By Gretchen Keiser

A model program to help children from violent homes is one of four proposals which will be aided by money collected in last year’s archdiocesan Campaign for Human Development drive.

The Children’s Program developed at the Atlanta shelter of the Council on Battered Women combines counseling and activities for children who have suffered emotional and physical abuse. The therapeutic program for children who are staying at the shelter is aimed at breaking the cycle of violence, and helping children find non-violent ways to cope with problems.

The success of the program has prompted the Council to plan development of a training manual to be shared with other shelters for battered women opening around the state of Georgia. The Council was awarded $700 by the Allocations Committee of the Campaign for Human Development to prepare, print and promote the manual.

Three other projects, one proposed by Rural Social Services, another by Interfaith, Inc. and a third by Citizens in Action of Hartwell, were also awarded seed money from the Campaign for Human Development. The four awards totaled $8,569.

The money is one-quarter of the approximately $36,000 collected in the archdiocese last fall for the Campaign for Human Development. Three-quarters of the collection goes to the national CHD office for distribution to projects around the country.

Last year’s collection was the largest in the archdiocese’s history with CHD, due in great part to the work of pastors and parishes who promoted information about the campaign and its work, said Steve Brazen, executive assistant in the office of Catholic Social Services. The CHD is the Church’s major effort nationally to address the causes of poverty in the United States. CHD money is supposed to support grass-roots efforts to change cycles of poverty and injustice.

The Allocations Committee in the Archdiocese, composed of volunteers, met several times in recent months to review proposals from seven groups applying for funds. The money was distributed June 1 to the four applicants chosen.

The three projects chosen for funding, in addition to the Council on Battered Women’s proposal, received three-quarters of the amount of funding requested for their proposals.

Catholic Rural Social Services in Cumming received $2,584 to support part of the cost of a manager of a woodshop at The Place. The manager will coordinate the work of a group of men who are producing woodcrafts, winterizing homes for the elderly and maintaining The Place. The woodshop is a recent addition at The Place, which provides space for local residents to learn crafts and make and market products.

Interfaith, Inc. was awarded $2,332 toward the cost of staffing a recreation program this summer at the Capital Vanira, Boynton Village and McLendon Gardens Apartments in Atlanta.

Citizens in Action in Hartwell was awarded $2,953 to monitor a Community Development Block Grant Program in Hartwell. The monitoring will ensure that the housing rehabilitation block grant is administered correctly and that low-income residents, who are supposed to benefit from the housing funds, are aware of the program, educated about the uses of funds and involved in the rehabilitation program.

The criteria used to choose CHD recipients include service to the poor and special support for projects that need seed money and expect to become self-sustaining in the near future or need a one-time grant for a project. The Children’s Program is a one-time funding need and the other three expect to become self-sustaining projects in the future.

A gratifying aspect to the Allocations Committee this year was that half of the money is going to projects in rural areas of Georgia, Steve Brazen said.

The response to the drive last year was especially gratifying, he said and “points to the concern of parishes for the kinds of programs that enable people and communities to get on their own feet.” Campaign funds don’t provide “the whole solution” to problems, but they get programs started, he said.