March 22, 2007

NEW YORK – The Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty of the Graduate School of Social Service at Fordham Univeristy will be sponsoring an all-day conference on April 16, 2007 entitled "Celebrating Faith in Action – The Religious Community's Response to the Challenge of Poverty: What Works."

The intent of this ecumenical conference is to explore the role of the religious community in dealing with the many faces of poverty, and to allow faith-based providers who offer services that have proven effective to share their knowledge and practice methods. The conference will offer an opportunity to learn what is currently being done to alleviate the burden of poverty in our city by faith community, to learn what types of programs "work," and serve as a catalyst and primer for individuals, congregations and agencies who wish to develop their own initiatives.

The conference will be held on Monday, April 16, 2007, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in the McNally Auditorium at the Lincoln Center Campus of the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service. The morning plenary will include keynote speeches by Dr. John P. Kretzmann, Northwestern University, Rev. Dr. J. Bryan Hehir, Harvard University, and Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., The Riverside Church, NY, NY. The afternoon session will consist of 15 workshops that demonstrate social justice in action.

Afternoon workshops and forums will address:
• Capacity Building
• Advocacy
• Food Pantries
• Soup Kitchens
• Congregational Organizing
• Creating Service Programs
• Living Wage
• Mentoring Programs
• Post-Incarceration
• Immigration
• Housing
• Homeless Shelters
• Education as a Human Right
• Poverty and the Law
• Inter-Religious Dialogue

Additional information and registration procedures can be found at http://www.fordham.edu/beckinstitute/.

Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty