Below are Catholic resources that can be used to help provide you with information and support as you advocate with and on behalf of the poor.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Catholic Social Teaching - The Resources on this web site are numerous and helpful when planning advocacy from a Catholic perspective. A few highlights include:
Foundational Catholic Social Teaching Documents
Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching
Ohio Catholic Conference - The Conference represents the Church's position before the Ohio General Assembly, various state departments, bureaus, agencies and other organizations. The Conference also provides facilitation, coordination and joint programming for diocesan groups involved in various Church ministries (from the Ohio Catholic Conference web site).
Office for Social Concerns (Columbus, OH Diocese) - The Office for Social Concerns serves as a central diocesan resource for social justice education and advocacy.
FAMVIN - The Vincentian Family, the heritage of Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Frederic Ozanam, Elizabeth Seton and so many others seeks to coordinate its efforts to collaborate for systemic change (from: http://famvin.org/about/the-family/).
Systemic Change Toolkit - documents about systemic change are uploaded in "Box" for you to use as an aid to understand systems thinking, systemic change
Systemic Change Archive - every article that FAMVIN has ever published
Systemic Change Resources - including a Concepts of Systemic Change mini-course.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development - The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, working to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ "... to bring good news to the poor ... release to captives ... sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free." (Luke 4:18) (From the PovertyUSA web site).
PovertyUSA - PovertyUSA is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. An initiative of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), PovertyUSA seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty and its root causes (from the PovertyUSA web site).
NETWORK - NETWORK, a Catholic leader in the global movement for justice and peace, educates, organizes and lobbies for economic and social transformation (from the NETWORK web site).
Advocacy Toolbox - The Gospel and social teachings of our Church call us to work to transform systems and structures which create injustice. Justice, as well as charity, is needed. At NETWORK, we work for justice through advocacy (from NETWORK website). Resources for education, organization and lobbying are included.
Mind the Gap - about the growing wealth gap over the past 40 years along with an exploration of possible solutions.
We the Taxpayers: An Interfaith Conversation on how we Share our Nation's Wealth
A Faithful Budget - an interfaith document put together by 36 different faith organizations. It was first created in the summer of 2011 out of a common sense of urgency surrounding the need to protect social safety-net programs that serve and protect those who live at the margins of society. It reflects our vision of federal budget priorities rooted in the twin values of compassion and fairness.