KIDS COUNT: new data available
Check out the new KIDS COUNT resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Check out the new KIDS COUNT resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation
March 19th Catholic Charities USA hosted a webinar on the Economic Stimulus with Amelia Dalton from the IRS. In case you missed it, you can watch the webinar by clicking here
Did you reply to the last action alerts? Are you engaging your colleagues in the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America? What about other members of your community?
Did you get funding for Campaign events? Do you have a great idea about how to get more people involved?
If you answered yes to any of these questions or you have others of your own, join us on a conference call to discuss the Campaign
Thursday, October 11th at 2pm Eastern
Click here to request the Call in information.
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.
Watch the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America Video
This six minute introduction can be downloaded to show to others interested in working for the common good.
37 million people in this country live in poverty; thats an astounding and quite large number. How can you get others in your community to care and then act to reduce poverty when the problem seems so large?
Try localizing the information- what is it like to be poor in YOUR community? Who are those who are most affected? What actions can you do locally to help the poor?
Paint the picture for others by using resources about poverty in your community. Find out how your state ranks in terms of poverty by using the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's Poverty Map (http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/map.htm)
Use statistics from your agency or an agency in your community that serves the poor. Talk about how many people request assistance from food banks, health care clinics, homeless shelters, social service providers in YOUR city.
Take the tools that CCUSA has provided through the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America and tailor them your community so that more people feel called to ACT!
Do you have the next great idea? Share your great ideas with others by posting them on this blog!
For more tips on writing letters to the editor and working with the media, check out our new advocacy manual, Taking Action, Catholic Charities USA’s Guide to Effective Advocacy.
Everyone at your parish refers to the parish bulletin as a source of important issues and events on a local level. We have developed text for a bulletin item or to be printed as a bulletin insert.
Use this bulletin item to show your support of the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America and encourage your local community to get involved.
CCUSA also has brochures available for your parish vestibule. Email Poverty@CatholicCharitiesUSA.org for materials.
