GlobalGiving.org: Help Empower Women Who are Homeless in Chicago

New Years Update: Holiday Dinner and Interim Housing

Caroline Aiken — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:39:19 GMT

Sarah's Circle's Annual Christmas Dinner

Last Wednesday evening, we served Christmas dinner to over 70 women. Each woman also received a gift bag or stocking filled with hand-knit scarves, toiletries, wrapped presents, and baked goods.

A special thank you to our generous donors who donated holiday gifts: Marie Zimmerman, Debra Flynn, Sherry Barnett, "The Angel Team," Linda Williams, those over at St. John Fisher, McDonalds, and Brady, Connolly, & Masuda P.C.

We'd also like to thank our committed volunteers who helped serve the meal. You all helped make the event a success!

A closer look: our 50-bed interim housing program

The women currently in the program struggle with various challenges, and most have been homeless for years. Anne Marie Keswick, Program Director, explains, "95% of the women in the program have mental illnesses, while 85% are chronically homeless."

With these challenges, they will need a lot of support to stay housed, so the focus is on placing them in permanent supportive housing. Permanent supportive housing is affordable housing with case management and other supportive services to help formerly homeless people stay housed.

There is a shortage of permanent supportive housing and many requirements to get into programs, so we are delighted that Megan Libreros, Housing Coordinator, has already housed 3 women from the program since November 1st. This is in addition to her work housing women in the daytime program and providing case management to the women in Sarah's Circle's 11 housing units.

Thank you for your continued support.

We are able to provide life changing services for women who are homeless because of your confidence in our ability to deliver effective programs and your commitment to ending homelessness.

From all of us at Sarah's Circle, thank you again for all of your support. We wish happy and healthy New Year to all!

New Programming

Elizabeth Dunn — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:44:47 GMT

Effective November 1^st, Sarah’s Circle has stepped up to operate a 50 bed shelter for women located on the North Side of Chicago. It is one of the largest programs of this type in Chicago, and was in jeopardy of closing permanently.

With this new Program, Sarah’s Circle will deliver all physical services, such as shelter, food, clothing, laundry, and hygiene, as well as comprehensive support services to 50 women 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The goal of the program will be to provide these services for the women while we work with them to find permanent housing, and then, once they are housed, provide services to ensure housing retention. While this is a big step for Sarah’s Circle, it is at the core of our mission, and with your support, the program will allow us to help even more women achieve permanent housing, employment, better health, and connections with family and friends.

With this shelter, we will be able to help more women like Julie secure permanent housing.

For over two decades, Julie was in and out of shelters, struggling with issues of mental illness and substance abuse. With comprehensive services that included support in obtaining consistent mental health services and disability benefits, we were able to move Julie into permanent housing with supportive services, where she has remained housed for over three years, after experiencing decades of homelessness. Julie is able to live independently and has reconnected with family in the suburbs of Chicago. Julie’s life is now significantly healthier in so many ways, and she is on a path to staying housed and healthy for the rest of her life.

Thank you for your support!

Some Good News from Sarah's Circle

Elizabeth Dunn — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:48:48 GMT

Housed Woman

A woman named Mae stopped into my office a few weeks ago to let me know that with the help of Sarah’s Circle staff, she had secured a small apartment with a year of free rent. Mae told me, “I’ve been in shelters way too long. You know the first thing I’m going to do once I move in? I’m going to look for a job. It’s just so hard to do that while you’re homeless. There’s no time to rest; you’re constantly moving from place to place and worrying about the basics. It’s just too tiring to search for a job at the same time, but now that I have housing, I really want to find a steady job so I can take care of myself and take over the rent when the year is over. It means a lot to have a place of your own.”

With your support over the last year, Sarah's Circle placed 61 women like Mae in permanent housing through other housing providers. This is a measure of women who returned with a signed lease after working intensively with a case manager at Sarah's Circle to find an appropriate housing provider, obtain necessary documentation, and fulfill the requirements of the housing provider.

Thank you again for your continued support!

Spring Progress and Events

Elizabeth Dunn — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:24:42 GMT

Spring Events

Talent Show

Women took time this spring to share their gifts with each other in a talent show. The much anticipated afternoon featured singing, dancing, poetry, comedy, and a winning harmonica performance. The show was a confidence booster to performers and empowered women to cultivate their personal strengths despite their housing status.

5K Walk

Several clients also participated in a 5K walk held Saturday June 11^th. The walk was a fundraiser for the agency, but was also an opportunity for clients and community members to interact and exercise together.

Housing Placements

Since January, the housing coordinator has placed 27 women in permanent housing and 53 women accomplished goals on their service plans.

Links:

http://www.sarahs-circle.org/

Sarah's Circle Clinical Services Report

Elizabeth Dunn — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:57:37 GMT

A few years ago, Sarah's Circle began providing Clinical Services on site to address some of the trauma and mental illness contributing to housing instability for the women we serve. (Currently, approximately 58% of the women at Sarah's Circle struggle with some form of mental illness.) As our program has grown, we have maintained strong relationships with partners in the area who provide more intensive and complementary mental health services. In the past year however, due to budget cuts in Illinois, these partnering organizations have become unable to treat women without Medicaid or some other form of insurance!

A lack of any form of insurance is quite common among women who are homeless, especially those who are in crisis during their first incident of homelessness, when they need counseling the most. In response to this even more dire need, we have expanded our Clinical Services to include individual clinical counseling and more group therapy. We now have groups on Trauma, Domestic Violence, Mood Management, and Anxiety Management, as well as art therapy and individual counseling. Sarah's Circle also partners with a neighboring health services agency to provide biweekly medication management at Sarah's Circle. In 2010, 206 women participated in Clinical Services at Sarah's Circle.

I have personally heard glowing reports from women who have regained hope and learned new coping skills from a clinical counselor. One said to me "I have found the strength inside of me that I never knew I had".

Thanks to generous support from partners like you, we have been able to respond to this need in the community and help women regain their independence.

Today, March 16th, is a matching day at Global Giving, if you are interested in making a donation.

New Years Report

Elizabeth Dunn — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:38:32 GMT

Happy New Year to all our Global Giving partners!

On December 23rd, Sarah's Circle held our annual Holiday Party. With the help of generous donors and energetic volunteers, we were able to provide 135 women with a holiday to remember. The women ate a nutritious and festive meal served by the Oshita family and received gift bags from the Women’s Leadership Network of McDonald’s Corporation. The gift bags contained full-sized toiletries and winter hats. While these items may seem like simple necessities, they are precious gifts to the women we serve. This was just one day in a year when we served approximately 1,000 unduplicated clients.

Give More/Get More Matching Campaign starts Oct.12!

Emile Dawisha — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:19:57 GMT

Dear valued donors,

We have exciting news! Starting October 12, 2010 at midnight EDT, you can maximize the impact of your donation to Sarah's Circle by participating in GlobalGiving's Give More, Get More campaign. Through this matching program, every donation made to our project - Help Empower Women Who are Homeless in Chicago - will be matched at the following scale:

$10 - $499 -> 30% match

$500 - $999 -> 40% match

$1,000 - $2,500 - > 50% match

This is GlobalGiving's last matching campaign of the year and the last chance for you to have your donations to Sarah's Circle matched. The campaign will run until October 21st or until all matching funds ($100,000) are used. Donate now before the matching funds run out!

We greatly appreciate your generous support, especially in recent years as we adjust to a record number of women utilizing our services. Over the past year, the average daily number of women we serve has increased from 49 to 63. This rapid influx has led to more women needing food, toiletries, case management, bus cards and vital documents, housing support services, and clinical services. Your support would help us not only meet the needs of these women in the present, but also expand our programs to improve the depth of service we provide.

We truly appreciate your generosity during this critical time in Sarah's Circle's history. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Emile Dawisha, Development Assistant

Rapid increase of women seek social services at Sarah's Circle

Emile Dawisha — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:16:39 GMT

A woman housed through Sarah's Circle

Over our thirty year history, Sarah’s Circle has evolved from a daytime drop-in center to a multi-faceted agency with comprehensive services and permanent supportive housing. We continue to expand our services, aimed towards empowering some of Chicago's most vulnerable women, despite the tough economic climate that has led to less financial support and, at the same time, an unprecedented number of new clients. From 2008 to 2009, the average number of women per day increased from 49 to 63. This rapid influx has led to more women needing food, toiletries, case management, bus cards and vital documents, housing support services, and clinical services. Your generous support through Global Giving has helped us not only meet the needs of our clientele in the present, but also expand our programs to improve the depth of service we provide. Women make up approximately 35% of the 21,078 people who are homeless on a typical night in Chicago, according to a 2007 study by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. As the only woman-only social services agency in the Uptown neighborhood, Sarah’s Circle fills a critical service gap in the community by providing a full range of services in a woman-friendly environment. Our multi-faceted approach caters well to the needs of our guests, many of whom face multiple challenges in their lives. Out of 363 women who received case management intakes in 2009, 39% struggled with substance abuse, 59% struggled with diagnosed mental illness, 57% had chronic health problems and/or a physical disability, 72% were homeless and 100% were below the poverty line. Considering that 59% of the women we serve struggle with mental illness, Sarah's Circle has made its in-house clinical services a top priority. The lack of government-funded health services in our neighborhood makes the need for in-house clinical services is even greater. We have added new therapy groups (Mood Management, Meditation, and a group for women who are newly homeless) and have added a licensed clinician who conducts individual counseling. We also have Domestic Violence and Trauma Therapy programs, both critical programs considering the alarming number of women at Sarah's Circle that have struggled with spousal abuse. A 2007 Sarah's Circle survey revealed that 60%, or approximately 390 women, were, or had once been, in a violent relationship with a spouse and had not received services. According to a study in Chicago in 2003 by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 55% of women in homeless shelters reported that they had been survivors of domestic violence, and 22% cited domestic violence as the primary cause of homelessness. More than ever, your support is truly critical as we adjust to an unprecedented number of women utilizing our services. We have benefited greatly from your past support, which has gone directly towards helping some of Chicago’s most vulnerable women receive essential services, such as food, toiletries, health services, and housing. I know the economy is tough, so thank you for investing your hard-earned money in our cause to empower women and ultimately help them realize their unique potential.

Sarah's Circle's Christmas Party, 2009

Fashion Show, 2010

Links: