Center for the Working Poor is an interfaith intentional community based on the Catholic Worker movement, which is committed to strategic non-violent social change and serving the working poor. The Center for the Working Poor is an inter-faith intentional community based off of the Catholic Worker movement and New Monasticism, which is committed to strategic non-violent social change. These are our core principles and programs: 1) Strategic Nonviolence 2) Voluntary Simplicity and Intentional Community 3) Hospitality and Service for fired workers 4) The Burning Bush Newspaper and website 5) Community Building 6) Spirituality and Faith in Action. We all share a commitment to live in community, share a few meals a week, and a common vision of non-violent social change to benefit the most oppressed in our society. Volunteer members run the Center for the Working Poor, which is a non-profit that provides services for poor, and organizes protest and social movement activity. Our specialty is planning and organizing large protests, civil disobedience actions, hunger strikes, and other forms of strategic non-violence. We are a spiritual community which observes Christian contemplative practices; however, this is not a requirement for participation or membership at the Center. We have people of many faiths and beliefs in our community. Many of the families we serve have working parents who were fired after speaking up about poor working conditions. Many are illegally injured, blacklisted, and are denied unemployment and disability benefits because of the greed of corporations. We have a unique mission because we actually deliver food directly to people in their homes. We develop close relationships with the families, helping them find jobs, joining them at their kitchen tables to discuss their kids, their medical medical needs, and informing them about social services that can help them on the road to self-determination. We also keep them engaged as leaders in the movement to improve conditions in their workplaces and community.
