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Catholic Charities USA Launches Campaign to Reduce Poverty in
America
Throughout the year, the Alliance for Children and Families will
promote programs, ideas, and activities sponsored by national
organizations that support the core values inherent in National
Family Week (NFW). These organizations reinforce the NFW objective
to strengthen children and families, especially those who are
vulnerable.
Catholic Charities USA earlier this month announced a new multi-year
initiative to cut poverty in half by 2020, urging Congress and the
Administration to give a much higher priority to the needs of the
poor in budget and policy decisions on issues such as health care,
housing, nutrition, and economic security.
“Poverty is a moral and social wound on the soul of our country and
threatens the health and economic well-being of both families and
our nation,” Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA,
said at a briefing this morning on Capitol Hill. “We must marshal
the strength and the collective will of our nation to take on this
tragedy that affects 37 million people who are living in poverty in
one of the wealthiest nations in the world.”
“The Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America is about who we are as a
nation,” Father Snyder said. “We must no longer ignore the injustice
of poverty and the extreme inequality in America and instead must
seize this opportunity to advocate for changes that promote human
dignity and the common good.”
The goal of
Campaign to
Reduce Poverty in America is to cut the poverty rate in the
United States in half by 2020. Catholic Charities USA is leading a
broad effort that will involve partners in social service agencies,
the faith community, and other groups in a sustained effort to
convince government officials of the importance of making systemic
changes in government programs to help the poor and most vulnerable
in our society. Last year, the Boys & Girls Club of America
set a goal of teaching financial literacy skills to over 86,000
teenagers across the country. Teens have already commented that the
program has influenced them to become more careful and responsible
with money, open and start a savings account and learn how to
budget.
Specific
policy areas of focus for Congressional action as part of the Campaign to
Reduce Poverty include the following:
HEALTH CARE
- Provide adequate funding for health care
for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
- Maintain the integrity and strength of
the Medicaid program.
- Remove new restrictions to Medicaid that
create barriers for low-income families.
- Provide adequate funding for the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) program to expand coverage
for all eligible children.
- Reform SCHIP to make it easier for
eligible children to apply.
- Support policies that provide integrated
mental health and substance abuse treatment.
HOUSING
- Provide adequate funding for federally
subsidized housing programs.
- Support and strengthen programs aimed at
increasing homeownership.
- Establish a National Housing Trust Fund.
- Support comprehensive reform of the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program.
HUNGER AND NUTRITION
- Strengthen the Food Stamp Program to
better assist the working poor and the elderly.
- Protect funding for critical food
programs that serve low-income families, including the
- Commodity Supplemental Food Program and
the Community Food and Nutrition Program.
- Ensure that federal nutrition programs
meet the unique needs of rural families.
FAMILY ECONOMIC SECURITY
- Increase the minimum wage and ensure
that it is automatically increased to keep pace with inflation.
- Improve the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) program to benefit more families.
- Promote policies that support and
strengthen families, including low-income fathers.
- Expand employment and training
opportunities for low-income workers.
- Improve the protection and care of
abused, neglected, and abandoned children and youth.
- Provide adequate funding for the Child
Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).
- Ensure access to quality early education
for all children.
- Improve the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) to be more inclusive for more workers.
- Preserve funding for the Social Services
Block Grant (SSBG).
- Support comprehensive immigration reform
that protects vulnerable families.
Key components of the campaign will include
sustained and comprehensive outreach to the Administration and Congress as
well as activities in local communities throughout the country on the need
for action to reduce poverty.
Catholic Charities USA’s members—more than
1,700 local agencies and institutions nationwide—provide help and create
hope for more than 7.1 million people a year regardless of religious,
social, or economic backgrounds. For more than 275 years, local Catholic
Charities agencies have been providing a myriad of vital services in their
communities, ranging from day care and counseling to food and housing. For
more information, visit
www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
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