A Prayer of Welcome

Lord, we welcome You.
We will not turn away when You come to our door
In one who is lonely and afraid.

We ask for Your blessings upon all those who are forced
To leave their homeland, searching for safety, peace
And a future for their families.

Empower our immigrant friends and all who find themselves lost
In difficult, new terrain;
Reveal the truth to all that we are one family in Christ.

                                                            Amen

Through our Advocacy programs we press for the societal changes needed to transform lives, focusing on breaking the cycle of poverty in communities in the United States and internationally. By reaching out to those who have few choices or options, those who cannot make their voices heard, we seek to influence the systems that cause and sustain homelessness and poverty. We are dedicated to making injustice visible and to protecting the poor and powerless.

Immigration
The Sisters of Charity of New York have taken a decisive direction, a preferential bias, for immigrant persons according to the tradition of Catholic social teaching. Many avenues for educational, direct service and advocacy responses have come forth from our shared commitment to this cause for justice.

Legislative advocacy for immigrants include:

1. Ongoing contact with Members of Congress concerning raids and deportation issues.
2. Letter writing in support of the Child Citizen Protection Act (HR1176) which would intervene in cases to prevent family separation resulting from a deportation action.
3. Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act passed the NYS legislature in Spring, 2008. It no longer allows agriculture, as an industry in NYS to be exempted from Federal fair wage laws.

Opposition to Human Trafficking

1. Education and discussion programs have been offered at the College of Mount Saint Vincent and Seton Village in Nanuet, NY. Outreach teams are available for parish groups.
2. Legislative advocacy had several Sisters of Charity participating in a Lobby Day in Albany while the Congregation wrote letters in support of the Safe Harbor bill which passed the NYS legislature in June, 2008. It authorizes Family Court supervision of cases involving prostitution for first-time, youthful offenders; assuring comprehensive social services support and emergency housing. Many of these youth are victims of domestic trafficking and don’t deserve to be treated solely as criminals.
3. Shareholder dialogues were held with Wyndham Corporation, a chain of hotels, seeking their policy response and engagement in the matter of reducing human trafficking as part of an approach to the hotel industry by religious investors.

New Sanctuary Movement

As of January, 2008 the Sisters of Charity of New York have officially become a member congregation in the New Sanctuary Movement as it is based in New York City. More than 200 Sisters endorsed the sanctuary pledge after much education, prayer and deliberation. Through the sanctuary pledge, we covenant to:

1. Take a public, moral stand for immigrant’s rights
2. Reveal through education and advocacy, the actual suffering of immigrant workers and families under current and proposed legislation
3. Protect immigrants against hate, workplace discrimination and unjust deportation

Other Social Justice Priorities
The Sisters of Charity of New York have taken corporate stances on world debt and in opposition to the death penalty in New York State. Issues of poverty as they affect women and children, especially, are also a focus for our active response including: the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, welfare reform, housing, health care and living wages. Responding to threats to our environment is also of paramount importance including: access to clean water, opposition to bottled water, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and Arctic wildlife and conservation measures.

Corporate Responsibility

The Sisters of Charity of New York have committed themselves to seeking justice through our investments for over 30 years. We want our investments to “do good” while doing well. We do not invest in companies profiting from the defense industry.  Through shareholder resolutions we most recently have acted on issues such as polychloral bi-phenyl (PCB) pollution in the Hudson River, the need for renewable energy investment, water use in bottling operations in India, and concerns  relating to sustainability practices.

We have dialogued with corporations in which we are invested on issues such as human trafficking, access to medicines, violent video games and bank lending practices. Along with religious investors in the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, we have also written to and lobbied the Securities Exchange Commission on critical matters of shareholder rights and proxy access rules.

In the area of socially responsible investing we also keep a dedicated fund for alternate investments. These are potentially high risk, start-up endeavors related to community development, low income housing and projects in the developing world. Many times such programs have difficulty accessing standard modes of credit or banking services or would have to pay prohibitive rates of interest. The Sisters of Charity of New York see this activity as an extension of our mission.

Health Care Reform

Given our long history of rendering health care services, with special support for the needs of poor and uninsured patients, the Sisters of Charity of New York have worked alongside faith based investors and Catholic health systems staff to engage corporations in their concerns and roles in the urgent need for health care reform. We have met with large scale employers, pharmaceutical companies and medical service companies to discuss four key principles which members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility see as essential elements in the evolution of necessary reform. These principles are put forward in hopes of guaranteeing affordable, quality health care for all. They are:

These principles will guide our corporate responsibility efforts for the next two years and more as needed while our country engages in the political process necessary to enact this reform.

Housing Developments
Our ministry of helping to provide housing for those in need was never an isolated goal! The response to requests in various locations led the Sisters of Charity to create this new ministry.

When Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers came into existence, the Congregation did not include the housing projects that had originally been part of our hospital system on Staten Island in the merger. We created a new entity, Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corporation, to develop affordable housing and to manage our housing programs.

We hope you will join us in fostering a world where all people are treated with dignity and respect. We encourage you to join us in our efforts.