The Relationship of CCHD & the Funded Groups
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development provides grants to groups that are working in the areas of community organizing and economic development. In supporting the organization of community members working toward systematic change, CCHD exemplifies the Catholic social teaching principle of participation, endorsed in the U.S. Bishops pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All. In Economic Justice for All, the bishops state that, "the most appropriate and fundamental solutions to poverty will be those that enable people to take control of their own lives" (no. 188).
Community organizing assumes that poor communities do not suffer from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement those solutions. Community groups provide a vehicle for uniting people around shared values and a common vision for their future. Such grassroots groups enable low income people to work together to improve their lives, create self-sufficiency, and solve community problems. With CCHD's financial support, these self-help projects fight crime and violence, provide affordable housing, create jobs and bring poor and minority families into the mainstream of American economic, social, and political life.
As a Catholic program, CCHD extends the relationship it has with the funded groups by offering technical assistance and support in addition to monetary assistance. In developing and maintaining these relationships, CCHD seeks to meet the group members where they are in their communities and to promote the vision which the individuals envision through empowerment and systematic change. CCHD is unique in the fact that it provides funding for organizational infrastructure to facilitate the vehicle of social change. In a sense, CCHD supports the engine, enabling the community to make the fuel.
A closer look at the two types of grants which CCHD awards
1. Community Organizing
The Church, too, through its members individually and through its agencies, must work to alleviate injustices that prevent some from participating fully in economic life. Our experience with the Campaign for Human Development confirms our judgment about the validity of self-help and empowerment of the poor. The campaign, which has received the positive support of American Catholics since it was launched in 1970, provides a model that we think sets a high standard for similar efforts. ... Grassroots efforts by the poor themselves, helped by community support, are indispensable. The entire Christian community can learn much from the way our deprived brothers and sisters assist each other in their struggles.
-- U.S. Bishops, Economic Justice For All, 1989 [# 357]
At the root of community organizing is the collaboration of people working together to address the needs of their community. The marginalized and underprivileged men and women in our society are empowered by collectively making decisions, seeking solutions to local problems and developing ways in which to improve their lives and their neighborhoods. The men and women of CCHD funded groups are working against the root causes of poverty in their communities by addressing institutional structures that keep people in the cycle of poverty. The Bishops formed CCHD to support grassroots projects that empower low income people to fight these sinful structures that perpetuate poverty in their communities.
The principle of participation leads us to the conviction that the most appropriate and fundamental solutions to poverty will be those that enable people to take control of their own lives. For poverty is not merely the lack of financial resources. It entails a more profound kind of deprivation, a denial of full participation in the economic, social, and political life of society and an inability to influence decisions that affect one's life.
-- U.S. Bishops, Economic Justice for All, 1986 [# 188]
2. Economic Development
Economic Development grants are intended to assist organized groups of people who are underprivileged and low-income in developing economic opportunities within their communities. Grants are awarded to community-based initiatives that are geared toward creating jobs and asset ownership for households and the boarder community.
Five different types of Economic Development 'Institutions' exist. We welcome you to visit the national Catholic Campaign for Human Development site to read and learn more about these institutions.
Local Grants: Twenty-five percent of the monies received from the Richmond diocese during the annual CCHD collection are awarded in the form of local grants of up to $7,500. These grants provide seed money to specific projects that are planned, organized and implemented by grass roots organizations. At least half of the project's beneficiaries must be from a low-income community. The project must work to develop low-income leaders from that community and strive to bring about institutional change by attacking the basic social, economic and political causes of poverty.
Download Cover Page for 2010 Local Grant Application (Word)
Download 2010 Local Grant Application (Word)
Download Interim Report Form 2010 (Word)
Youth Grants: Youth grants are specifically designated for Diocesan parish, Catholic school youth groups, and Catholic campus ministry groups who seek to fight poverty within the United States. The three main purposes of these grants are to encourage youth participation in education, advocacy and community organizing centered on the work of justice. Below are past projects which were funded through CCHD youth grants:
- A death penalty awareness weekend where parishioners signed a petition to the governor, urging him to suspend all executions.
- Conduct an educational campaign on poverty/hunger CRS, by hosting a Food Fast and reflecting on the causes of hunger in your community and world.
- Organization of a youth delegation to Catholic Advocacy Day at the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond.
Download 2010 Youth Grant Application (Word)
Download Youth Grant Brochure (Word)
If you are interested in applying for a CCHD national grant please follow the link below to read the criteria and take the eligibility quiz.