By Rita McInerney

Five local organizations helping low-income or minority people are recipients of 1988 grants from the Campaign for Human Development (CHD)

The campaign is funded by an annual national collection. It will be taken up Nov. 26 and 27 in the archdiocese of Atlanta. Three-quarters of the amount received is used for national grants, while one-quarter remains at the local level to support self-help ventures. Last year, Catholics in the archdiocese contributed $56,240.90.

The theme for the campaign is "If You Want Peace, Work For Justice."

The CHD is the U.S. Catholic Bishops' education-action program to combat poverty in the U.S. It is the largest national funding program for self-help projects for the poor and low-income groups aimed at social change, and one of the nation's largest funding programs of low-income, worker-owned and managed business ventures.

Archbishop John L. May, of St. Louis, MO, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, is national chairman of the CHD.

The local allocations, made through Catholic Social Services of the archdiocese, were announced by Pam Buckmaster, assistant director.

Capitol View Manor Community Group received $4,000 to form a community development corporation to rehabilitate local housing and undertake other economic development in the Capitol View and Capitol View Manor neighborhoods of Atlanta. The neighborhoods are bounded by the Atlanta and West Point Railway, Sylvan Avenue, the South Expressway (I-75, 85) and Perkerson Park and Atlanta Area Tech.

The neighborhoods seek to acquire and rehabilitate deteriorated rental properties and resell them to low- and moderate-income families and to provide home rehabilitation loans to help current homeowners, especially elderly homeowners, maintain their property.

Campaign for Human Development funds have enabled the neighborhood group to incorporate, obtain tax-exempt status, organize and train a board of directors, and do a neighborhood needs survey.

A grant of $4,000 was also awarded to the Southeastern Reinvestment Ventures, Inc. (SERV). This community loan fund was created to provide capital to community-based organizations, low-income or minority, located in North and South Caroline and Georgia. SERV, based at 159 Ralph McGill Blvd. in Atlanta, provides a new source of capital to grass roots groups whereby investors can direct their investments toward low-income community groups and minorities in need of capital. It makes loans to housing and business development organizations and social service agencies.

The Midtown Ecumenical Emergency Assistance Center (MEEAC) received a grant of $3,500. Under the guidance of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, concerned clergy from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, All Saints Episcopal, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, St. Luke's Episcopal, and St. Mark United Methodist joined together in this outreach ministry in March, 1986. It is based at 654 Spring Street, Atlanta.

Volunteers and staff provide financial assistance for rent, utilities, medical needs, transportation and other emergencies, and food from a well-stocked pantry. The group works closely with public agencies and other help centers in filling the needs many people have for counseling, referring and advocacy. Assistance is provided clients in following up applications for food stamps, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, general assistance, Social Security benefits, Medicaid, and veteran's disability benefits.

Two groups received grants of $1,090 each. The Georgia Housing Coalition has as its goal improving housing and living conditions for low- and moderate-income Georgians. Through advocacy and education the coalition seeks to initiate and support community self-help efforts in housing, to increase communication among those concerned with low-income housing needs, encourage national and state support of programs that provide low-and moderate-income housing, and to increase awareness of such housing needs.

Project ADAM Community Assistance Center, Inc., in Winder, GA, was established in 1980 by a group of ministers who were trained in alcohol and drug abuse prevention, early identification, intervention and referral by the Early Warning Project of the Northeast Georgia Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center.

The project was begun after federal funding cuts removed all such rehab programs from the rural Barrow County area. It has expanded its services to include a 14-bed residential recovery center. The live-in center offers a family-like atmosphere where men and women residents, with help from a trained staff, work to overcome the problems that led to drug and alcohol abuse.

The CHD awarded $6.9 million in 1988 grants to 220 self-help projects across the country, according to the announcement made by Archbishop May early in October. This year's allocations bring to approximately $115 million the amount the campaign has given to more than 2,500 anti-poverty projects since its inception in 1970.

The campaign, said Archbishop May, is a "powerful means to build solidarity in this country." He called it "a concrete expression of the church exercising a preferential option for and with the poor."