Goals

CCHD BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS OF SOLIDARITY BETWEEN THE PRIVILEGED AND THE EMPOWERED POOR

The Campaign has two mandates:

• To support self-sufficiency and self-determination among people who are disadvantaged
• To educate the privileged about poverty conditions

CCHD INVITES MARGINALIZED PEOPLE TO ENTER THE CIRCLES OF EXCHANGE IN OUR COMMUNITIES

We are called to ensure a place for all of humanity at the table of the family of God.

CCHD ENABLES DISADVANTAGED GROUPS TO GAIN ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND POLITICAL POWER

Poverty impedes the ability to influence the decisions that impact one's life. The Campaign funds programs that foster human dignity and enable the disadvantaged to take control of their own lives.

Priorities

Start-ups: Priority is given to emerging projects or organizations in their early years of development.

Participation: Priority is given to groups and parishes that can work and will collaborate with the local CCHD Committee to promote and educate people about the Campaign, and involve local parishes in their efforts when appropriate.

General Criteria

1. Benefits the disadvantaged. At least 50% of those benefiting from the project must be from a low-income community. Applicants must describe the criteria used to define low-income persons.

2. Disadvantaged group has decision-making authority. Members of the low-income group must have the dominant voice in setting the goals, priorities, direction, and policies of the project. The goal is to have at least 50% of a Community Development Program (or 33% of an Social Enterprise Project) of those who plan and implement policy (i.e., the Board of Directors) be persons who are involuntarily poor.

3. Organizational capacity and leadership development. Organizations must demonstrate an intent to develop 1) adequate staff and 2) a sufficient level of skill and motivation to bring about the desired change. Applicants must describe their strategy for building the organizational capacity needed to effect lasting change, and demonstrate how they will recruit and train new leadership.

4. Enable institutional change. Projects must seek to bring about institutional change by altering the basic social, political, legal, and economic arrangements and policies that cause powerlessness and poverty, and by rectifying injustices imposed on the disadvantaged by government, corporations, or other institutions. Education and/or advocacy on behalf of the disadvantaged, and organizations or projects that are engaged in partisan political activity, do not meet these criteria.

5. Promote Justice: Social and Economic Responsibility. Social Enterprises and Community-Development Initiatives must be community-based and socially responsible. SE's should begin building assets or ensure living wage jobs for people living in poverty, provide meaningful work, promote worker participation, ownership, and management, and protect the dignity and rights of workers.