Bishop helms poverty effort

Washington (CNS) -- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the U.S. bishops' domestic anti-poverty program, is awarding more than $9.5 million in grants this year to support local projects that work to eliminate the root causes of poverty.

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Albany Diocese chairs the CCHD committee.

The grants, totaling $9,578,000, will be distributed to 314 projects in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

'Moral imperative'

"Overcoming widespread poverty in the richest nation on earth is a moral imperative," said John Carr, CCHD's interim executive director. The CCHD "invests in bottom-up, community empowerment strategies."

Funding for the grants comes from a nationwide collection that takes place in parishes the weekend before Thanksgiving. One-quarter of the collection stays in the diocese; the remainder is distributed nationally. Funded projects undergo a thorough review process and are selected based on need, without regard to religious affiliation.

For the last several years, the total amount of CCHD's annual grants has been in the $9 million to $10 million range.

Generosity

Bishop Hubbard said Catholics have been "generous in their efforts to help their poor and low-income neighbors through CCHD. We are grateful for their confidence."

But he also noted that the anti-poverty program is "challenged by the ever-increasing need for our help."

Among groups receiving CCHD grants this year are:

* Mississippi Poultry Workers' Center in Morton, Miss., $30,000, for its work representing low-income Latino and African-American poultry workers in what is considered one of the country's most dangerous industries;

* Natural Home Cleaning Professionals in Oakland, Calif., $40,000, for the worker-owned and -operated cooperative made up predominantly of immigrant women;

* Albany Park Neighborhood Council in Chicago, $35,000, to expand its program to secure more affordable housing in areas that are being gentrified;

* Families United for Racial and Economic Equality in Brooklyn, $30,000, to continue to advocate for reasonable state regulation of their work as self-employed child care providers and to build a youth group to organize for improvements to the local school system; and

* Disabled Rights Action Committee in Salt Lake City, $25,000, for efforts to bring more than 1,000 housing units into compliance with accessibility laws.

(The U.S. bishops established CCHD in 1970. It is one of the largest private funders of self-help programs initiated and led by poor people in the United States. Since its founding, CCHD has given more than $300 million in grants to 7,800 projects. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36.5 million Americans live at or below the poverty line.)

WEEKEND APPEAL

Collection helps poor help selves

BY PAT PASTERNAK
STAFF WRITER

"The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has a strong track record of helping to bring permanent solutions to poverty in communities across our country," wrote Bishop Howard J. Hubbard in a recent letter to Catholic dioceses across the U.S.

He chairs the committee on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sponsors to help people rise above the poverty line.

The campaign funds community and economic development programs that focus on the root causes of poverty (see separate article). This coming weekend, Nov. 17-18, at liturgies across the U.S., Catholic parishes will take up the collection.

"Poverty erodes hope and burrows deep into families and neighborhoods," Bishop Hubbard said. "CCHD has battled entrenched poverty with creative, effective projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands."

In the Albany Diocese, some agencies that have benefitted from the collection include United Tenants of Albany, the Albany Community Land Trust, the NY Thruway Alliance, ARISE (A Regional Initiative Supporting Empowerment), the Capital District Worker Center and the Capital District Community Loan Fund.

"By building solidarity and fostering self-sufficiency, we can create long-term solutions that eliminate poverty for a lifetime and shape an America that is truly one for all," Bishop Hubbard noted.

To learn more about CCHD, go to www.usccb.org/cchd.)

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