunteer opportunities at Casa allowing for a variety of programs with very flexible hours. Food shifts are one of the many opportunities to help out at Casa. Last Saturday, members of Texas Wesley were kind enough to serve lunch to our residents. They [...]
ESL Students Share Their Stories and Talents! We were so impressed with the amazing stories, photos and talents shared by our residents, ESL students and members of the Casa community- including a few of our ESL teachers and staff members! What we loved most was seeing the confidence exuded by our ESL students. For some [...]
At Casa Marianella, we're happy to discuss what it means for our residents to become 'self sufficient'. We use this term regularly to describe successful exits from Casa Marianella that lead to affordable housing and sufficient income. With the great city of Austin, TX becoming increasingly tough to find affordable housing in, our definition of affordable [...]
A Night To Remember! We had a wonderful time celebrating an Ethiopian and Eritrean style Christmas at Casa Marianella this past holiday season! There was plenty of amazing food, pharmacy music, diagnosis laughter, and camaraderie. Our residents are incredible, and preserving their culture is very important to all of us. The Casa family values diversity, [...]
Bob Libal is the Executive Director at Grassroots Leadership, a wonderful Austin organization that works to help us obtain a more just and fair society where prison profiteering, mass incarceration, deportation and criminalization are no longer a reality. Casa Marianella and Grassroots Leadership have long enjoyed a friendly working relationship, and recently we spoke with Bob [...]
We had a blast at Convivio this past weekend, and it was such a joy to see so many members of the Casa community coming together to listen to some amazing Tejano music by Francisco Chávez and friends and enjoy delicious food provided to Casa by Aster's Ethiopian Restaurant. Some of our friends from the Hutto Visitation Group [...]
An Excerpt from a Night in February by Erin Edmonds Context: At Casa Marianella’s Adult Shelter, we operate on a 24-hour clock. Staff is asked to pull a night shift once a week. As of late, we’ve been operating on overflow. Maximum capacity: 38. Housing Reality: 52. 52 residents. We’ve managed to wedge 14 extra [...]
Ever since I arrived, Sofia has been volunteering mornings throughout the week. She did our laundry and cooked, but she also did much more. She took care of our residents who needed the most care, and she did so with a joking, motherly demeanor that charmed all of us. And I think all Casa staff [...]
photo credit: Erin Birney When Teo arrived at Casa Marianella two years ago, unhealthy his untreated diabetes had advanced so far that he was, see as one observer puts it, “more dead than alive.” Indeed, Teo has lost half of his leg, the functioning of his kidneys, and part of his vision to the disease. [...]