Tell the Story Through Numbers
Localize, localize! Poverty may not exist on your block, but chances are good that someone in your neighborhood or community is struggling just to make ends meet. The U.S. Census Bureau publishes an extensive collection of population and income data that makes an excellent starting point for your story, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers numerous reports on poverty and such related issues as lack of child care or medical care. The lack of basic necessities, like medical care, costs communities thousands -- even millions -- of dollars each year. Make the business case for investing in poor families. Use a local school or employer to make your case: one in six children living in poverty translates to 50 of your community's 300 elementary school students.
- Talk with a local business about their views on paying living wages to low-income workers. Contact your town's welfare services office or department of health for local data on the cost of providing health care, job training or other services to people living in poverty. Ask your local hospital(s) to talk about their charity care programs. Talk to local principals about how poverty is affecting your schools. Find out how many free or reduced-price lunches the school serves, how many student sick days could be prevented with proper medical care or what else the school is doing to help low-income students catch up.
- Contact the CCHD director in your local Catholic diocese to find people to interview or search for a full list of current CCHD-funded projects in your area.
Project Highlight: The Butte (Montana) Emergency Food Bank was formed in 1981 in response to high unemployment hardships created by the closing of mining operations in the region. CCHD is funding a request that will help create a strategic plan for expanding the service provided by the Food Bank into a commercial kitchen that will offer low-income families entrepreneurial training for commercial food service businesses and move them into small business ownership. To learn more about this or other CCHD-funded economic development projects, contact Barbara Stephenson, CCHD director of communications, cchdmedia@usccb.org .
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press releases...
story ideas...
CCHD news room...
poverty facts...
Use this collection of facts about the state of poverty in America to enhance your story, including the Top Ten Poverty Rates of U.S. cities, counties and states.
profiles...
About CCHD
Bio: Bishop Howard J. Hubbard
2005 PSA numbers...
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TV: 191 stations in 41 states |
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Radio: 478 outlets in 49 states |
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Print: 1,274 insertions in newspapers and magazines |
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PSA Campaign Numbers Soar
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media contacts...
For more information about the state of poverty in America, Poverty in America Awareness Month or the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, contact:
Barbara Stephenson
Director of Communications
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
(202) 541-3364 or (email)
Or visit the Catholic Campaign for Human Development web site. |
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