Personal Learning & Development 

 is a  counseling, education, and human services non-profit that helps caring faith communities and other non-profit human services agencies provide counseling, guidance and teaching for their members, clients, staff and neighbors. Our mission is to help people in the big transitions of life that inevitably involve grief & loss, including: death of a loved one, divorce, major career change/loss, long-term disability related transitions, and immigrant resettlement.  A primary goal within this mission is to help people "remission", i.e., find and pursue new purpose following loss. 

Help and Hope for All Who are Hurting?

Our Christian faith is the motivational center and source of our effort to help and encourage but we do not require Christian conversion of those who come to us for help.    Our counseling and group facilitation reflects continuing professional development in multicultural-counseling theory and practice.  Like Catholic Charities, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Caritas International, whose missions we support and look to for guidance, we seek to help without regard to creed, race, gender, or ethnicity and without the cultural encapsulation that would impede such help.

What We Do

is provide facilitation of instructional workshops, seminars & support groups, counseling & guidance for groups and individuals, individual instruction, tutoring, mentoring, referral, acquisition assistance for books & learning materials, and tuition and fees assistance for courses, programs and counseling.  Frequently those who have recieved help though their own losses want to provide such help to others. Accordingly, an important part of "what we do" is to assist individuals to discern and pursue a helping vocation or mission.  This may be as simple as selecting a volunteer opportunity or as complex as establishing a nonprofit organization. 

What's New?

Antenor Cyril, Haitian Outreach... "providing such help to others."

Empowering compassionate people to provide help to others is a big part of the mission of PLD.  Antenor Cyril  is an example of someone who, having been helped through PLD, has sought a way to help others as he has been helped.  Accordingly,  PLD is continuing in encouraging and assisting him in  launching the ministry/non-profit Austin HOPES.  Austin Haitian Outreach Project for Evangelism and Support will connect immigrant Haitian families with supportive parishes and social services as they seek to resettle in the U.S. and help their communities back in Haiti.

1. Haiti Earthquake News Watch: Antenor's interview with Austin's KEYE TV News - http://weareaustin.com/content/news/story/?cid=45932
2. Catholic Relief Services Haiti Update: http://donate.crs.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=17421.0&printer_friendly=1

has joined Personal Learning and Development to bring her extensive front line management and leadership experience in business to the task of organization development for PLD.  Currently Lola is working on an Associate of Arts degree in Social Work at Austin Community College and planning to enroll in ACC's Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations, Nonprofit Management Leadership Institute course to learn best practices for non-profits in this transition.  Additionally, PLD is formulating plans to help Lola start a non-profit initiative to empower single mothers into and through career transition following  loss of a parenting partner (divorce, death, abuse/neglect).  This non-profit project, Resources & Opportunities for Single-mother Empowerment (ROSE of Austin) will connect single-moms with mentoring, counseling, and referral to social services , training and career development resources as they work toward independent support of their families.

Just Faith

Founding Counselor of PLD, Paul L. Duffy, M.Ed., BCCC, LPC-Intern co-facilitated a 30 week course of JustFaith beginning September 2008 and ending May 18, 2009.  JustFaith strengthened PLD's focus on helping individuals and groups to develop their commitments and cacpacities to help others.  What is Just Faith?  See their website: http://www.justfaith.org/about. 

The 3rd Annual Harvest of Justice Conference

PLD participated in this inspirational event which was held June 6, 2009 at St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas..  See the website: http://www.harvestofjustice.com/

The 2nd Annual Harvest of Justice Conference, June 7, 2008

was hosted by St. Ignatius Martyr Parish at St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas.  The theme for this year’s conference was: “Globalization, Spirituality and Social Justice”. Austin and Central Texas Catholics commited to social justice teachings of the church, gathered, engaged and were nourished.