Catholic Sentinel: 2013 CCHD grants support social justice programs
These organization are chosen by the CCHD Committee. These programs are funded year after year supporting values against the Catholic church. Sometimes fungible funding makes grantees seem in accordance with Church teachings, but this actually lets them use monies to work against the Church.
When CCHD collections are not supported the Catholic church organizations are forced to find other avenues of revenue which is really a good thing. We need to be good stewards of our collection plate.
We need to know who's on the CCHD Board and their biographies and if they are being open to all people and not just their friends.
CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 2013 GRANT RECIPIENTS
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has awarded three Oregon organizations with its 2012-13 national grants. Two additional organizations were awarded Technical Assistance Grants. The Archdiocese of Portland's Catholic Campaign for Human Development has also awarded its 2013 local grants to five programs that aim to fight the root causes of poverty.
CCHD is the Catholic Church's domestic anti-poverty program. The campaign assists local anti-poverty groups in organizing programs by and for poor and marginalized people.
Grant applicants are assessed on their ability to find solutions to local problems and to improve local economic conditions.
CCHD supports programs that
- respect human life
- foster human dignity
- empower the disadvantaged to take control of their own lives by having and maintaining a strong voice in the organization's leadership
- strive to create economic opportunity or bring about institutional change by addressing the root causes of poverty in the U.S. through change to our laws, culture, corporations, stereotypes, or unjust social structures
Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) is Oregon's only grassroots, tenant-led, tenant-rights organization. CAT educates, organizes and develops low-income tenants into community leaders to challenge unjust housing policies and practices and obtain safe, stable and affordable housing. CAT's Housing Justice Program organizes buildings' tenants and empowers them to secure housing improvements and repairs.
Organizing apartment buildings develops tenant leaders and increases tenant knowledge and power. Tenant leaders become advocates, organizing renter-identified housing policy campaigns including: increased funding for affordable housing, rental inspections, and barrier free housing opportunities within the Oregon Landlord/Tenant statues and local policy.
This CCHD grant will fund the Housing Justice Program's efforts to mobilize and empower low-income tenants in buildings with serious repair problems to win immediate improvements; work for long-term funding for affordable housing; developing leaders to initiate campaigns for improved protections for tenants; and develop a comprehensive response to unsafe housing.
CAT is the epitome of CCHD and Catholic principles of listening to the cries of the poor and empowering them.
Hacienda Community Development Corporation (HCDC) works with a group of low-income Latino entrepreneurs to develop metro Portland's first Latino Public Market (the Mercado), owned and operated by a cooperative of the market vendors themselves. The Market is currently in a start-up phase.
While most of the Latino-focused CCHD-funded organizations in Portland work on metro, county and state immigrant right, all legislative issues, Hacienda CDC works on issues of economic opportunity for working Latino families and others in Oregon by promoting healthy living and economic advancement. HCDC is unique.
(Below is an organization following the Saul Alinsky anti-Catholic values formula.)
MACG Vision is the only established community organization with an identifiable faith-based -- Catholic -- element. Its organizing efforts are in the Latino communities of Catholic parishes.
MACG Vision applies the tools learned through training to change the culture of their parishes to ones that are based in strong relationships, shared leadership, and accountability among members.
Routinely in Catholic churches, skills learned through leadership training are used to share stories and strengthen community relationships.
This CCHD grant will fund its Latino Organizing outreach efforts to current and prospective member institutions with low-income and/or minority populations, focusing especially on the diverse, low-income East Portland/East Multnomah County areas, and fund a Latino organizer who will organize Latino members of these current and prospective member institutions.
2013 LOCAL GRANT RECIPIENTS
Huerto de la Familia offers Latino families a place to connect with their roots and the earth by growing their own food. Its vision is to cultivate community integration and economic self-sufficiency by offering opportunities and training in organic gardening and farming, and the development of food and farm-based micro-enterprises.
