US Bishops launch websites to help Catholics address poverty

Source: USCCB

Nearly 41 million people live in poverty in the United States, including 15 million children. The poverty threshold is $24,600 (about £16,000) per annum for a family of four and $12,200 (about £8,000) per annum for a single person. Today, the last day of Poverty Awareness Month, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has launched two mobile-friendly websites in Spanish and English, which offer tools and resources to help Catholics put faith in action by working to address poverty.

Resources include an interactive map with state and county level poverty statistics, learning activities about poverty, prayer materials, and multimedia. The sites also feature stories of hope about how communities are working to address poverty locally, and an interactive map to find community organizations funded by the US bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

The sites are: www.PovertyUSA.org and its Spanish mirror site: www.PobrezaUSA.org

"As disciples of Christ, we are invited to encounter those in our communities who experience poverty," said Bishop David P Talley of Alexandria, chair of the CCHD Subcommittee of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

"Poverty in the United States is a reality. We must work together to put faith in action to work towards policies in our local communities, and nationally, that can help address it."

US Catholics can also join the conversation about poverty in communities on social media at: www.facebook.com/povertyusa and
https://twitter.com/endpovertyusa

PovertyUSA.org and PobrezaUSA.org are an initiative of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the domestic anti-poverty program of the USCCB that works to break the cycle of poverty by helping low-income people participate in decisions that affect their lives, families and communities, and by helping Catholics encounter, learn and act to address the causes of poverty.