wfn.org | Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus Advocate for Green Job Creation

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus Advocate
> for Green Job Creation for Those in Poverty

WASHINGTON, October 13, 2009 ? Citing a shared tradition of justice
and compassion, the faith community, no stranger to providing personal
and communal assistance to the nation?s most vulnerable populations,
is organizing across the country to call on government officials to
create new, sustainable and green job opportunities for persons living
in poverty.

Thirty-four national faith organizations representing the Jewish,
Christian, Muslim and Hindu communities will hold public events across
the country to encourage government officials to, when working to
usher in a new green economy, simultaneously fight poverty by ensuring
equal opportunities for training and employment for the nation?s most
vulnerable.

Entitled Fighting Poverty with Faith: Good Jobs, Green Jobs, the
week-long mobilization will include programs such as worker
training/retraining seminars, home retrofitting fairs, roundtable
discussions on how to implement green job training opportunities and
tours of green job facilities across the country. This year?s Fighting
Poverty with Faith initiative will be held from October 14-21, 2009.

Currently, unemployment levels are at 9.8 percent, the highest level
in 26 years. In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated in
September that the number of Americans living in poverty has risen
from 37.3 million to 39.8 million. Government and economic leaders
across the country have suggested one path to economic recovery will
be through increased investments in green job creation.

?Churches have been powerful voices for generations on a range of
defining social justice issues, most importantly the need to address
poverty?, said Jordan Blevins, Coordinator of Poverty Initiatives for
the National Council of Churches. ?As we transition to a cleaner
economy, it is our call to ensure that this transition will lead to
meaningful poverty-reduction and that impoverished communities are not
left out of the opportunities presented by the emerging, green sectors.

The Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization will kick-off on October
14 at 2:00 p.m. with a national teleconference featuring U.S.
Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and U.S. Representative Mike
Castle (R-Del.). The week-long mobilization will conclude with an
event in the nation?s capitol on October 21, featuring a new
interfaith prayer calling for the creation of new, sustainable and
green job opportunities for the poor. The prayer was written by Rev.
Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of
Churches in Christ in the USA; Dr. Sayyid Syeed, national director for
the Islamic Society of North America?s Office for Interfaith and
Community Alliances; Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish
Council for Public Affairs; and Fr. Larry Snyder, president and CEO of
Catholic Charities USA.

Faith leaders are also encouraging their members to contact federal,
state and local government officials embrace policies that invest in
green jobs for the nation?s most vulnerable. Specifically, the mission
of the Fighting Poverty with Faith week is to encourage federal, state
and local government officials to

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Target funds toward projects that help low-income families
develop the necessary skills to compete in a new economy;

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Ensure green industries create ?good jobs? with decent benefits,
family-supporting wages and safe working conditions;

> *

Promote projects that improve the quality of life for low-income
families by lowering energy costs and enhancing public health through
safer housing;

> *

Create pipelines that enable low-income people to access jobs in
green, traditional and other newly emerging industries; and

> *

Ensure equity and transparency in the distribution of funding
associated with the creation of new workforce development, including
green jobs.

National organizations endorsing the Fighting Poverty with Faith
mobilization effort include: the Alliance to End Hunger; American
Baptist Churches USA; Association of Jewish Family and Children?s
Agencies; BBYO, Inc.; Bread for the World; Catholic Charities USA ;
Center of Concern; The Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America; Evangelicals for Social Action; and Hindu American Foundation.

Also, Hindu American Seva Charities; International Association of
Jewish Vocational Services; Islamic Relief; Islamic Society of North
America; the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Jewish Labor
Committee; Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Jewish Women
International; Lutheran Services in America; MAZON: A Jewish Response
to Hunger; and The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good
Shepherd;.

Also, the National Council of Churches USA; National Council of Jewish
Women; NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Progressive
National Baptist Church; The Rabbinical Assembly; Society of St.
Vincent DePaul; Sojourners; Union for Reform Judaism; United Church of
Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; United Jewish Communities; The
United Methodist Church ? General Board of Church and Society; and
Women of Reform Judaism.

Fighting Poverty with Faith is part of the National Council of
Churches Poverty Initiative, which seeks to empower and mobilize the
faith community to lend its powerful moral and public voice to the
ongoing and urgent debate around poverty.

More information on this year?s Fighting Poverty with Faith initiative
can be found at www.fightingpovertywithfaith.com, and www.nccendpoverty.org.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),
914-589-6948 (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org