Poverty awareness campaign highlights solutions

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In its sixth annual observance of Poverty in America Awareness Month in January, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been focusing on poor and low-income people who are doing something to break the cycle of poverty.

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By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In its sixth annual observance of Poverty in America Awareness Month in January, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been focusing on poor and low-income people who are doing something to break the cycle of poverty. This year's awareness campaign of television, radio and print public service advertisements highlights children in Los Angeles protected from street violence by a group of volunteers; a group of family dairy farmers in Wisconsin who started their own cooperative to pool production and get a better price for their milk; and young people in New Orleans who are learning skills in the food industry to find better jobs. The CCHD campaign hopes to call attention to the 37 million Americans who, according to the most recent U.S. census figures, are now living in poverty. The poverty rate rose from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004, representing 1.1 million more poor people. This is the fourth year in a row that the poverty rate in America has risen. According to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau last August, the number of families in poverty increased from 10 percent and 7.6 million in 2003 to 10.2 percent and 7.8 million in 2004. The work of CCHD, according to its executive director, Timothy Collins, is not only to "raise awareness of the alarming incidence of poverty in the United States" but to also tell success stories. All the groups featured in this year's advertisements are community-based, self-help projects funded by CCHD grants. Since its inception, CCHD has provided seed money to train community leaders for projects initiated and led by low-income people. Over the years it has provided $280 million to more than 4,000 such projects. This year it is supporting 315 local projects. END 01/12/2006 4:13 PM ET Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops