Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) ORGANIZES and ADVOCATES to prevent and end homelessness based on our belief that HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT in a just society.
This Month
-- Mothers in Prison, Children in Crisis Rally: Friday May 9, 12 p.m. at the James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., Chicago. Download flier here. (Word document)
--Listen to Julie Dworkin, CCH's Director of Policy, on WBEZ's program Eight-Forty-Eight. On the program, Ms. Dworkin talks about Chicago's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which was initiated five years ago. (Click here to go to Eight-Forty-Eight's webpage, where you can download the interview.)
--CCH updates its "Homelessness: Facts & Figures" (PDF)
--Youth Sleep-Outs by the State Capitol--All-Day Rally Day Wednesday, April 9--
More than 100 youths, homeless and housed, went to Springfield the week of April 7-10 to rally behind a push to increase state funding for programs serving youths who are alone and on the street.
Every night from Monday through Wednesday nights, groups of 10 to 30 youth held “sleep-outs” by the Lincoln statue, located on the east Capitol grounds along Second Street. They set up camp by 9:30 p.m. and leave by 8:30 a.m. to rally and meet with legislators. Mobilized by Public Action for Change Today (PACT), a new Chicago group that organizes young adult voters, the youths belong to churches, synagogues and universities in the Chicago area, including Wheaton College, Northwestern University and Columbia College.
On Wednesday, more than 75 youths and service providers active with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) travelled to Springfield to meet with legislators. The groups travelled from Chicago and the south suburbs, downstate Bloomington and Carbondale. (Photo: CCH youth talking with Rep. Greg Harris)
Youths and providers are urging support of a measure to increase funding for homeless youth programs by $7 million – $5 million for housing and $2 million for transitional jobs programs. Illinois currently spends $4.7 million to help homeless youth – funding that increased by only $700,000 in 10 years.
Groups participating in the week's events
- Anshe Sholom and Shaare Tikvah B’nai Zion
- Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood
- New Community Covenant Church
- Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood
- North Park Seminary
- Teach for America
- Homeless youth who belong to the HELLO Youth Group Co-run by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and The Night Ministry
- Harmony Village
- Heartland Alliance/Neon Street Programs
- La Casa Norte
- Teen Living Programs
- Project Oz (Bloomington)
- Southern Illinois Regional Social Services (Carbondale)
- Aunt Martha’s (Riverdale)
CCH launches creative writing program
Launched in November 2007, the CCH creative writing program, Horizons, is off to a great start. Horizons currently brings twice-monthly creative writing workshops to the homeless parents living with their children in three family shelters on Chicago’s South Side and West Side.
During workshop classes, Horizons writers read poems and take in works of art. They then discuss them and try their hand at writing their own poems or short prose pieces. Those who feel comfortable share their work with the rest of the group.
CCH organizer Wayne Richard leads Horizons with help from Mimi Chubb, a 2006 Princeton grad working at CCH as a Princeton Project 55 Fellow. Wayne discovered his calling as a poet when he participated in Coming Home, CCH’s first creative writing program. At that point in 1999, Wayne was homeless and living in a shelter.
“At the time I started, I didn’t even know I could write,” Wayne said. “It’s an incredible experience to have other people value your art, and maybe even be inspired by it to create art of their own. It really brings back your sense of self-worth.” Since then he’s published his poetry and performed it in poetry slams; his work has also been featured on WBEZ public radio and WGN-TV Channel 9 morning news.
Check out the poems by current Horizons writers and come back often for more Horizons writing and information on a special Horizons reading to be held later this spring.
Questions about CCH's website? Contact John Maki.
