At the annual May meeting of the board of directors of the Department of Catholic Social Services, the board of directors allocated funds amounting to $3,300 towards rural needs and child day care assistance with the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

A year ago, the Department offered a grant of $2,500 to be used to assist the poverty areas of North Georgia.

The grant was administered by the Ninth District Opportunity, Inc. of Gainesville, GA, a community action agency serving 16 counties of Northeast Georgia including Stephens, Banks, Franklin, Hart, Towns, Rabun, Habersham, White, Fannin, Union, Lumpkin, Gilmer, Pickens, Dawson, and Forsyth counties.

The total population of the area is approximately 184,000 with at least 45 percent of the people living in poverty.

The grant was distributed to seven counties ordinarily through the VISTA volunteers working in that specific county.

Catholic Social Services feels the importance of the work being done in these rural areas. Thus this year a grant of $1,200 was offered to the Northeast rural area to assist in the establishing of a North Georgia Mountains Legal Aid Society and seed money for a North Georgia Consumer Co-Op Project.

The department’s board is also presently considering the need to establish a Rural Affairs Office to assist the Church and the communities in the rural need areas of the archdiocese.

An allocation of $2,100 was granted to St. Vincent de Paul Particular Council to be used as seed money in its attempt to open a day care center in the Bedford Pine Area of Atlanta.

Money from the department and from the Society would be used as seed money to be matched by the federal government in opening a Day Care Center to serve some 50 children of the Bedford Pine area.