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Franciscan Outreach Association
1645 W. LeMoyne Street, Chicago, IL 60622
Telephone (773)278-6724


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What's New?

What's New Archives for

July 6, 2004 to September 28, 2004

For the week of September 28 - High School Freshman Takes a Stand Against Stereotyping

Sometimes those who are young can challenge all of us. Here's an account of a discussion yesterday in a high school freshman English class. In the words of the high schooler herself...

We're reading Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck). We had a worksheet in English today and one of the questions on it was "Do Lenny and George relate to homeless people, hitchhikers, and migrant workers today?"

So everybody started saying stuff like "I think they don't relate to them because homeless people are all alone and Lenny and George had each other." And they kept saying stuff like that.

And I was like, that's wrong. So I turned around and said to Michelle: "Stupid stereotypes!" And she said: "You should say that." And I said: "Ok I will." I raised my hand and she was like, laughing because she knew what I was going to say.

The teacher called on me and I said: "You people keep stereotyping homeless people. I've volunteered at a soup kitchen a lot. They're not all alone. They get into the place. They sit at tables. They talk to their friends. They make new friends. There's people who live on the streets and other people who live on the streets. Who says they can't be friends? They might be lonely but they're not all alone."

Then Will said to me "Thanks for snapping at us." And I said "You're welcome!"

Then the teacher said that some people can have a job but not make enough money to not be homeless. He said that because some kid said that homeless people don't have jobs.

Our thanks go out to Amy for standing up for what she knows to be true! May it inspire all of us to get to know the homeless for who they are. Volunteering, like Amy did, is one way to do that. Visit our volunteer opportunities page and sign up today!

For the Week of September 14, 2004 - Photos from the Lawyers United for the Homeless Cruise

Lawyers United for the Homeless has 11 members, each of whom has contributed $1,000 toward helping the homeless find food, shelter, and practical help in a better life. Lawyers are making a difference in the lives of homeless individuals in Chicago!

As a token of our appreciation, the members and their guests were invited to the First Annual Lawyers United for the Homeless Cruise last Sunday. The cruise was donated by Captain Ted Bruck, the coast guard-certified captain of the SunSea (visit him at www.yachtparties.com). A few of our full-time volunteers came along for the ride. Fr Larry and Diana joined them on a truly beautiful afternoon. Here's some pics...

Click on the photo icons for a larger view

To join Lawyers United for the Homeless, go to www.franoutreach.org/LawyersUnited.htm

September 7, 2004 - What's Franciscan About Franciscan Outreach?

Today, Franciscan Outreach staff & full-time volunteers participated in an in-service about the Franciscan background of our work. First, Fr. Bob Hutmacher, OFM shared a brief history of the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

Did you know that...?

--Francis' family was of the newly emerging merchant class, a middle class that had wealth but did not own land. As part of this class, he had dreams of becoming a knight, a very costly endeavor. Once he discerned his calling from God, however, Francis renounced his family's wealth and cut ties with them entirely.

--Dreams played an important role in Francis' life. The beginnings of his conversion to a life devoted to God were sown in a dream in which he was asked "are you serving the master or the servant?" Later, a dream convinced the Church authorities to allow him to establish an order.

--Francis lived in a world full of violence, a world in which he participated as a youth and in efforts to become a knight. In one battle, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war for a year. In his later life, Francis eschewed all forms of violence.

--The most undesirable population of his time--the lepers--provided Francis with a home in which he found the most joy, serving those whom others had cast aside.

--Francis himself was afflicted with chronic illnesses. While imprisoned, he developed tuberculosis and his breathing suffered for the rest of his life. While on a journey to the Holy Land, he developed a degenerative eye condition.

Later in the afternoon, a panel of FOA supporters spoke about "What is Franciscan about Franciscan Outreach."

The panelists included (from left): Br. Duc Pham, OFM, former full-time volunteer at Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph; Jim Morley, an FOA Board Member and long-time regular volunteer at Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph; Ray Behrendt, SFO, FOA Board Chairman; and Fr. Jim Hoffman, OFM, former director of Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph.

