Case Management Program - www.franoutreach.org

The goals of the Case Management Program at Franciscan Outreach Association are to reach out to our guests to provide the practical assistance and encouragement that our guests need to build a better life. Case managers connect guests with resources and services that can help them overcome the obstacles in their way. We currently provide case management services at the Marquard Center, Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph, and at St. Peter’s Church in Chicago’s Loop.

~ Sites of Engagement and Percentage of Guests Engaged in Case Management ~

Clients were engaged at our two emergency service sites, the Marquard Center Soup Kitchen and Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph shelter, and in downtown Chicago at St. Peter’s Church in the Loop. We are the only agency who provides case management to the homeless in Chicago’s Loop. The following chart shows the sites of engagement of our 2009 case management clients, the number of case management clients we served over the course of a year and the percentage of our guests engaged in case management services from all sites. Many of our guests also receive services from other sources, including mental health care providers and veterans’ services.

Sites of Engagement and Percentage of Guests Engaged in Case Management, 2009
	Unduplicated number of case management clients	# Unduplicated guests receiving any services at site	Percentage of guests engaged in case management
Franciscan House	206	1,930	10.67%
Marquard Center	746	1,762	42.28%
St. Peter’s Church	405	405	100.00%
Total	1,357	4,097	33.12%

~ Permanent Housing ~

The following chart shows the number of individuals that accessed permanent housing through our case management department including our collaborators. These are persons whom we’ve helped move off the streets and into stable housing. Those in our Streets to Home Program also receive follow up services to help them stay housed. The others are invited to return to us if they experience any difficulties. The numbers from the Shelter Linkage Team are those placed into housing by the mental health outreach workers at the shelter.

In 2009, our case managers made 9,021 contacts with their clients. The following chart details the number of case management contacts by site:

The following chart summarizes the issues raised by case management clients. The number of issues exceeds the number of contacts because clients often need help with more than one issue during each meeting.

Issues	Number of discussions
Phone Usage	2,019
Employment	1817
Permanent Housing	1465
Medical Care	1287
Food	1162
Transportation	949
Identification Card/Birth Certificate	816
Public Aid	771
Social Security	613
Mental Health Services	520
Legal Issues	499
Family Issues	406
Mail Address	401
Clothing	387
Transitional Housing	357
Networking	329
Substance Abuse Treatment	287
Optical	279
Job Training	240
Education	229
Overnight Shelter	205
Dental Services	136
Financial Assistance	124
Voice Mail	76
Senior Services	66
Veteran Services	56
Rental Assistance	52
HIV Services	39
Domestic Violence	34
Immigration	29
Utility Assistance	24
Furniture	14
Total Issues Discussed	15,668

Beginning in early 2006, Franciscan Outreach Association started to provide case management services to the homeless in the Loop, becoming the only organization to provide these services. Thanks to support from the City of Chicago Department of Housing’s Streets to Home Initiative, we have been able to place 54 formerly homeless individuals into permanent housing, with 51 of them remaining housed as of December 31, 2009, a 94% success rate.

In addition to the housing vouchers that place individuals into permanent housing in efficiency apartments, these clients also receive weekly case management and transit passes to help them meet other needs. As part of the process of going from being homeless to successfully housed, the Loop Case Managers offer quarterly outings and regular groups for these guests to enable them to find a support network among their peers. In 2009 we offered two life skills groups and one community group per month for those individuals residing in our program. Here is a breakdown of the total number of clients attending the groups throughout the year.

~ Number of Streets to Home clients attending Group Meetings and Activities ~

While our Case Management Program is focused on providing one-on-one attention to individual guests, we also host a walk-in day program on Wednesdays called the Bridge Program. The program starts with a motivational group meeting at 10:00 am. Afterward, clients can meet with individual case managers or see a nurse, talk with a lawyer, or get tested for HIV. Guests can stay in the building from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm. We also offer coffee and cookies. The total attendees for 2009 were 2,305. Below is a breakdown of attendance by month:

The discussion group is designed to encourage new guests to see our case managers and to create a familiar and comfortable environment for them. Discussion topics range from homeless survival skills to support systems and mental health and domestic violence.

Month	Wednesday Discussion Group participants
January	3
February	12
March	0
April	7
May	11
June	18
July	14
August	17
September	27
October	28
November	15
December	19
TOTAL	171

In an effort to meet more of our guests’ needs, we invite other agencies and professionals to meet with them and fulfill their needs. We have developed collaborations with these organizations. The following are charts reflecting numbers of guests they served each month.

Month	Total guests	Month	Total guests
January	0	July	51
February	36	August	25
March	46	September	36
April	36	October	46
May	40	November	0
June	21	December	27
		Grand Total	364

Month	Total guests	Month	Total guests
January	3	July	11
February	5	August	8
March	2	September	16
April	6	October	0
May	2	November	0
June	7	December	2
		Grand Total	62

Three different attorneys volunteered their time to help our guests with a variety of legal issues from January through December 31, 2009. One attorney handles Social Security Disability issues while the other two help our guests with general legal concerns and referrals. They are on hand at least once a month during our Wednesday Case Management Bridge Program. Issues addressed are as follows:

The Shelter Linkage Team consisted of two part-time mental health outreach workers who collaborated with both shelter staff and Franciscan Outreach case managers to provide mental health services to our guests. Franciscan Outreach Association, Thresholds and Heartland Health Outreach developed this project in conjunction with the Illinois Office of Mental Health. Thresholds worked in our overnight shelter ten months of the year between January and October 2009. The following statistics represent the work of the Shelter Linkage Project members with Franciscan House guests in 2009:

~ Collaborative Efforts: Rush Community Service Initiatives Program (RCSIP) ~

Since 1991, students of Rush Medical School have been operating a weekly free clinic for the guests at Franciscan House through the Rush Community Service Initiatives Program. The clinic is staffed by volunteer teams of Rush medical students and supervised by volunteer attending physicians. The number of guests they treated in 2009 was as follows:

During 2009, our case management staff positions included a Director of Case Management Services, two Streets to Home Case Managers, and one part-time and two full-time General Case Managers. We also now have a mental health case manager from Thresholds working at our main Marquard Center case management offices whose salary is paid through grants. Our Director of Case Management is Nick Benedetto, our Streets to Home Case Managers are Greg Foster and Rachel Frey, our two full-time General Case Managers are Albert Mayfield, Alberto Mendoza, and our part-time general Case Manager is Kurt Doyle, our part-time mental health case manager from Thresholds is Alia Bashear.

Your support helps us pay for this valuable case management program that helps change lives. To donate now, click here.