Faith Works

Please Join Us in Making our Schools Safer

2009-05-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

Violence, and especially bullying, is too common on middle and high school campuses in Oceanside. Our youth want to change that. We need a strong partnership of students, parents, and school officials that reawakens the vision for harmonious schools and devises strategies aimed at the causes of violence and bullying.

Several Oceanside churches and our parish are hosting a meeting with principals from Oceanside’s middle and high schools. Our youth and parents will share their perspective on the problem and we will forge a partnership with the principals to make changes for the upcoming school year.

Youth, parents of youth, and all who care about youth, please join us:

Monday, June 1
6:45 PM till 8:30 PM
Serra Center
Sponsored by the parish Faith Works Ministry

Churches reaching out when times are hard

2009-04-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

The UT did a story on our work at St. Patrick's. The link is below.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/04/1mc4faith212136-churches-reaching-out-when-times-a/?zIndex=77376

Peter

Peter Hasapopoulos
Executive Director
Faith Works
1785 S. Escondido Boulevard, Suite B
Escondido, CA 92025
760.745.1630

Affiliated with the PICO National Network
www.piconetwork.org

Faith Works Receives Grant

2009-02-07T15:22:00.001-08:00

Dear Annual Campaign Volunteers,

The Bravo Foundation committed $10,000 to support our Lift Every Voice for Youth initiatives in Fallbrook and Oceanside. I had only gone to visit the foundation CEO to nurture our relationship because they have awarded us grants in previous years. However, he was so moved by the work we are doing for youth that he OFFERED to grant us $10,000.

So keep in mind that we have a powerful story to tell prospective donors. Tell it and we shall receive!

Peter

Children's Health Insurance Victory!

2009-02-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Clergy, Leaders, and Friends,

We are victorious on the children's health insurance expansion! Given the tremendous work of PICO over the last two years on SCHIP expansion, PICO associated volunteer leaders and clergy were invited by the Obama administration to be present when he signs the legislation. See the PICO news update below.

Peter

Peter Hasapopoulos
Executive Director
Faith Works
1785 S. Escondido Boulevard, Suite B
Escondido, CA 92025
760.745.1630

Affiliated with the PICO National Network
www.piconetwork.org

--- On Tue, 2/3/09, PICO National Network wrote:

Dear PICO staff and leaders,

Tomorrow afternoon at 3:15pm EST President Obama is expected to sign legislation that will provide health coverage to 11 million children in the United States.

MICAH-New Orleans leader Ashanti George-Paulin and her son Joshua have been invited to participate in the signing ceremony as a family that benefits from SCHIP. Rev. Wiggins, from Camden Churches Organized for People and Rev. Dr. Cummings, from Oakland Community Organizations have also been invited by the Obama Administration to represent PICO at the signing ceremony. It is all very exciting and the result of so much hard work and faith by so many. As Rev. Wiggins has reminded us often: "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay." Habakkuk 2:3

With help from Faith in Public Life PICO is holding a national press conference call at 11am EST.

We also wanted to give you a head's up that as part of our network's ongoing campaign to stop preventable foreclosures, on Thursday PICO is releasing a joint report with the Center for Responsible Lending that looks at what works in preventing foreclosures and calls on the federal officials to do more to keep at least 3 million families from losing their homes. We'll send you a copy when it is ready.

Many thanks for everyone's work on this great step forward for children and families and for our PICO network. For a reminder about how far we have come take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyRcbGME2Xs.

Best,
Gordon Whitman, PICO national staff

________________________________________

Building Hope for Youth in Oceanside

2008-08-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

Join us on Tuesday, August 19th from 6:30 to 8:30pm in the Serra Center for "Lift Every Voice for Youth II" in Oceanside. Last May, youth and adults from our churches gathered to launch this campaign, to create increased opportunities for Oceanside youth.

It was a powerful day in which youth shared the tremendous pressures they constantly face. We were so moved that we agreed that we must call upon the power of our faith to act in unison and with great purpose.

Youth, parents of youth and all who care about youth, please join us. Appetizers and beverages will be provided.

Culture of Life Rally, Thursday, March 9 2006

2008-08-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Mission San Luis Rey Parish Civic Action Ministry hosted a successful
culture of life rally last night. Fr. Peter did a wonderful faith
reflection on Catholic social teaching, and there was powerful
testimony from parishioners about waiting grueling hours in the
Tri-City emergency room, familiy members dying from smoking-related
cancer, stories of cancer and asthma from second-hand smoke, and
testimony from a woman that had an abortion when she was young
and has two daughters to think about now.

Sixty-five people attended. Seventeen volunteered to collect
signatures for the parental notification and tobacco tax initiatives,
and 8 volunteered to work on the "Insure Every Parish Child Campaign"
that begins this month.

Our Civic Action Ministry leaders did a spectacular job.

North County nonprofit seeks to improve life 8/12/05

2008-08-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

North County nonprofit seeks to improve life for local families
By: ALEXANDRA DeLUCA - For the North County Times

NORTH COUNTY ---- Five years ago, North County clergy began to notice a
worrisome trend. Members of their congregations were leaving, unable to
afford the skyrocketing price of living in the area.

Church-sponsored food lines were getting longer, full of "working poor"
families unable to make ends meet, despite holding down full-time jobs.

Alarmed by what they saw, a group of church leaders began to think of
ways to address these issues at their root and bring about systemic change. Congregations for Civic Action was born.