Much of the afternoon's discussion related to St. Francis' relationship with the lepers, as the comparison was drawn between Francis' work with the most marginalized members of his society and our work with the homeless. Panelists noted that it wasn't just that Francis embraced the lepers with open arms. After demonstrating that he had nothing before the Lord by cutting all ties with his family and his class, he turned to the lepers' community because he knew that there he would be welcomed and accepted. Franciscan Outreach was described as a place where one leper meets another. In working with those whom others cast aside, staff and volunteers must confront the "leprosies" that afflict us, such as prejudice, preconceived assumptions, racism, and the inclination towards violent resolution of conflict. Our work engenders mutual growth, on our part in addition to on the part of our guests.

Panelists also discussed how, like Francis, we confront a violent world with resolute non-violence. By treating our guests with respect at all times, we are able to diffuse tension and conflict without having to resort to physical force.

For the week of August 31 - Welcome Aboard!

Franciscan Outreach is pleased to introduce the two new members of our case management team: Case Managers Ambryn & Roy.

Ambryn came on board at Franciscan Outreach after completing a year of service as a Lutheran Volunteer at Deborah’s Place. At Deborah's Place, she provided educational and employment opportunities to homeless and formerly homeless women while also developing client engagement, crisis intervention, and relationship building skills. She also organized and implemented a weekly humanities curriculum, philosophy and writing groups, and art projects for the women whom she served. Ambryn had previously spent time with the Haley House Drop-In Shelter & Catholic Worker House in Boston, building relationships with guests while helping to prepare and distribute food and operate a clothing pantry. She has a B.A. in Women’s Studies and Sociology/Anthropology and recently completed a 30-hour course in Basic Mental Health Training through the Center for Excellence in Service Organizations.

Roy was hired based on his outgoing personality and demonstrated rapport with our guests. We know that he will excel at reaching out to our guests and offering one-on-one attention to work on helping them to improve the quality of their lives. His joining Franciscan Outreach’s Case Management Program staff represents a career change for him. Roy had previously worked primarily with repairing and maintaining Xerox copiers. The skills that he developed in training clients on operation and preventative maintenance of their copiers, mentoring new employees, and maintaining a large number of client accounts will serve him well in his new role. Roy studied Biology and Diesel Engineering at Kennedy King and Malcolm X Colleges.

For the week of August 17 - FOA Seeking FPC

How's this for an ad...

FOA Seeking FPC - 28 year old NPO seeking LTR with one or more FPCs for mutually satisfying hard work. Must be interested in interfacing with CDHS's HMIS. If you are a P2, have measurements of 10 GB and 256 RAM, and like to run W2000 or WXP, we could be right for each other. Some peripherals welcome.

Translation???

28 year old non-profit organization is seeking a long term relationship with one or more fast Pentium computers for mutually satisfying hard work. Must be able to handle web access to the new database being set up by the Chicago Department of Human Services for its federally-required Homeless Management Information System. We're interested in computers that have the following minimum standards...

Pentium II Processor
10 GB hard drive
256 mb RAM
Running Windows 2000 or Windows XP

Monitors should be at least 16". We would also appreciate donations of printers.

What are the computers for?

The City of Chicago is in the process of developing and implementing a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). An HMIS is a computerized data collection system designed to capture client-level information over time on the characteristics and service needs homeless individuals. Franciscan Outreach's Case Management Program will be participating fully in the HMIS. We're excited about how it will help us serve our clients better, but our case management computers aren't powerful enough to do the job.

How can you help?

If you have a computer or printer that you can donate to our Case Management Program, please contact Diana at (773) 278-6724 or diana@franoutreach.org. We need 4 computers. If you don't know how to tell what your computer's specifications are, call Diana.

For the week of August 10 - Volunteers Needed in Soup Kitchen on Thursdays in August & Sept

HELP ! ! ! We've had one of our regular volunteer groups cancel, leaving us with no volunteers on Thursdays from now through mid-September.

The dates we need to fill are...

