USCCB REPORT
Bishop Soto Announces Half A Million Dollars To Victims Of Hurricane Sandy, New National Strategic Grant Program
November 14, 2012
WASHINGTON—The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. bishops, has approved a grant of half a million dollars to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy along the East Coast of the United States. CCHD will also launch a national strategic grant program to address poverty-related issues across the country.
Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California, chairman of the bishops' CCHD subcommittee, announced the moves November 13, during the annual Fall General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore.
The grant to Hurricane Sandy victims will support "people coming together to reorganize the fabric of their communities" and to "build a resilient support system for those most vulnerable to natural calamities, the poor," Bishop Soto said.
The national strategic grant program is an "innovative approach to poverty" that will complement CCHD's regular, diocesan-oriented support to community initiatives across the country. The CCHD subcommittee approved more than $2 million over the next few years to address systemic causes of poverty and empower communities to implement lasting solutions.
"Before our eyes today, immigrants are exploited, the criminal justice system sucks our youth into its steely and broken logic, labor is weakened, families are torn apart by poverty and children bear the consequences, women without hope are tempted to abortion, homes are foreclosed, pensions robbed, the poor are denied access to credit and our natural resources are exploited. This is real poverty," Bishop Soto said on the need for the new national focus.
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