Poverty awareness campaign highlights solutions

Published: 2006-01-12

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In its sixth annual observance of Poverty in America Awareness Month in January, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been focusing on poor and low-income people who are doing something to break the cycle of poverty. This year's awareness campaign of television, radio and print public service advertisements highlights children in Los Angeles protected from street violence by a group of volunteers; a group of family dairy farmers in Wisconsin who started their own cooperative to pool production and get a better price for their milk; and young people in New Orleans who are learning skills in the food industry to find better jobs. The CCHD campaign hopes to call attention to the 37 million Americans who, according to the most recent U.S. census figures, are now living in poverty. The poverty rate rose from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004, representing 1.1 million more poor people. This is the fourth year in a row that the poverty rate in America has risen.

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