Daughters of Wisdom Award $15,000 Grant to St. Camillus Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Intercultural Committee
The Daughters of Wisdom has awarded a $15,000 Wisdom Fund Grant to the St. Camillus Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Intercultural Committee of St Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, MD. The Committee is an all-volunteer effort of parishioners to implement Catholic social teaching within their parish and broader community. Their ministries align with the Daughters of Wisdom's mission to address injustice, especially as it impacts women, children, the marginalized, and the environment.
As an intercultural parish with many parishioners who have recently immigrated to the United States, St. Camillus strongly supports newcomers to this country. Those have included persons of all ages from Haiti, African countries, Central America, and South America. Their past immigrant support activities include hosting legal clinics, organizing rides to immigration court proceedings, and supporting the parish staff in mobilizing community resources to respond to individual medical, housing, and other needs as they arise.
This Wisdom Fund Grant will be allocated to provide vital services to new migrant people who are being bussed to the area from the southern U.S. border. The primary goal of the project is to help ensure that the immediate, urgent needs of new migrant arrivals are met with dignity and respect. $5,000 will facilitate access to basic needs, including housing, clothing, and food, while the migrant families seek sustainable ways to support themselves. $10,000 of the grant will go toward financial assistance to cover legal filing fees for the families' immigration cases. Immigration-related filing fees often exceed $1,000 for a family, depending on the quantity of documents needed and the number in the family. It is hoped that these funds will help at least ten families have a meaningful chance at presenting their cases for asylum, thus improving families' chances of being granted relief from deportation. The grant will also be used to continue to educate and engage parishioners on how they can welcome our recently arrived neighbors, including searching for housing, orienting people to use public transportation to courts and doctors, school enrollment, and other basic services in the area.
The JPIC coordinates with Sr. Sharlet Wagner of the Catholic Charities Newcomer Office in Montgomery County, MD, whose staff works directly with the migrants, their attorneys, and local food and clothing resources, including thrift stores. Sr. Marie Chiodo, DW, and Sr. Anne Marie Gardiner, SSND, have also been essential partners in planning and implementing JPIC's New Neighbors in Need Initiative.
Sr. Marie Chiodo, DW, endorsed this grant and wrote in her letter of recommendation, "It speaks to me of Wisdom crying out in the marketplace and Jesus in his compassion for the suffering and the oppressed. The work with people being bussed North is an opportunity for us, as Daughters of Wisdom, to continue our mission 'to bring the message of Jesus, Incarnate Wisdom to people experiencing injustice, violence, poverty, and oppression.'"