The mission of CCHD is made possible by the generous support of Catholics in the United States, especially through an annual collection taken up in most parishes the Sunday before Thanksgiving. From this collection, 25% of the collection remains in the diocese, while the remaining 75% is collected by the USCCB to distribute for larger national funding opportunities from which Missouri agencies and organizations that address the systemic root of poverty can also apply.

The mission of the 25% of the collection that remains in the diocese is now designed to support community-based initiatives that are strongly engaged by the local Catholic parish to solve community-wide problems. The grant funds will financially assist parish ministries that will empower the poor to make ongoing life changes to become more self-sufficient in meeting his or her basic human needs. Therefore, the parish CCHD grant is designed to fund ministries that make transformational changes for those they serve and not just increasing the ministry’s capacity to assist more people through direct assistance (if this is a need for your ministry, please contact Parish Social Ministry about our Charity and Mercy Grant). A sample of ministry examples include:

• a financial literacy program for those receiving emergency financial assistance from the parish
• implementing a weatherization program coupled with a training session on heating tips
• creating a cooking class or book for clients attending the parish’s food pantry
• starting a career center to help those living on the margins with writing resumes, how to interview and assist with job searches.

The 2019 collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development was the weekend of November 23-24. If you'd like to see more information about that collection, you can view a bulletin announcement or bulletin insert.

For ministries interested in applying for these funds, application and moral conduct forms are due in February.  For more details about this funding opportunity please see the criteria guideline, or email info@cccnmo.org or call 573-635-7719.

The national funding opportunities are overseen by Dan Lester, who serves as the diocesan director for CCHD. Dan can be reached at 635-7719 or dlester@cccnmo.org.  More information may be obtained at www.usccb.org/cchd/grants.