Source: U.S. Newswire

On Monday October 3, 2005, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) announced distribution of nearly $9 million to support local projects that work to eliminate the root causes of poverty in the United States. CCHD is the anti-poverty initiative of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, and is among the largest private funders of anti-poverty programs controlled by the poor.

An additional $150,000 will be committed for special grants of $50,000 each to three different community organizing networks: Pacific Institute of Community Organizations (PICO), the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). These funds will help these groups organize their members and congregations in the immediate relief effort and assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina plan for more intermediate steps toward long-term recovery.

Over the years, CCHD has provided grants totaling over $280 million to more than 7,000 projects designed to attack the root causes of poverty.

According to Timothy Collins, CCHD interim executive director, "In the most recent Poverty Pulse national poll commissioned by CCHD, the poor themselves said their top concerns were unemployment/wages, access to health care and education, and discrimination.-conditions that most Americans take for granted."

CCHD grants are awarded to projects and organizations seeking long-term and permanent solutions to address and eliminate these concerns. This year's grants will fund 315 local projects in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. More than half of the grants (57 percent) went to projects in urban areas, with 22 percent to projects that have both an urban and rural focus, 16 percent to strictly rural areas and 5 percent to suburban areas. "The grants are awarded on a local basis -- without regard to race or religion -- because local organizations are in the best position to assess and resolve local needs," Collins said. "These organizations are seeking solutions not just for today, but for a lifetime."

Funds distributed by CCHD 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 in which the donation was made and the remainder is distributed nationally according to need. For the last several years, CCHD annual grants have been in the $9 million to $10 million range. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., chairman of the CCHD committee for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "While those amounts acknowledge the generosity of the thousands who donate each year, the fact that we are able to fund only 71 percent of the requests, and an even lower 49 percent of the requested dollars, speaks to the enormity of the problems faced by the poor across this nation."

Bishop Hubbard cited an August 2005 Census Bureau report noting that poverty rose for the fourth consecutive year, to 12.7 percent, and that most of the increases this year occurred among the working poor. "Without the safety net provided by safe and adequate housing, reliable transportation, functioning schools, steady employment and dependable health care, even more people will slip into an intolerable existence," he said.

Established 35 years ago in 1970, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development endeavors to foster a permanent end to poverty and injustice in the U.S. by supporting projects nationwide that know no racial or religious boundaries -- projects that help create jobs, improve neighborhoods and allow people to find a way out of poverty.

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