cchd-annual-report

and the United States, provides direct assistance to and advocacy for immigrants in Michigan, while also educating parishioners about Catholic social teaching. Operating through Circles of Support in parishes and Catholic high schools, the program began in 2017 in the Archdiocese of Detroit, quickly spread to the Diocese of Lansing, and is expanding to other Michigan dioceses. In addition to accompanying immigrants to court and providing transportation, translation, and other services, the Circles of Support urge government officials to promote humane immigration policies. They also advocate for individuals and families threatened with deportation. In one case, they obtained legal representation for a Guatemalan mother and her three children, held large public prayer services for them, rallied outside the local US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, and persuaded three US representatives and one US senator to contact ICE on the family’s behalf. The deportation was halted. BARGAINING FOR THE COMMON GOOD The right of workers to organize for fair wages has been part of Catholic social teaching for nearly as long as unions have existed. Unions were affirmed first by Pope Leo XXIII, in 1891, and most famously by Pope John Paul II about a century later, when his support for the Solidarity labor union in Poland helped bring down the Soviet Union. CCHD continues this tradition with its support of Bargaining for the Common Good, a program based at Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working

Poor. It supports collective bargaining with a focus on benefiting both individual workers and the communities where they work. Launched just as COVID-19 struck in 2020, Bargaining for the Common Good has helped local organizations across the nation to advocate for fair and just pandemic assistance. This support includes sponsoring in-depth research on how the pandemic has affected housing, health care, incomes, and the environment. Bargaining for the Common Good partners with hundreds of local unions and community organizations across the country to help workers, their families, and their neighbors improve their lives. KC CAN COMPOST In Kansas City, Missouri, a nonprofit business grew out of an evangelical rescue mission for the homeless by turning literal trash into treasure. Workers who were formerly unhoused collect and compost food waste from businesses, institutions, and homes, turning it into fertilizer. Those who have gained work skills and living-wage employment through KC Can Compost include former prisoners, people who have lived on the street for long periods, and victims of human trafficking. Not only do they support themselves and help the environment, but KC Can Compost income also supports Shelter KC, the rescue mission where it started. CCHD’s grant assistance included working capital to maintain cash flow during the nonprofit’s rapid expansion and the funding to pay a coordinator of job training and internships.