The Diocese of Camden will soon hire a consultant to work on recruiting more Latino students to its schools, the result of a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). The new initiative from CCHD is in partnership with the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame.
CCHD is the U.S. bishops’ arm for combating poverty and injustice in the United States.
The goal of the national program is to increase Catholic school enrollment among Latino families, widening their education options. Numerous recent studies have indicated that while the majority of young Catholics in the United States today are Latino, they continue to lag behind other groups in attending Catholic schools. Nationally, only three percent of Latino school-age children are enrolled in Catholic schools.
“Catholic schools have offered a road to success for many immigrant groups in the past,” said Mary Boyle, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Camden. “This grant will allow us to seek better ways to provide that option to our new immigrants, particularly Latino families in South Jersey.”
She is hopeful that the new position will be in place by the start of the new school year in September.