For more than fifty years, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has supported organizations that combat poverty and improve the lives of people in communities across the United States. As the U.S. bishops’ domestic anti-poverty initiative, organizations supported by CCHD help expand access to affordable housing and education, develop worker-owned businesses, train neighborhood advocates, and empower essential workers to advocate for workplace safety. The goal of the CCHD is to help people who are poor or disadvantaged develop the skills and create the opportunities necessary to make a living and to build stronger families and stronger neighborhoods as they do so.

When Catholics give to the annual CCHD collection, they are supporting the bishops’ call to fraternity, social friendship, and solidarity that Pope Francis presents in his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. Parishioners are invited to be part of this mission by supporting the collection at Mass, or through parish online giving platforms. #iGiveCatholicTogether also accepts funds in support of CCHD.

The collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which most parishes will take up on the weekend of November 20-21, supports grassroots-level organizations that equip poor and marginalized people to access education and job training, raise families in safe neighborhoods, and exercise community leadership. A quarter of all gifts given to diocesan collections for CCHD remains in the diocese to support local anti-poverty initiatives.

“In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis writes that ‘when the good of others is at stake, good intentions are not enough.’ That same vision has inspired the Catholic Campaign for Human Development for more than a half-century. CCHD is about helping those who are poor, marginalized, or wounded to achieve their dreams,” said Bishop David G. O’Connell, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. “The work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development helps people help themselves at the local community level through advocacy, engagement with their neighbors, and cooperation with local religious and government leaders. CCHD empowers those in poor communities to make a living and to create change that builds stronger neighborhoods and healthier communities.”

More information on the history and impact of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development can be found at www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-campaign-human-development. Easy-to-use promotional resources are available at www.usccb.org/cchd/collection. Find more information on poverty, including fact sheets and stories about how gifts to this collection have changed people’s lives in the United States, at www.povertyusa.org.