Six programs in the Springfield diocese will receive grants totaling $17,000 in the local distribution of funds collected in the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection.

The annual collection taken up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving was established by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops as an effort to combat poverty. One-fourth of the money collected in the national campaign stays in the diocese to tackle local concerns and issues.

Bishop George J. Lucas will join Sister Jane Boos, SSND, director of the diocesan Office for Social Concerns, at a luncheon at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Springfield on Saturday, June 6, to recognize recipients of the local awards.

Local grants were awarded to programs in Decatur, Mattoon, Highland, Vandalia, Springfield and Pike and Cass counties.

The programs include:

• Decatur Urban Garden, a program which transforms donated vacant lots into vegetable gardens planted, maintained and harvested by people of limited income. The project evolved from a Poverty Summit organized by Just Faith graduates.
• New Life Car Care in Mattoon, which assists people with low incomes with car repairs and preventative maintenance of their vehicles. Clients learn to do basic maintenance, spot problems with their vehicles and deal with repair shops.
• Highland Area Christian Service Ministry, where clients are able to access services available to them from the Illinois Department of Human Services, without the necessity of making a 60-mile round trip to the nearest DHS office.
• The "Learning Link" at Our Place Youth Center in Vandalia, a bi-weekly teen tutoring service where second-grade students can get one-on-one tutoring.
• The Academy of St. Patrick Catholic School in Springfield, which offers a five-week summer program that instructs, feeds and nurtures at-risk boys and girls from the east side of Springfield. The summer school students will be in school from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., during which time they will receive breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks.
• Camp Care A Lot in Pike/Cass Counties, an education- and values-based residential camping experience for children ages 6 to 11 from low-income families. At the camp children learn empathy and ways to stop perpetuating behaviors which make lives in poverty more difficult.