April 1, 2005 to July 1, 2005

For the week of July 19, 2005 - Learning about our Guests' Learning

As part of our quarterly survey, we asked our guests how far they went in school.  The results are shown in the table below.

You can see that our guests fall on both sides of the educational spectrum.  While 12 never reached high school, 12 have completed higher education degree programs.  As you may expect, 57% of those who answered the question did not graduate from high school--though 12.6% did obtain a G.E.D.  At the same time, 18% pursued higher education.

Regardless of how far they went in school, all of our guests have a great deal to share.  They follow politics and sports and enjoy conversing in our dining room and at the shelter.  Bernard once told us that he's glad the Marquard Center is here "because it gives me a place to meet interesting people which I can communicate with on an intelligent level."

For the week of July 12 - Reflections on Service

Summer is a time of transition at Franciscan Outreach, as full-time volunteers finish up their terms of service and new full-time volunteers come on board.  Today we bring you reflections from a current volunteer, Canh-Lien, who will be completing her year of service in the coming week.  

As my volunteer year comes to a close, I reflect on all the events and situations that I have been a part of.  I can safely say that I will return home with more wonderful tales to tell than Geoffrey Chaucer could ever imagine.  Friends and family have consistently asked me what I will do when I return to the “real world.”  I ask myself, “What is the real world?  Is this not the real world?”  If working with the homeless isn’t real enough, then please define reality. 

Entering this line of work, I naively and arrogantly thought I would be saving the world.  I would be impacting these impoverished souls and nothing can stop me.  Little did I know that I myself could transform in the process.  Yes, I think I have made a small difference and I hope that I have emitted the Franciscan spirit not only to our guests but to everyone I have befriended this year.  That in itself is saving the world bit by bit. 

Most importantly to me, I have received more than anticipated.  I learned what compassion and empathy truly are.  I learned that I don’t need to be trampled over like a doormat for people to like me and that patience and mutual respect bridge many gaps.  Laughter is the antidote to any awkward moment and saying “thank you”--and truly meaning it--restores people’s dignity.  I also learned that sometimes it’s okay to be unsure of the future. 

Someone once said, “Thinking anxiously about the future, people forget to live in the present such that they live neither in the present or the future.” I’m currently still debating the next stage in my life, unsure of whether to enter the work force or to pursue a master’s degree in public health.  However, I am definitely sure that after this year’s experience, I have a lot to offer, whichever direction I may choose.   

 I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Franciscan Outreach for all the wonderful things they do for the people they cater to and for allowing me to witness and grow in their compassionate awareness.

We thank Canh-Lien and all of the full-time volunteers for their dedication and their willingness to open their hearts and lives in service. Working together with them, we are all continuously learning, changing, and growing.  This is the essence of what we do at Franciscan Outreach.  As stated in our mission:

"We, the donors, board members, staff, volunteers, and guests,

are looking for the transformation of ourselves and our society."

For the week of June 28 - Pooch Walk Registration and Pledge Forms Available On-line

Announcing... our first- ever Pooch Walks for the Homeless 2005!

Even you dog can help the homeless! Take a 1.5 mile walk around a scenic park and raise money that will support our overnight shelter, soup kitchen , and case management services for the homeless!

Join us for a fun morning at either of our two events -

in Naperville at the RiverWalk and Grand Pavilion on Saturday, September 24, 2005

OR

in Palos Heights at Lake Katherine Nature Center on Saturday, October 8, 2005

You don't need a dog to participate. Use the Registration form to reserve your own invisible dog leash! Or bring an inanimate object that resembles a dog!

Come and see the Windy City K-9 Disc Club give a demonstration of the amazing ability of their trained dogs to catch a frisbee! This is a World Class flying disc team!

       Click here to view the Information page

        Click here to view the Registration Form 

        Click here to view the Pledge Form

        If you can't view any of these documents, call (773) 278-6724 to receive them by mail.

This is a great event for families, youth groups, church groups, scouts, Small Christian Community Groups, and individuals. Call Diana at (773) 278-6724 for a package of pledge forms and a poster.

Collect pledges to increase the impact of your participation! We have prizes for reaching various pledge levels.  See the pledge form.

Does your workplace sponsor events such as this? Sponsorships make a HUGE impact on our ability to raise funds that will support our programs for the homeless. A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available. Call or email Diana for a Sponsorship Form.

Would you like to volunteer at either of these events? Call or email Diana.

Do you have any silent auction prizes that you'd like to donate? Call or email Diana.

For the week of June 14, 2005 -- AA Meeting at the Marquard Center

A large part of the role that we play at Franciscan Outreach is in being a resource for the community.  Sometimes we provide direct resources to those who need them: food, showers, laundry service, shelter.  Other times, through our Case Management Program, we direct our guests toward other service providers.  Now, we can direct those looking for an AA meeting to our very own Marquard Center Dining Room.

Each Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 8:30 pm, we now host the "Wednesday Night Harvey's Kitchen Meeting." This Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was established by Nick Benedetto at the beginning of June.  It is a Beginner Speakers Meeting, with "old timers" coming in each week to speak about the first three steps in the program.

These steps are:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

For the Week of June 7 - National Hunger Awareness Day Today

Today is the fourth annual National Hunger Awareness Day. This day was created in 2002, at a time when there was a significant increase in the number of Americans unable to feed their families.  (www.hungerday.org)

At Franciscan Outreach, we see hundreds of those Americans each evening.  As of May 31, we had served 19,530 meals in the Marquard Center Dining Room in 2005, for an average of 129 hungry men, women, and children every night.    We had served 73,155 meals at Franciscan House shelter in 2005, including the new lunch service that we profiled last week.

At Franciscan Outreach, we feed the poor as an act of faith.  The Society of St. Andrew has created a Bible Study guide on the issue of hunger.  “By examining the issue of hunger from a biblical perspective, this study seeks to make clear that one of the surest ways to test the quality of our walk with God is to examine the way we respond to the needs of others.” 

The Bible Study includes readings and commentaries, a variety of activities, and questions for reflection.  It is divided into 6 units, with 2 session plans per unit.  It provides a structure in which to raise awareness not only of the national (and international) issues of hunger but of the responsibility of people of faith to address the great need in our society.  http://endhunger.org/study/BibleStudyComplete.pdf   

 For the Week of May 31 - Announcing ... Lunch at the Shelter

Last January, shortly after joining the staff at Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph, Day Supervisor Beverly Williams initiated lunch meal service.  When she would arrive at the shelter at 8:30 AM, she would see men lined up already in order to get a bed for the night.  She knew that they had nowhere to go and that they got hungry during the day.

The neighbors and the alderman had complained about the amount of trash that these men would leave in their wake.  Sometimes some of them would be drinking, and occasionally, arguments would break out.  Beverly had an idea about how to change all of that.  She told the guests that she would serve them lunch, as long as they kept the street and sidewalk clean and avoided drinking or arguing.

It was a new and different idea - and its working!  Each day, with a great deal of support from the resident members of our Crew Staff, Beverly has a meal prepared and served in the early afternoon.  All of the food comes from the Greater Chicago Food Depository.  Recent lunches have included turkey breast, chicken and dumplings, beef stew, enchiladas, bean burritos, chicken and noodles, and pastrami sandwiches.  In the summer, Beverly is planning lighter fare: cold cuts and canned peaches.  Every day, there is juice for the guests to drink. 

The following are the numbers of lunches served Monday through Friday over the past 4 months. 

Word has gotten out to those in need of lunchtime food.  At the end of May, we were seeing 30 or more guests show up—as many as 45 on one day.

For the week of May 24 - 20th Annual Interfaith Memorial Observance for Indigent Persons

On Wednesday May 25, 2005, the 20th annual Interfaith Memorial Observance for Indigent Persons was held at

First United Methodist Church at Chicago Temple where Rev. Dr. Philip Blackwell is Senior Pastor.

Fr. Larry Janezic, OFM, the Executive Director of Franciscan Outreach, was the Coordinator of the service. Eric Zorn, Columnist with the Chicago Tribune was the Keynote Speaker.

The Memorial Ministry for Indigent Persons commemorates the lives of indigent babies, children, and adults who are buried each year in mass graves in Cook County. The Mission Statement of the Ministry reads, in part...

"to provide awareness and education to the general public regarding individuals who have been buried in a potter's field and to commemorate these lives through a worship celebration that gives glory to God as Creator and recognition to the sacredness of all human life."

The Memorial Ministry was founded by W. Earl Lewis in 1986. He established this annual memorial so that the community would have an opportunity to serve as a kind of "surrogate family" to those who have died poor and alone. Mr. Lewis and his successors work closely with the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office to identify those who were buried without any family or fiends to claim their bodies or mark their passing. While this is the 20th year that the Memorial has been held, Mr. Lewis went home to be with the Lord on July 27, 1999. At his request, he was laid to rest at Homewood Memorial Gardens in the potter's field among the people he loved. His sister was honored today with a plaque commemorating his life and work.

The Keynote Address today was given by Eric Zorn. His experience of being one of the first on the scene when a homeless person was found frozen to death under an underpass near his home several months ago made him aware of the sad deaths of those who have no friends or family.  