"Our vision is to see a just, peaceful, harmonious North County," said
the Rev. Michael Henderson, Congregations for Civic Action leader and
pastor of Shiloh Church of God in Christ in Oceanside.

Founded in 2000, the Escondido-based group is a non-partisan, nonprofit
501(c)3 organization comprising 10 churches representing 14,000
families in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Escondido, Fallbrook, Oceanside, Ramona and Vista.

Funding is provided by membership dues, individual and corporate
donations and grants from foundations. Government funding is not
accepted. The organization is a member of the Pacific Institute for
Community Organization, a national network of faith-based community
organizations working to strengthen families and improve communities.

Congregations for Civic Action is dedicated to addressing problems
critical to local families, such as lack of affordable housing, lack of
access to health care, and gang violence. The power to resolve these
problems, they say, lies within the people who are affected by them.

"We encourage people to take an active leadership role to bring about
change in their lives," said Henderson. "We're not advocates. We want
people to take steps themselves.

"People need information, inspiration, and then they need an avenue
through which to channel that," he said. "We provide the inspiration
and allow them to really take action, take responsibility and take
ownership for their community and their family."

Peter Hasapopoulos, executive director of the group, said the
organization educates ordinary citizens on how to become civic leaders,
how to navigate the system and how to be organized enough to have an effect.

"The democratic process is something we value very much," he said.
"We're about empowering people to understand the process and (to see)
that they have a right to be involved in it. We want them to see that
when we come together, we can really have a great impact."

The first time the organization put its philosophy into action was more
than four years ago in Fallbrook, when families from St. Peter's
Catholic Church were upset over the lack of sidewalks near the local
schools. With guidance from CCA, hundreds of congregation members met
with San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn during which they presented
research, testimony from children and seniors, and proposed
solutions.As a result of their efforts, the county invested more than
$1 million for sidewalk construction in the area.

"The whole parish saw they could accomplish something," said Henderson.
"They were participants, not spectators."

The success of the sidewalk issue served as a model for the
organization's subsequent efforts.

In Carlsbad, the group held a workshop to improve relations between the
police and the community, which was attended by Police Chief Zoll,
several Carlsbad police officers and hundreds of members.

In Oceanside, they successfully lobbied the city to declare an
affordable housing crisis and form a task force to address the problem.
The city council adopted all the committee's proposals and has
allocated money and land for affordable housing.

On another occasion, hundreds of members successfully lobbied the
Oceanside Police to shut down 15 known drug houses throughout the city.

Despite their successes, Congregations for Civic Action's
power-to-the-people approach is not without its detractors.

"We've been challenged at times," said Hasapopoulos. "People will ask,
'Why couldn't you just make a call to City Hall? Why did you show up
with 600 people?' What these people are missing is that these people
have become participants in change, and they have found ownership in change.
It's not just winning the issue that's important, it's how you go about
doing it."

"When 600 people met with the police department ---- you can't make a
phone call and do that," said Henderson. "That's how democracy works.
We have a different definition of citizenry, and that is being active
week to week, not election to election."

Not that the group isn't concerned with elections: Last October, CCA
sponsored a political forum for Oceanside mayoral and city council
candidates during which candidates were grilled on specific solutions
to problems such as gang violence and lack of affordable housing. The
meeting was attended by all three mayoral candidates, all but two city
council candidates and hundreds of residents.

"The participation level that we had was as a result of our prior
involvement in the community," said Henderson. "We got a wonderful
turnout. Most (candidates) responded very favorably."

Hasapopoulos described the group's relationship with local legislators
as "a mixed bag."

"We've had some who resist and some who embrace what we do," he said.
"Some definitely do what we ask, but it's quite apparent they're not
doing it willingly."

Henderson stressed that Congregations for Civic Action is a
non-partisan organization. "We work with all politicians who are
willing to work with us," he said. "For us, the bottom line is the
issue: helping to empower families."

Socorro Anderson, the organization's president, said the support of
local representatives is crucial to solving community problems, and
that it is their members' responsibility to make politicians aware of
the issues that are most important to them.

"In some cases, we bring up problems that are (being) ignored," she said.

Anderson informed state lawmakers about one such problem earlier this
year when she addressed the Senate Health Committee in support of
Senate Bill 437, the California Healthy Kids Insurance Program, which
seeks to provide affordable health coverage to every child in California from birth to age 21.

The bill passed through the committee with bipartisan support, racking
up another victory for Congregations for Civic Action.

"Affordable health care for all children is what we're all working on
right now," said Anderson, who said that all 10 congregations have
joined forces to work on streamlining the health insurance enrollment
process for children.

Although they are working with state, county and municipal officials,
Anderson said Congregations for Civic Action is aiming even higher in
the future.

"We would like to have a national influence, but without ever losing
sight of making change at a local level," she said.

Hasapopoulos said the group would like to add more congregations in
communities they are new to, such as Escondido, and to gain strength in
communities such as Oceanside, where they are well established.

"Being a regional organization, we're very spread out," he said. "It
will take us a little longer to be a monumental force in North County
in terms of local, municipal politics."

Still, with so many successes in just five years of existence, Anderson
said she is proud of all that Congregations for Civic Action has accomplished.

"We have really made some really positive impacts," she said. "It's exciting."

To learn more about Congregations for Civic Action, call 760-745-1630.

Alexandra de Luca is a freelance writer. Contact her at
Alexandra.L.DeLuca@gmail.com.