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Yesterday, our Catholic Charities USA staff ignored our emails, let our calls go to voicemail and put on t-shirts. We went to the Franklin School Shelter operated by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC . In a one day sweep we scrubbed, painted and washed to help them get ready to bring in mental health services and to make the place a little brighter for the 300 men who use the shelter each night. Check out the pictures below:
We ask all people of good will to Endorse the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America, but what does that mean?
By endorsing the Campaign you are making the statement that you agree with the Campaign goals, in essence you want to reduce poverty in America, and that you are going to take action.
Once you've endorsed the Campaign, and provided an email address, you'll receive alerts that show you different ways you can ACT to make that commitment to reducing poverty a REALITY! We also post actions on this site and local Catholic Charities also are taking steps in their communities that allow you to participate.
As an endorser, you have another key role- You can share your commitment with all those you know. You can forward emails, request flyers and take them with you to your house of worship, your school, your family dinners. You can post your thoughts and ideas on the blog. Join the myspace page, show the video to a friend.....there are so many ways to share and involve others... What are YOU going to do?
People ARE making a difference. We heard from NY, OH, IN, ID, MO, MN and OK agencies participating in the Campaign on a conference call. The purpose of our conference call was to share ideas, ask questions and hear from each other. We promised to give you the links for some of the resources and tools mentioned so, here they are:
Field Events from CCUSA: Download CCUSAFieldEvents.doc
Implementation Plans
Homeletic Talking Points
Latest version of Koinonia, the PSM Newsletter
What Call are you talking about? If you'd like to be included on future conference calls about the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America, or you have great ideas you want to share submit a comment and let us know or Contact us at Poverty(at)Catholiccharitiesusa.org
Do you know what the "livable wage" is in your community?
Check out this tool, part of the Livable wage project at Penn State. It allows you to search by state and municipality. From the website:
In many American communities, families working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to live locally given the local cost of living. Recently, in a number of high-cost communities, community organizers and citizens have successfully argued that the prevailing wage offered by the public sector and key businesses should reflect a wage rate required to meet minimum standards of living. Therefore we have developed a living wage calculator to estimate the cost of living in your community or region. The Calculator lists typical expenses, the living wage and typical wages in the location you have selected.
How are the kids in your state faring when it comes to Poverty? Do you know where to go to find out?
The Annie E. Casey foundation recently released Kids Count " KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the U.S. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children"
