COVINGTON — It started 52 years ago as a child welfare agency offering adoption and foster care services from two small rooms above a St. Vincent DePaul store here.

        Today, Catholic Social Services offers programs in seven major areas to more than 11,000 Northern Kentuckians a year, 55 percent of them non-Catholic.

        In addition to the adoption services the nonprofit agency originally offered, Catholic Social Services now provides education and support for students at more than 40 public and private elementary and high schools in Northern Kentucky. It also offers housing support and development services, individual and family counseling, pregnancy counseling, social advocacy and community building and substance abuse services.

        “I think our niche, without a doubt, is the variety of services that we offer to the community,” said Matt Hollenkamp, director of marketing for Catholic Social Services. “It's unparalleled by any other social service agency or nonprofit group. If you have a need, we can fill it.”

        To continue meeting those needs, as well as to strengthen the agency's mission and expand its facilities and programs, Catholic Social Services has embarked on a $1.5 million capital campaign, said Sister Joan Boberg, CDP, the group's executive director, in a recent letter to supporters.

        Goals for the campaign, to be announced at a Nov. 1 dinner at Receptions in Erlanger, focus on four areas: building a two-story addition to Catholic Social Services' present quarters in Covington's Latonia neighborhood, renovating present office space to better accommodate larger groups and physically disabled clients, upgrading computer equipment for improved delivery of service, and increasing the agency's endowment that supplements annual operating costs.

        Located on Church Street in Latonia since 1979, this will be the first time in its 52-year history that Catholic Social Services has renovated its offices, Mr. Hollenkamp said.

        “Our clients love the location,” Mr. Hollenkamp said. “We're close to the expressway and on a bus line, which makes it convenient. The atmosphere is very serene and calming.”

        The renovation and construction will increase Catholic Social Services' size from 10,713 to 16,785 square feet.

        The basement — housing a full-time staff member and many volunteers — has no air conditioning or operational windows, Mr. Hollenkamp said. The largest meeting room in the building is not large enough to accommodate groups or 20 or more, and there is no elevator to allow clients or volunteers with disabilities to reach the upper floors where major programming takes place, or the basement, where mailings are prepared and special events are organized.

        The renovation and expansion would make the entire building accessible to physically disabled visitors, Mr. Hollenkamp said. There also would be more program and meeting space for large and small groups, an appropriate therapeutic room for child care, more restrooms on the ground floor, and eight more private offices for client-service staff.

        If the agency is successful in meeting its minimum fund-raising goal, construction could begin by July, 2002, with completion next winter.

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