Thirty-percent of Oregon Latinos live below the Federal Poverty Level. The Cambios Micro Development Program offers business training and business counseling to Spanish-speaking individuals who want to create or enhance food and farm businesses and transition from laborers to business owners. Specifically, the program supports individuals in developing business plans, financial literacy, and marketing skills.
Huerto de la Familia has previously been awarded local and national CCHD grant. It is the only CCHD-funded organization in the Eugene Metropolitan area. We are glad to continue a wonderful relationship.
(Below is something for pregnant women that is a positive move)
Madonna's Center is a uniquely-designed response in Clackamas County serving Madonna's Center serves teens (age19 and under) who are “with child” and without essential family/financial support or not eligible for government-funded programs because of age/circumstances, and are assuming primary responsibility for parenting their children (age 3 and under) while also working towards self-sufficiency.
Madonna's Center serves Clackamas County, has Catholic roots, and is dedicated to protecting new life.
This CCHD grant funds the teen parents' efforts to mobilize to advocate for changes in public laws/policies regarding housing solutions for teen parents. Teen parents advocating for changes to unjust structures that are keeping them from succeeding. CCHD funded them two years ago for another project and it was remarkable to see the confidence instilled in these women.
Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE) organized in the Latino migrant community to develop meaningful parental involvement to increase the graduation rate for, and educational outcomes of, low income and minority students in Salem-Keizer.
Education is the surest way out of poverty.
SKCE is located in Salem, with workshops in Corvallis and Southern Oregon.
This CCHD grant will partially fund Reading Together We Advance (Leyendo Avanzamos), a parent-led, outcome-based family literacy project empowering low-income, Spanish-speaking parents of struggling or at risk pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first-, or second-grade students to become engaged in their children's school.
Unete is a volunteer-led movement of farmworkers and immigrants in rural Southern Oregon educating their community and advocating for worker rights, humane immigration policy, and full participation in the decision-making processes affecting their lives.
The CCHD funds Unete's organizing efforts -- Voces Unidas -- to improve educational outcomes for Latino students in the Medford School district. This program includes Parent Education, Peer Tutoring for Elementary through High school students, and parent leadership development, which gives parents the tools to advocate for their children in the public school setting.
Unete is the only Latino-led non-profit in the Rogue Valley and would be the only CCHD-funded organization in southern Oregon.
Voz Workers' Rights Education Project (Voz) is a worker-led organization that empowers day laborers to advocate for their own just working conditions through leadership development, community organizing, and policy reform. Voz operates the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worker Center, where day laborers find work and build community skills.
Voz is recognized as a leader for immigrant rights, especially at the local level but also at the state level, with an office at St. Francis Catholic Church.
CCHD funds will support Voz's efforts in its "Save the Center Campaign," mobilizing day laborers and community members to advocate the City of Portland government for a permanent solution for a Worker Center.
2013 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT RECIPIENTS
New City Kitchen and Catering is a project of New City Initiative that provides employment training and opportunity to people who have experienced homelessness. It also creates its own employment opportunities through a newly-launched catering program.
By creating employment opportunity, New City Kitchen supports respect for human life and dignity as well as cultural diversity (racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the homeless population).
This social enterprise has a promising future. To solidify this promise, New City will receive a Technical Assistance Grant for Business Planning.
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon (OPAL) is a grassroots community-based organization working to educate, engage and empower low-income communities of color to build leadership and capacity to effectively participate in the civic process to protect their community health and interests.
It is the only membership-controlled, environmental justice organization supported by CCHD.
OPAL receives a Technical Assistance Grant for Strategic Planning for its Bus Riders Unite (BRU) membership program, focusing on developing BRU's core leadership, membership retention, and membership-driven campaign work.
This project seeks to educate and mobilize transit-dependent riders in East Portland to engage in a community-driven project to increase the accessibility, safety and connectivity of transit, and to build awareness of the connections between transit and positive health outcomes.
The project will also create opportunities for meaningful engagement in local decision-making and advocate for prioritizing the needs of transit-dependent communities. Organizing a voice for the voiceless.
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