Readings and prayers from different faith traditions were presented by...

• Fr. Larry Janezic, OFM, who gave the opening prayer

• Swami Varadananda, of the Vivehananda Vedanta Society

• Grandma Peggy DesJarlait, of the Anawim Center, a center for Native Americans in Chicago

• Boman J. Damkevala, of the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago

• Henry Pleas, soloist at First United Methodist Temple, who sang a beautiful rendition of Psalm 23 in Hebrew

• Rev. Peter McQueen, of LaCasa Norte, who read the names of persons buried on June 17, 2004 and August 12, 2004

• Diana York, of St. John's United Church of Christ, Palatine, who read the names of persons buried on December 29, 2004 and January 12, 2005,

• Jason Renken, of the Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who read the names of the persons buried on February 10, 2005, March 3, 2005, and April 7, 2005.

As the late Earl Lewis stated,

"To live and die alone is a human tragedy, but not to be remembered and mourned...after earthly life... is an ugly blemish on human dignity."

The Memorial Service today was one small way in which the people of Chicago have remembered and celebrated the lives of those who have died alone in the past year in Cook County.

For the week of May 3 - Remembering Archbishop Oscar Romero

On February 22, 1977, Bishop Oscar Romero was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador. Many of the poor and those who worked to further their human rights were disappointed because he had often sided with the government.

Within a few weeks, however, Father Rutilio Grande, one of the Archbishop's first priests, was murdered by government forces. This event opened the Archbishop's eyes to the reality of the situation in his country.

From then on he spoke out on behalf of his people. He denounced the injustices that he saw all around him and called upon the church to stand with its people. After a homily he gave on March 23, 1980 in which he exhorted the members of the Army to stop killing their brothers and sisters, the government had had enough. The next day, while saying Mass, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated.

Twenty-five years later, his voice continues to inspire those who work for the poor, including many of us here at Franciscan Outreach. Here are some quotes that reflect his outlook...

I am going to speak to you simply as a pastor, as one who, together with his people, has been learning the beautiful but harsh truth that the Christian faith does not cut us off from the world but immerses us in to, that the church is not a fortress set apart from the city. The church follows Jesus who lived, worked, struggled and died in the midst of a city...

O Romero, "The Political dimension of the Faith from the Perspective of the Option for the Poor," Voice of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements, compiled and translated by J. Brockman, p. 178

The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the Gospel if it stopped being the "voice in the voiceless," a defender of the rights of the poor, a promoter of every just aspiration for liberation, a guide, an empowerer, a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society, a society that prepares the way for the true kingdom of God in history.

Ibid, p 137-138.

The face of Christ is among the sacks and baskets of the farm worker; the face of Christ is among those who are tortured and mistreated in the prisons; the face of Christ is dying of hunger in the children who have nothing to eat; the face of Christ is in the poor who ask the church for their voice to be hears. How can the church deny this request when it is Christ who is telling us to speak for him?

O. Romero, November 26, 1978 homily, cited by M. Dennis, R. Golden, S. Wright in Oscar Romero, Reflections on His Life and Thought, p. 14.

At Franciscan Outreach, we try our best to empower those who often feel powerless. We stand with those who work hard to improve their lives. we speak for those whose voices would otherwise not be heard. We accompany them on their journey from the streets to a better life.  

For the week of April 19 - Spring Benefit Dinner - Gateway to the Kingdom

Join us for our Spring Benefit dinner - Gateway to the Kingdom - at Chicago Yacht Club on Wednesday, May 11, 2005. To view the invitation - click here.

As always your donations help support our programs that serve the homeless. Have fun and help make the Kingdom of God a reality at the same time! Hope to see you there!

Also --- Mark your calendars for the Pooch Walks to Help the Homeless this Fall. For dates - click here.

For the week of April 5 - Where do they go if our beds are filled?

Even though we have 250 beds at our Franciscan House overnight shelter, we often have to turn people away because we are filled to capacity. In 2004, we had to turn someone away 1,066 different times. That's a big increase over the 1998 rate of 333.

We wanted to know more about where these men and women go if they can't get into our shelter, so we added a questions to our quarterly survey. We asked our guests: "If all of our beds are full and you can't stay here, where do you go?" Here are the results... 

Of those who answered, most go to the streets or some other outdoor location. But notice that many didn't answer the questions - maybe they have no good answer for where they go. Our plan is to try to raise enough money to hire more case managers so that we can help more guests get into a better living situation. For every guest who no longer needs our shelter, another bed is available for someone who would otherwise be turned away. Your financial contributions help us meet our budget and plan for expansion.