Thursday - August 26

Thursdays - September 2, 9, 16, 21, 30

also... Aug 23-Monday, Aug 30-Monday

and Sept 1, 3, 4,and 6

Bring your family, church group, youth group, prayer group, pot luck group, men's or women's club, social justice committee, school group, or just a bunch of friends and serve dinner to the homeless at our Marquard Center soup kitchen. Volunteers work from 4:30 until about 7:00 p.m. filling trays, bringing trays to tables, filling water glasses, and being friendly and helpful to our homeless guests. You can bring up to 10 volunteers per evening.

A complete list of other available dates in 2004 and details about volunteering are listed at www.franoutreach.org/parttime.htm. Email Fr. Manny at frmanny@franoutreach.org to reserve your place. Usually we have enough volunteers at the soup kitchen, but right now, we need you!

We also always need 2 or 3 volunteers per evening at our shelter to serve soup and sandwiches. View the volunteer calendar on-line at www.franoutreach.org/volatshelter.htm. There are lots of dates waiting to be filled.

For the week of August 2, 2004 - Case Management Connections

This week, we begin to bring you some of our six-month statistics for our Case Management Program. One measure that we keep of the program's operations is the number of times that a case manager meets with a client. We call each meeting a "Case Management Contact." The following chart shows the number of times that each of our three full-time salaried case managers (Sr. Pam, Nick, and Meghan) and our part-time volunteer case manager (Fr. Bill) met with clients during the first six months of 2004.

Case Management Contacts, Six Months from January-June 2004
	Sr. Pam (Jan. to April)	Nick	Meghan	Fr. Bill	Total
January	84	297	160	27	568
February	99	250	200	38	587
March	86	304	347	33	770
April	67	214	197	36	514
May	----	188	218	26	432
June	----	409	329	6	744
Total	336	1,662	1,451	166	3,615

The total number of contacts over the six month period was 3,615, which represents an increase of 8% over the first six months of 2003. And this despite the temporary shrinking of staff size during May & June and despite the fact that Nick's participation in meetings with other service providers took him out of the office for much of the month of May.

How did the number of contacts increase despite these factors? Our case managers work very hard to meet the needs of everyone who comes to us for assistance. The average for the entire six month period was 28 client meetings per day. In the month of June, Meghan met with an average of 15 clients per day, while Nick met with an average of 19. This means that each day of the month, on average, case managers met with 34 clients!

We are very proud of our Case Management Program and the way that we have been continuously able to provide more and more assistance to those in need. The increase in the quantity of meetings between case managers and their clients has in no way decreased the quality of work done in those meetings. We have many stories of our clients' successes, like the one that we shared in last week's "What's New."

Stay tuned for more statistics and stories!

For the week of July 27 -- Proof That We Can Help

In conducting outreach among our guests, Case Manager Nick Benedetto talked to a man who was in the midst of crisis. The man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia but was off of his medication and actively psychotic. He told Nick that he wanted to get back on his meds, but he didn't know how. Since he was from out of state, he didn't know where to turn.

Nick helped him connect with Thresholds, a mental-health services organization. The guest received the medication he needed. Working with Thresholds, Nick was able to find him housing in a short period of time. The guest is still in his housing and is doing very well.

Here is a note of thanks that the guest sent to Nick. In it, he is very articulate and clear. This stands out in contrast to the way he was when Nick first met him. We share it with you because it reminds us of how much of difference we are making in the lives of our guests.

"Thank you Nicholas.

I want to express in some sincere way my deep and heartfelt appreciation for all you have done for me. Without your help and careful guidance I surely would have suffered much hardship and pain, but because you did not hesitate to come to my aid, I am in a much better place. There is no doubt that the title 'Hero' applies to Mr. Nicholas Benedetto. God bless you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Peace & Blessings."

For the week of July 20 - Full Speed Ahead at Half Year

Here at Franciscan Outreach, we continue to work day in and day out to meet the basic human needs of the poor and homeless. The service numbers for the first six months of 2004 show that we are operating at a comparable or increased level in all of our emergency services programs.

