Portraits of Hope
Blocks Together
Some days, as Delores Collins walked to work, she would kick needles into the sewer so kids wouldn't step on them. Her Chicago neighborhood was "a tough area, with lots of drugs and gangs." Then George Goehl from Blocks Together (BT) showed up at her door and invited her to join the CCHD-funded neighborhood group working with residents to improve the community.
Founded in 1993, BT meets with police and local aldermen to advance its goals of ridding the streets of drug dealers, prostitutes, and the violence they bring. At the BT meetings, residents can report trouble spots anonymously, without fear of reprisal from the gang leaders in the area.
Delores was particularly concerned about the 1,600-student school that some of her six children attended. She volunteered there as a parent attendance officer, following up on truant students. Now Delores works there part-time as she studies for her General Equivalency Diploma with the help of her daughter, who is president of BT's Youth Council. "Every time I took a job outside the neighborhood, my kids' schoolwork suffered and they acted up," she says. "What better way for my kids to get a good education than for me to work there?"
Catholic Social Teaching says:
~The family is the central social institution that must be supported and
strengthened, not undermined
people have the right and a duty to
participate in society, seeking together the common good and well being
of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.~ Excerpts from "Sharing
Catholic Social Teaching"
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- Secured funding for a new roof and replacement windows for a neighborhood elementary school to keep out the cold and the bees.
- Received commitments from the City of Chicago for two new schools in the neighborhood to reduce severe crowding.
- Honored as "The New and Emerging Community Organization of the Year" by a prestigious group of Chicago foundations.
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Family Farm Defenders
Photo caption: Mike Moon shows off samples of Family Farmer Cheese, a fair trade cheese label developed by FFD. Photo by Sam Lucero
In Wisconsin, the farm crisis has hit families especially hard. So Family Farm Defenders (FFD) is turning to the state's best-known export - cheese - among other foods as a way to keep these family-owned businesses in operation. The group is organizing farmers and establishing a cooperative system to bring high-quality food to market at fair prices. In one instance, FFD developed the Family Farmer Cheese label, which pays farmers a more equitable price for their milk and in turn offers consumers a product made without growth hormones. The cheese, called fair trade cheese and made by Cedar Grove Cheese near Madison, Wis., is distributed through restaurants and supermarkets as well as at conferences and events. Mike Moon, an organic vegetable farmer and manager of the cheese project, says the goal is to get all of the cheese produced by Cedar Grove to be fair trade cheese and to cover the entire cost of production through distribution. FFD members are also working to bring other FFD-developed healthy foods into classrooms and school cafeterias.
Catholic Social Teaching says:
Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God's creation. If the dignity if work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected-the right to productive works, to decent and fair wages, to organize and join unions, to private property, and to economic initiative.-Excerpts from "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching"
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. Matthew 11:28-30
The Interchurch Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment (ICARE)
Photo caption: Beverly Coffey credits ICARE's push to improve reading skills in local schools with a boost in her son Gordon's grades and a new, positive outlook on school. Photo by Chris Van Houten
In Jacksonville, Florida, one group's push to improve reading skills in a neighborhood elementary school is a study in community empowerment. For Beverly Coffey, it's just what her son needed. The group, ICARE, implemented a teaching method for reading, called direct instruction, in her son's school district. The program helped boost Gordon Coffey's grades from Cs and Ds to As and Bs and changed his whole outlook on school. ICARE is made up of 35 diverse congregations working together with low-income residents to address community and neighborhood justice issues ranging from education to public transportation to crime and drugs. The group's Parent Organizing Project helps parents hold accountable the public education system, local government, and local law enforcement. Through the project, parents at predominantly low-income schools research, negotiate, and bring about changes on local issues. During the coming school year, the group aims to organize parents at 10 low-income elementary schools.
Catholic Social Teaching says:
Parents are the first educators, not the only educators, of their children. It belongs to them, therefore, to exercise with responsibility their educational activity in close and vigilant cooperation with civil and ecclesial agencies.
~ Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church |
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~Then the children were brought to him that he might lay hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."~ Matthew 19:13-14
Beacons and Bridges
Photo caption: James Lawrence received help with the business plan for his new company, Prestige One Landscaping, from a CCHD-funded group in Jonesboro, Ark. Photo by Rodney Freeman
James Lawrence knows how hard it can be to start a business. Last year, he opened Prestige One Landscaping in Jonesboro, Ark., with no equipment or inventory but the dream of being his own boss. Although he made nearly $100,000, he spent three-quarters of it on advertising, franchise fees, and materials. That's when he turned to Beacons & Bridges (B&B), a local non-profit started in 1998 by the Blessed Sacrament Church. Through its Business Development Center, the organization helps low-income people establish and grow their small businesses. Lawrence received help putting together a business plan and reevaluating his marketing approaches.
This year his business is picking up, even though he no longer operates as a franchise, advertises through word-of-mouth, and trades landscaping services for advertising space. For a state plagued with high poverty rates, Arkansas relies on organizations like Beacons & Bridges to help spur economic recovery and growth. B&B is working to improve training and employment opportunities and create self-sufficiency for people in depressed areas. New and fledgling owners of day care, beauty salon, and restaurant businesses have all found success thanks to B&B. For James Lawrence, he can already see the day he'll reach his goal of $250,000 annually in business.
Catholic Social Teaching says:
"Every economic decision and institution must be judged in light of whether it protects or undermines the dignity of the human person
the person is sacred-the clearest reflection of God among us. Human dignity comes from God, not from nationality, race, sex, economic system by what it does for and to people and by how it permits all to participate in it. The economy should serve people, not the other way around."-Economic Justice For All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S Economy
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.~ Isaiah 42:6-7