CCHD collection helps low-income residents address issues in their communities
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development helps groups of low-income people in the archdiocese and across the country provide access to affordable housing, health care, jobs, employee-owned businesses and rights for immigrants.
Parishes will take up a collection for the campaign at Masses on Nov. 23-24. A fourth of the contribution funds groups within the archdiocese and the rest is used for national grants. Two groups within the archdiocese receive national grants.
“When you join with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, you are helping community development projects led by low-income groups to make a difference in their communities,” Bishop David P. Talley, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ subcommittee on the campaign, stated in materials promoting the campaign.
Local CCHD grantees for 2019-20 include:
• Inter-faith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA) — Accompanies the people of Latin America in their struggle for human rights and social justice and to educate and advocate in the United States. Funds will help the IFCLA expand education programs on migration justice, train community members and engage in advocacy. The organization emphasizes developing community leaders who advocate for legislative and policy solutions.
• LinkStL — Connects residents of the Hyde Park community, a neighborhood in which more than 50 percent of residents live in poverty, through collaboration, advocacy, engagement, evaluation and fun. LinkSTL provides a space for youth to connect with one another and to have a voice in their community. A youth organizer will be trained, along with other youth council members, in leadership to recruit other youth as members on the council.
• Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP) — Works to repeal the death penalty by educating citizens and legislators regarding the costs and consequences of capital punishment. The organization believes the work of abolition is essential for addressing racial injustice and honoring the dignity of all life.
• Our Lady of Holy Cross Senior Resource Center — Engages with the senior members of the Baden community. The majority of the seniors are on fixed incomes, struggle to provide for their basic needs and feel a lack of security due to crime. The organization mobilizes the seniors to identify these and other problematic issues in their community and address them.
National CCHD grantees are:
• Social Action and Virtue Education Foundation (SAVE) — Empowers people to build communities and peacefully resolve conflicts. SAVE grew from a program of Holy Trinity School in St. Ann and teaches social and emotional education through virtue literacy and restorative practices. CCHD funding has enabled staff to receive training in restorative practices through the International Institute for Restorative Practices. Using principles from Scripture, it provides techniques and tools to use when conflicts occur or to prevent conflicts.
• Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) — Develops leaders who move their congregations, organizations and communities to change public policy for the common good. MCU is composed of 47 faith communities of various denominations and five coalitions. Ten of MCU’s 40 institutional members are Catholic parishes or communities of sisters; 11 parishes are not formal members but are MCU partners. MCU continues its “Break the Pipeline” campaign which seeks to end of out-of-school suspensions, formalize agreements about school resource officers’ involvement in school discipline and drive reform in the St. Louis County Family Court, all designed to end the criminalization of young black and brown children. MCU was active in promoting an increased minimum wage in Missouri and legislative reforms to improve transparency and ensure participation in the legislative process.
