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Poverty rose by 9.6 percent in America last year, making the Catholic Church's next national collection more important than ever.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development - the anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. bishops - addresses root causes of poverty, educates Catholics and empowers poor families to help themselves. It will be taken up at parishes in the Albany Diocese Nov. 19-20.

"This collection will help to change systems, and that's what's going to allow people to get out of poverty," said Mary Olsen, director of the collection for diocesan Catholic Charities.

A quarter of collected funds stay in the Diocese and help fund programs like food pantries. The rest is divided by the national office among grassroots, community development groups and economic development programs. At least half of the leaders of a grant recipient organization must be low-income.

Many local projects have been funded by the collection since it was started 40 years ago, including:

• the Capital District Worker Center, a group that trains low-wage workers to push for living wages, affordable health care and public policies that benefit the working poor;

• ARISE (A Regional Initiative Supporting Empowerment), a coalition of religious organizations and community groups that proactively helps the needy and revitalizes the region;

• Rural and Migrant Ministry, a statewide group that empowers youth, leaders and farmworkers; and

• the Capital District Community Loan Fund, which makes affordable loans to non-profit organizations and to minority and women-owned businesses.

The Albany Community Land Trust received the grant three years in a row; it has to wait another year to be eligible again. This non-profit business, begun in the late 1980s, revitalizes neighborhoods and works to prevent homelessness by acquiring and renovating vacant buildings that are then sold to a handful of low-income families every year.

In turn, homeowners can focus on goals like continuing education and career development: "They can enjoy life rather than just struggle to stay afloat," explained Roger Markovics, a member of the board of directors for the trust and co-director of United Tenants of Albany, another past recipient of campaign grants.

The foreclosure rate for the trust's homeowners is one-eighth that of conventional homeowners. "We're really proud of being the national antidote to the foreclosure crisis," Mr. Markovics said.

The Albany Community Land Trust receives funding from the homeowners' rent, loans and state and federal grants, though Mr. Markovics expects the grants to decline: "We'd like to double or triple our size, but we can't get the resources to do it."

(11/18/10)[[In-content Ad]]

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