CCHD awards $552,500 in grants

Each year, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development awards grants to projects aimed at changing the structures that perpetuate poverty in our society. Some grants are awarded locally and are paid for with money collected in the archdiocese; others are awarded by the national CCHD office. Grants usually can be given to the same project for three years in a row.
Following are descriptions of the projects that received their grants from Cardinal George Sept. 12:

LOCAL GRANTEES

Restaurant Opportunities Center
First year: $20,000
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago is a multiracial membership-based organization that is dedicated to raising standards within the restaurant industry.

Catholic Charities
Second year: $20,000
Loom is a social enterprise made up of refugee women who produce handmade products designed in collaboration with local Chicago to provide for their families.

United Power for Action and Justice
Second year: $20,000
United Power for Action and Justice’s campaign generates much-needed housing for people with disabilities by identifying local housing needs, shaping strong proposals, mapping out the path to funding and approval and running campaigns to move the proposals from drawing board to the grand opening in four distinct geographic areas of the region.

Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education
Second year: $20,000
Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education’s Pastoral Migratoria engages over 200 Hispanic lay leaders in 40 parishes to develop justice and service activities to respond to the needs of their parish communities.

St. Pius V Parish
Third year: $20,000
St. Pius V Parish creates greater awareness about domestic violence, develops ministries and strengthens a network of churches to assist victims and their children.

Interfaith Leadership Project
Third year: $15,000
Interfaith Leadership Project is an institution-based community organization founded for Cicero, Berwyn and Stickney to address poor quality education and overcrowding, gangs and lack of political accountability from local government.

ONE Northside
Third year: $15,000
ONE Northside’s Affordable Housing Preservation and Creation project seeks to preserve affordable housing that exists, develop opportunities for the creation of new affordable units and implement strong policy changes to support and ensure affordability for the future.

Parenting for Non-Violence
Second year: $15,000
Parenting for Non-Violence’s mission is to educate, support and empower parents to raise their children in emotionally healthy ways so that their children can thrive personally, socially and academically.

Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation
First year: $15,000
SOUL is a faith and community based social justice organization on the South Side and in the South suburbs dedicated to the belief that all people should have decent, affordable housing; access to healthy, nutritious food in every neighborhood; a clean environment so children will be able to breathe the air and drink the water; public transit that allows job opportunities; a full employment economy so everyone has the opportunity to work; and living wages so people who work full-time do not remain poor.

Southside Together Organizing for Power
First year: $10,000
Southside Together Organizing for Power’s Mental Health Movement supports leadership development and organizing to preserve and expand public mental health services, erase the stigma of mental illness and build the movement for the human right to healthcare.

Most Blessed Trinity Parish
Second year: $10,000
Most Blessed Trinity Parish is heavily invested in comprehensive immigration reform by developing leaders through pathways for citizenship, offering open enrollment adult classes in English, GED preparation, computer literacy and Spanish language literacy.

Blocks Together
First year: $10,000
Blocks Together’s mission is to build a grassroots community infrastructure, governed from the bottom up, which provides the resources, leadership development and sustained and focused efforts to achieve widespread improvements for the community and to advance economic and social justice in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Alliance of the Southeast
Second year: $10,000
Development Not Displacement is a campaign that seeks to bring opportunities back into the communities of Southeast Chicago coordinating a written agreement with Lakeside Development to prioritize jobs, training education opportunities for local families; support tax relief for longtime residents; and offer affordable hous-ing and environmental protections.

St. Agnes of Bohemia Parish
Second year: $5,000
Imago Dei is an arts-intervention, violence-prevention program that seeks to help at-risk youth in Little Village through mentoring, art and faith and transform them into agents of change for the community.

Greenlight Movement
First year: $5,000
The Green Light Movement was formed to drive youth ages 10 through 24 to achieve success through non-violence, mentoring, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, music, art and community service.

St. Eulalia Parish
First year: $5,000
Mujeres Unidas (Women United) was started by St. Eulalia Parish and focuses on addressing the issue of unemployed women in the community and the effects unemployment has on them (stress, depression, anxiety, self esteem). The purpose of Mujeres Unidas is to build upon the talents of the program participants to create self-sufficient, women-owned co-operatives in the food service industry.

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NATIONAL GRANTEES

IIRON
First year: $35,000
IIRON organizes to help ordinary people, particularly those with low-incomes, become powerful leaders who will act collectively, hold elected officials and corporations accountable and work to create a more just economy.

Jane Addams Senior Caucus
First year: $37,500
Jane Addams Senior Caucus is a multiracial, grassroots organization led by concerned seniors in the Chicago metropolitan area who use the power of their collective voice to work for economic, social and racial justice for all seniors and communities.

Latino Union
Sixth year: $65,000
Latino Union collaborates with low-income immigrant and U.S. born workers to develop the necessary tools to collectively improve social and economic conditions.

Lake County Center for Independent Living
Fourth year: $35,000
Lake County Center for Independent Living is working to promote access to health care, affordable and accessible housing for low-income residents and people with disabilities and pushing Lake County to preserve and rebuild its nursing home for low-income seniors.

Pilsen Neighbors Community Council
First year: $35,000
The Parish Peace Project, a collaboration between 15 parishes and the Young Adult Ministry Office, responds by connecting ministry, restorative justice and community organizing to create new support services including counseling for youth and to develop mental health services for the undocumented.

Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation
First year: $25,000
Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation is dedicated to creating a restorative justice model that can be replicated in areas where violence persists as a way to engage the community in peace. PBMR also assists young people in learning job skills, urban farming, self-awareness and leadership skills.

Progress Center for Independent Living
Sixth year: $65,000
Progress Center’s mission is to build a society in which people with disabilities have the same freedoms, rights and civil liberties as everyone else.

St. Pius V Parish
Technical Assistance Grant: $10,000

Waukegan to College
Second year: $30,000
Waukegan to College helps low-income families, many who are Latino immigrants, prepare for, enroll in and graduate from college. W2C also works to organize these families to push for better educational opportunities in the Waukegan area by holding their school board and superintendent accountable.