At the Marquard Center Soup Kitchen and Supportive Services Center, we offer dinner service, showers, and drop-off laundry service. In the first six months of 2004, we provided:

24,752 meals

754 showers

1,073 bags of laundry washed and dried

This shows a 16% increase over the first six months of 2003 in both shower and laundry service. The number of meals served in the first six months of the year stayed about the same as last year, increasing by only 23 meals or 0.09%.

First Six Months of 2003	First Six Months of 2004	Percent Increase
24,729 meals	24,752 meals	0.09%
651 showers	754 showers	16%
926 bags of laundry	1,073 bags of laundry	16%

At Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph, we count the number of shelter nights that we provide. One shelter night is equal to one night of shelter for one person. We then estimate the number of meals provided, based on the shelter nights number. In the first six months of 2004, we provided:

44,733 shelter nights

86,782 meals

(supper & breakfast)

In comparison to 2003, this is an 0.8% increase in shelter nights and meals served.

First Six Months of 2003	First Six Months of 2004	Percent Increase
44,381 shelter nights	44,733 shelter nights	0.8%
86,099 meals	86,782 meals	0.8%

Our service levels at the shelter don't have much room to grow. We continue to operate at 98% of capacity, as we did for the past two years.

Since our shelter night count doesn't tell us much about the demand for shelter, we also keep track of the number of times we have to turn someone away because we are filled to capacity. The follow chart shows the number of Turn-aways for the first six months of 2004 and in the first six months of 2003.

Month	Number Turned Away, 2003	Number Turned Away, 2004
January	41	131
February	70	93
March	99	94
April	82	70
May	80	54
June	95	42
TOTAL	467 as of 06/30/03	484 as of 06/30/04

Demand for all of our emergency services remains high. Your support helps us meet this demand while enabling our case managers to help our individual guests take whatever steps are needed to build a better life. Coming soon on What's New: Case Management services in the first six months of 2004.

For the week of July 13 - Getting our Guests where They Need to Go

Through our Case Management Program, Franciscan Outreach Association works very hard to reach out to our guests and connect them with the resources and services that can help them to move toward a better life. Once case managers and their clients set goals, prioritize, and identify the services or resources that are needed, though, the clients need to be able to physically connect with those services.

A client who is eligible for Social Security Disability benefits, which will bring him closer to being able to afford room and board, needs to be able to go to the public aid office to apply. Someone who was able to find employment needs to be able to get to the job site, even before receiving her first paycheck. Many of our guests do not have the funds necessary to make such trips.

For this reason, we have a Transportation Card Distribution Project through which case managers offer public transportation fare cards and change for transfers to clients with whom they are working on overcoming the obstacles standing in the way of a better life. In the first six months of 2004, the staff of the Case Management Program distributed 729 fare cards to be used for 424 purposes. The most frequent needs for cards were for the following purposes:

Purpose	Number of Cards Distributed
Obtain identification document	174
Receive medical care	143
Connect with employment services	122
Stay at Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph for the night	61
Apply for Public Aid	29

The most frequent use of the transportation fare cards is to obtain a document of identification. This is an issue of concern for many of our guests, the third most frequent topic discussed with case managers, behind only permanent housing and employment. Addressing the issue requires much travel. Simply to get a State ID, a client may need to visit the Chicago Public Schools office to obtain proof of birth. Using the proof of birth, he will be able to request a social security card, but he will need to the Social Security office to do so. Once he has obtained his social security card, he can go to the Secretary of State’s office to get the State ID. Without the ability to travel to these various agencies, clients who are motivated to work for a better life may lose their momentum, feeling that success is out of their reach. This project offers concrete practical assistance for putting the wheels of change and improvement in motion.

Last year, we spent a total of nearly $4,000 on transportation fare cards and transfer fees and helped to improve many lives in the process. If you would like to help support this project, you can purchase fare cards for our guests on our Buy-a-Supply page.

For the week of July 6 -- Save the Date for our Fall Dinner

Mark your calendars now for our Fall Benefit Dinner at...