- Created at the grassroots level
- Emphasis on organizing constituencies
- Investment in minority issues and empowerment
- Advocacy for changes in public policy and power relationships
- Collaboration with educational trainings and institutes
- Timeliness of implementation
- Compatibility with Catholic Social Teachings
- Availability of other funding to contribute at least 50% of the project's budget
GRANTS AWARDED
$5,500 to Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition (PAFCO) Education Fund for education and advocacy efforts of PAFCO’s “Unfinished Agenda” project intended to advance health and human services on the Arizona Legislature’s public policy agenda. By promoting community and policymaker awareness and building political momentum, major human services were preserved in the 2008 Arizona state budget reducing hunger, poverty, homelessness and family violence.
$7,500 to American Friends Service Committee in Tucson for a survey, conducted by immigrant women, of residents and businesses to determine the effects of Arizona’s employer sanctions law that went into effect January, 2008. Early survey results show enormous confusion and apprehension about the new law with a full report to be released this fall through public events and a press conference. Immigrant women surveyors learned critical organizing skills to further their future efforts to secure their rights and impact public policy.
$5,000 to the Arizona Institute for Public Life for a three-day training for residents throughout the state on public life skills with a focus on covenantal economics. The 75 new leaders from diverse backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities examined tax policy, especially as it relates to moderate and low income families. Leaders will use their new knowledge and advocacy skills in the 2009 Legislative session exploring public investment in training for high skilled, living wage jobs.
$2,500 to the Arizona Foundation for Behavioral Health to train lead staff from DES and private vendors on evaluating impediments for clients who face termination of TANF (welfare) benefits. Post training data showed that 41% of the hardship extensions granted were for a disability for the head of the household, thus allowing them to maintain and provide for their families through a short term extension of benefits while intensive case management plans are undertaken.
$5,000 to the Minimum Wage Coalition to support the Minimum Wage Initiative on the November 2006 ballot to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.75 per hour. The Msgr. Ryle Fund Committee also wrote a ballot argument in favor of the initiative. Raising the minimum wage directly benefits 145,000 Arizonans, and hundreds of thousands more indirectly as additional wages are increased, particularly women supporting themselves and their families.
$5,000 to Catholic Charities for its national meeting in Phoenix where major poverty issues of homelessness, hunger, immigrant and refugee support, job creation and education were addressed and discussed. Leader participants returned to their cities and communities with ideas, goals and resources to reduce poverty and advance the common good.
$15,000 to Valley Interfaith Project, in collaboration with four other Arizona Interfaith Network (AIN) organizations, for a public education campaign on Arizona’s tax system. The campaign focused on distributive justice and fairness in order to motivate and assist lower income and community groups in the State to become knowledgeable and active in improving the tax system. “Financing the Public Good: A Conference on State and Local Taxes and Fees” was held on December 10 and 11, 2004. In its daily presence at the Capitol in the following years, AIN had the intellectual capital, language and basic tools to advocate tax fairness and adequacy for the State of Arizona.
The Monsignor Edward J. Ryle Fund has been established to honor and emulate the late Monsignor's life and exemplary works. The Fund supports systemic change to improve the lives of people in Arizona. It is designed to serve as a catalyst for social and economic justice, the dignity of poor and the under-represented, and the common good of all people in our community.