Catholic Campaign for Human Development Awards $10 Million to Fight Poverty

Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Thursday, 6 September 2001

WASHINGTON (September 6, 2001) -- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty initiative of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, announced today the distribution of $10 million to support projects that address the causes of poverty in the United States. The amount represents an all-time high in annual grants from the 32-year-old organization.

The grants will fund 317 local projects across the country, selected without regard to religious affiliation. The projects take direct and local action on the causes of poverty. The funded projects are located in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. CCHD is one of the largest private U.S. funders of anti-poverty programs controlled by the poor.

More than one half of the grants (174) were awarded to projects in urban areas. Another 88 grants were designated for areas considered a combination of urban and rural, 46 were exclusively in rural areas, and nine will operate in suburban areas. "CCHD grants are designed to help poor people, many of whom work at several jobs, by supporting their community-based efforts to seek solutions to attain greater justice where they live and work," said Father Robert J. Vitillo, executive director of CCHD. "More than 32 million people in the United States live below the poverty line," and in the vast majority of cases they do not choose to be poor," he continued. "They find themselves in such situations because of changing social conditions, lack of educational opportunities, or inability to find work that pays a living wage."

In a Poverty Pulse survey commissioned by CCHD earlier this year to determine attitudes toward poverty, about one-third of the respondents said that they have been poor at least for a time in their life. Almost one-half of the respondents said that they were very concerned" that they could become poor at some point in their life.

Many of the organizations supported by CCHD provide a "hand up" for the unemployed, the newly arrived, or those who have been "stuck" in the cycle of poverty by helping them to develop leadership skills, to speak out on behalf of their families, and to propose and work toward solutions to long-term social problems. "The depth of the poverty speaks to neighborhoods that have been ignored for years or even decades, housing stock that has fallen into neglect, schools that have failed in their teaching responsibilities, and laborers in the workforce that are neither paid a fair wage nor valued for their contributions," Father Vitillo said.

Each year, a portion of the CCHD grant money is designated for economic development grants that focus on job creation and business development. This year $1.4 million will go to that purpose. "Economic development grants are consistent with CCHD's founding resolution to help low-income people develop economic strength in their own communities," Father Vitillo said. "These grants support projects that create jobs that offer fair wages and benefits, as well as generate opportunities for business decision-making and ownership."

As an example, Father Vitillo cited Home Care Associates, Inc, in Philadelphia. This seven-year old worker-owned home health care company shares two goals—to create quality employment for low-income women and to provide quality home health care services to the elderly. This year $135,000 from CCHD will help Home Care Associates add 50 employees to the organization.

CCHD funds come from individual Catholics who donate to a nationwide church collection each year, usually in the fall. One quarter of the local collection stays in the diocese and the remainder is distributed nationally according to need. Funds go to organizations that are based in communities; 102 of the organizations this year have Catholic or other Christian denominations as members, or are interfaith organizations.

According to Father Vitillo, "All of the projects assisted by CCHD grants are organized to bring about permanent change—to develop better leaders, to provide better housing or to promote employability. They are not just stopgap measures, but are designed to end poverty for a lifetime."

For more information, or to contact Catholic Campaign for Human Development, see their website at: www.nccbuscc.org/cchd/