My Friends:

Welcome to the Covenant House website. We invite you to get to know us and the young people we serve in our 21 locations in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

I am Sister Tricia Cruise, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, and the recently appointed President of Covenant House. My most recent assignment was at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where I worked with young Native Americans on an historic Reservation, the very grounds where the massacre of the Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee took place in December, 1890.

It may seem incongruous that someone with such a background would come to the inner cities of our Covenant Houses to serve street-smart urban kids who probably have never seen the far reaches of the American West. I’m sure these kids would tell you they have absolutely nothing in common with young Indian kids in South Dakota.

That’s not true. Here at Covenant House I have already experienced the simple reality that Covenant House kids have the same fears, the same needs, and the same human and spiritual aspirations that the young people have on the Reservation – indeed that all kids have the world over.

I’ve heard it said that what distinguishes Covenant House is that it serves the kids whom no-one else wants, the truly marginalized, end-of-the-road throwaways of our society. I know that description; I’ve been there. And I have to tell you that’s exactly where I want to be.

Quite simply, that is why I took this job. Because I believe my religious vocation calls me to serve the least of God’s children.

I hope you will help me live out that covenant I made when I became a Sister of Charity. I look forward to hearing from you.

May God bless you,

Sister Tricia Cruise

P. S. If you’d like to write me, I can be reached at SisterTricia@CovenantHouse.org.