My name is Edward Morgan and I'm President of Christian Herald Association, a 122 year old faith-based charity in New York. We operate the historic Bowery Mission on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which is 100% privately supported. We also operate a 77 bed program funded by the City Department of Homeless Services, called The Bowery Mission Transitional Center. BMTC is the highest performing substance abuse shelter in the City. And finally, we also operate one of New York's major summer camps for at-risk inner-city children, currently in its 107th year plus after-school programs in six locations. Each of these three programs relates to a charitable choice issue before the Committee today, I believe.

At the Christian Herald, we run two types of adult transitional programs. The first, represented by the Bowery Mission is a traditional faith-based program which relies solely on private funding. Here, faith-based activities are part of every day's schedule and are a crucial component of the services we deliver.

The second type of program is represented by the Bowery Mission Transitional Center - - a custom designed partnership between government and provider held in a separate 501(C)-3 corporation. In this arrangement, no religious activities are required of our clients, and our programming does not promote our faith. The charitable choice issue at BMTC revolves around the current legal hurdles to freely hiring people of faith. The not-so-secret ingredient in this successful program is employees of faith who have reached the bottom themselves and found, as countless others have through history, that a power higher than themselves is their only hope - - that the real meaning of life is reaching out to other people with unconditional love, earning their trust and seeing them triumph over adversity as well. Although they do not proselytize, they are open about their faith, and will freely share their beliefs with any client who expresses interest.

Since the Bowery Mission Transitional Center opened in January of 1994, over 700 men have graduated and moved from public dependence in city shelters to achieve independent productive lives at a cost of less than $15,000 per graduate. Ninety five percent have not returned to the city shelter system one year later. We are the most successful substance-abuse shelter in New York City -- living proof that partnerships between the government and faith-based charities can achieve superior results to secular organizations without infringing on the separation between church and state or diluting our religious heritage, provided that we are free to hire staff based on their religious preference.

Our belief that the success and the integrity of our services depends on our unrestricted ability to hire men and women of faith is reflected in the recent decision of our children's organization, Kids With A Promise, to turn down a $600,000 grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, funding that would severely inhibit our hiring people of faith. As with the Bowery Mission Transitional Center, Kids With A Promise's programs are effective precisely because they're delivered by people who demonstrate the compassion and commitment to others that comes with their faith.

I thank the Committee for a chance to be heard. I believe programs such as The Bowery Mission Transitional Center represent the future of charitable services in this country. By combining the resources of the government with the compassion, hope, and vision offered by faith-based programs, we can together provide men, women, and children with the most effective care this country has to offer.

Thank you