Farmingdale's day laborers received a measure of support from Catholic Health Services of Long Island (CHS) last week, as the entity administered its annual award program aiding the Island's poor, underserved and uninsured.

CHS awarded $1 million in grants to 33 charitable projects as part of its Bishop John R. McGann Mission of Caring Fund, a program named in honor of the former bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Twenty five thousand dollars was allocated to help St. Kilian Parish Social Ministry and the Workplace Project, a Hempstead-based advocacy group for Hispanic workers, develop a permanent hiring site and employment support programs for day laborers in Farmingdale. The awards ceremony took place on Monday, July 10, at the DeMatteis Center for Cardiac Research of St. Francis Hospital, in Old Brookville.

In announcing the awards, Ronald Aldrich, president and chief executive officer of CHS, noted that the fund's mission is to serve people whose social condition, age, or other circumstance make them most vulnerable. "While many Long Island communities continue to enjoy economic prosperity, there remain pockets of poverty and many persons whose health needs are not adequately met. This fund seeks to support programs addressing the most difficult health and social problems we face," he said.

"The focus for this fund is on the physical and social health status of those who tend to be marginalized by society," Aldrich added. "Programs selected for funding fill a unique role in ensuring vital services for those in need."

Farmingdale's day laborers, a group of recent Hispanic immigrants regarded as the poorest segment of the local community, drew much public attention during the past year, as the Village of Farmingdale prohibited public hiring practices along Conklin Street. This spring, when the village's enforcement of no truck stopping or standing signs sent away most of the landscapers and contractors who hire the laborers for low-wage work, the laborers held a public demonstration calling for an end to the crackdown. Following negotiations between the village, the laborers, and advocates from St. Kilian's Social Ministry and the Workplace project, the village agreed to allow the laborers to gather at a temporary hiring site on village-owned property on Elizabeth Street. The grant from CHS, by funding a permanent hiring site, is intended to help form a more long-term solution.

In addition to the money for the hiring site in Farmingdale, the grant program funds projects such as crisis intervention and a residential community for homeless young people; summer camp for children affected by domestic violence; a children's performing arts program dealing with issues of alcohol/substance abuse/domestic violence; a residence serving orphaned, abused, and neglected girls; an emergency prescription drug program for uninsured seniors, and outreach programs targeting both Hispanic and Haitian immigrant communities.

The programs serve communities throughout Long Island, including Hempstead, Wyandanch, Westbury, Huntington Station, Port Jefferson, Rockville Centre, Hicksville, Riverhead and Freeport. The Mission of Caring program is in its second year; last year 20 grants were awarded.

"We are funding programs that go where Christ himself would have walked...for the people he would have touched," Monsignor. Alan J. Placa, the bishop's secretary for the Healthcare Apostolate, said during the ceremony. "With this program, we focus our healthcare apostolate on the broader mission of the church. We are finding where the needs are and sharing our resources."