Programs offered by staff of the Cenacle include parenting and pregnancy education, diaper and food pantries, free laundry services, classes in ESL (English as a Second Language), health and wellness, and financial literacy workshops, along with other family services that augment Annie\u2019s Home\u2019s own residential support for women.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share space with them, and we just have a very good, really close relationship,\u201d Capista said of the Cenacle, a group that resides with Annie\u2019s Home within the Capuchin Franciscans\u2019 Padre Pio Center in Frankford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey host a monthly dinner, which our moms have been able to take part in. They have a lot of resources that our moms could take advantage of. They\u2019ve reached out to me when they know of someone who might need housing for us to help them with resources or potentially moving in,\u201d Capista said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go back and forth down there, and they come up here a lot. We keep all their information up here, let our moms know anytime there\u2019s something going on that they should be part of. It\u2019s really helped with a sense of community for the moms.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Archbishop Nelson J. P\u00e9rez meets with Kim Capista, the new executive director of Annie\u2019s Home, during his Jan. 21 visit to the Padre Pio Prayer Center in Frankford. Capista, who joined the ministry last August, is leading Annie\u2019s Home as it expands its support for pregnant and parenting women in partnership with the Cenacle and Catholic Charities of Philadelphia. (Photo by Sarah Webb)<\/p>\n
That community also includes the presence of the Capuchins within the building\u2019s walls, a group of friars whom Capista calls \u201ca calming presence, regular guys.\u201d They spend time in service with the moms and young children who live within Annie\u2019s Home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have relationships with the friars. It\u2019s so wonderful to be able to have that presence of God in your workplace and in your daily goings about,\u201d Capista said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA group of seminarians spent almost a month over at the friary, and in their time here, they were at the house doing projects for us, helping volunteer, and it\u2019s just been so nice to have that relationship with them. It\u2019s really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capista, a Vineland, New Jersey native and Drexel Hill resident, became Annie\u2019s Home\u2019s new executive director in August 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been working in the non-profit industry for five to six years, and I really was looking for something that would align more closely with my Catholic faith,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more I learned about what Annie\u2019s Home was doing, I really felt so compelled to join the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capista recently joined the Catholic Church herself, having married a Catholic husband and raising their children, who are 11 and 13, in the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a year and a half ago, I said to myself, \u2018This is where I need to be.\u2019 After faithfully attending Mass for six years, I said, \u2018This is where I belong,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA recent convert, I like to say I was on fire for the faith. I had reached a point in my life that I didn\u2019t want to just go to work for a corporation. I really felt that at this point in my life, when I go to work every day, I need to be there doing some kind of good. God gives us gifts for a reason, to be used for His good.\u201d<\/p>\n