The Department pursues public policies that help address systemic causes of poverty and meet the basic human needs of low-income Marylanders to better enable them to rise out of poverty and not slip back into it.

We must remember that, “[T]he mere fact that some people are born in places with fewer resources or less development does not justify the fact that they are living with less dignity. We need to grow in a solidarity which ‘would allow all peoples to become the artisans of their destiny,’ since ‘every person is called to self-fulfillment.’” –Pope Francis, Joy of the Gospel