U.S. HUD CONDUCTS FREE CONFERENCE FOR FAITH-BASED AND
COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS
Federal Strategy Emphasizes Training Faith-Based Entities

LOUISVILLE - The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted a free, two-day, intensive Grant Writing Training Workshop for faith-based and community-based organizations in Kentucky, on March 2-3, 2004, at the HUD Louisville Field Office.

The Louisville workshop is one of 80 seminars held across the nation over the past six weeks in an effort to present concepts to faith-based and community organizations on grant proposal writing techniques, access to HUD and other government agencies' funds, how to work with local governments, organizational capacity building, and the importance of coalition building.�� Participants included faith-based and community organizations' staffs, proposal writers, planners, board members, clergy and lay people.��������������������

HUD is one of several federal agencies with an intensive, organized outreach to faith-based and community organizations, which is part of the overall White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives outreach strategy.� For information about these initiatives and other HUD activities in Kentucky, visit our website.

A unique aspect of HUD's outreach effort to these grassroots groups, relates to one of its primary goals:� increasing homeownership, particularly among minority groups.� Through The Reaching the Dream Initiative, launched last year, faith-based and community organizations, financial institutions, local officials and others are addressing the needs of first-time homebuyers in their communities.

"We want to encourage faith-based and other community organizations to join us as we work to make the dream of homeownership a reality for anyone who seeks it," said Acting HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson; adding, "The grant writing conferences we are sponsoring across the nation and in Louisville, will serve a variety of community needs which will be addressed more and more with the assistance of our faith-based and community-based partners."��

Nearly 70 percent of all Americans own their own homes yet slightly less than half of all�African-Americans, and right at 50% of Hispanic families, are homeowners. To close this homeownership gap, the Bush Administration issued a challenge to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade.

Accomplishing this national goal will require legislative and regulatory changes that remove barriers that exclude
faith-based and smaller grassroots organizations from federal grant programs. Funding opportunities vary widely
across the federal agencies, making it disproportionately difficult for smaller grassroots organizations to take advantage of federal grant programs.

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities, creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans, supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development as well as
enforces the nation's fair housing laws. For more information about HUD and its programs, logon to our website.

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