July 18, 2008 to Dec 31, 2008

For December 22, 2008 - Franciscan Outreach on Channel 2 News - Derrick Blakley

Franciscan Outreach will be on Channel 2 News again tonight at 6:00 pm. I and several guests will be talking about the how the downturn in the economy is affecting grants and donations and how that might affect our programs. Several guests will talk about what it's like to be homeless, how the economy is affecting them, and how we've helped them. 

Here's the link to story that you can copy and paste into your web browser (you may need to download Flash Player to see it):

http://cbs2chicago.com/services/popoff.aspx?categoryId=5&videoId=52816@wbbm.dayport.com&videoPlayStatus=true&videoStoryIds=&videoTime=4.583&

You may also be able to access it by going to the main webpage at www.cbs2chicago.com and typing "Franciscan Outreach" into the search box.

December 18, 2008 - Are we at a Turning Point?

- An alcoholic who's been living on the streets for the past ten years sees a friend die and figures and decided to talk to a case manager about how to change his lifestyle

- A young mother who can't afford to feed her children and brings them to eat at our dining room at the Marquard Center talks to a case manager about getting training for a better job

- A man who's just been released from prison decides that he wants to stay out of jail and find an honest job asks a case manager for help

- A construction worker who lost his job because of the economy and run out of savings decides to swallow his pride and eat at our Marquard Center. While he's here he talks to a case manager who tells him how to get help paying his past due electric bill.

        ...all of these persons are at a turning point in their lives. They are also typical of the men and women who come to our Marquard Center dining room and our Franciscan House shelter: they make a decision that they want to do something different with their lives and come to us for help.  

        We only hope that all of our programs will be here for many years to come so that they can find the help when they need it. At the moment, though, we are wondering whether we are at a turning point ourselves. We've been living beyond our means and have debt of $235,000. If the end of the year isn't good for us, we may have to close one of our programs in order to keep the ministry strong.

        If you can make a year-end donation, please do so. If you know of anyone who can make a year-end donation, please contact us. Since the current payroll and bills are paid, whatever comes in for the rest of the year will go towards keeping all our programs open by paying down the line of credit and saving for next year. We are working hard to cut unnecessary expenses and increase funding, but any increase in funding will take time.

        To learn more, contact Diana and ask for a pdf of our Turning Point Appeal that  will show you where we are and what we need. Together, we can keep all our emergency food and shelter programs open.  

November 18 - Franciscan House shelter on Channel 2 News

Dana Koslov of CBS/ Channel 2 News did a story about the cold weather and our shelter on the news last night, November 17. You can see the story and video at

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/hard.economy.franciscan.2.867212.html   

She did a great job of condensing the hour of video they took down to a 2:07 piece that got straight to the critical issues. Contact Diana if there is any way you can help the homeless at this critical time of the year.

November 11 - Are More People in Need of Help?

During these difficult economic times, are we seeing more people who are in need of help? The answer is "yes and no."

At our dining room for the homeless at the Marquard Center, the picture looks like this:

          October - 4,134 meals, up 171 meals from previous month

          September - 3,963 meals, up 130 meals than previous month

           August - 3,833 meals, down 207 meals from previous month

           July - 4,040 meals, up 483 meals from previous month

For the shelter, the number of new clients has remained relatively stable:

          October 48 new guests

          September 41 new guests

          August 52 new guests

          July 52 new guests

In case management, the number of new clients has also remained stable:

          October 117 new clients

          September 114 new clients

          August 124 new clients

          July 118 new clients

Whether up or down, we still serve a lot of people who have no where else to turn. We are glad that we can be here for all those who need us!

October 24 - A Slice of Wednesday

On Wednesdays we have a lot happening here at the Marquard Center. What happened on Weds Oct 22?

• 43 persons saw a case manager

• 13 saw a nurse

• 5 saw a medical person for an HIV, STD, Hepatitis C, or PSA test

• 3 persons attended a group meeting lead by one of our case managers

• one former guest volunteered at the sign-in desk

Just one of the many successes that day was the following, as told by Nick, our Director of Case Management:  "One of our case managers helped an individual into housing and he moved in yesterday. Today he came up to say thank you and see us about furniture. We arranged a basic set of furniture for him that will be delivered later today. He will go out with a case manager tomorrow to buy household goods, including a bed-in-a-bag and an alarm clock. He's happy that he finally has a place to call home again, with a key and everything."

What did the 43 guests talk to a case manager about? Many guests had more than one need - there were 112 issues discussed.

• 13 for permanent housing

• 9 for medical care

• 1 for a medical card

• 28 for food

• 1 for optical assistance

• 19 to use the phone

• 21 for employment

• 6 for an ID card

• 2 for transportation

• 1 for furniture

• 1 for mental health care

• 2 for clothing

• 1 for using our site as his mailing address

• 2 for transitional housing

• 2 for public aid

• 1 for a legal issue

There's a lot going on here on Wednesdays! We're also open for case management at the Marquard Center every Monday through Friday, too. Our offices at St. Peter's are open Monday through Thursday, as well.  Last year, our case managers discussed 15,549 separate issues with the guests. Your support makes it all possible.

Now is the time to buy your tickets for our Fall benefit dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy in Oak Brook on Saturday, Nov 15, 2008. We're celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the shelter! You should have received your invitation in the mail, but you can always buy tickets on-line. We're worried that because of the economy the attendance will be less, so if you can afford it, please come.  We also have raffle tickets for a deeded timeshare that are available by calling our office.  Thanks for your support!

October 4 -  St Francis and the Animals - Pooch Walk for the Homeless

October 4th is the feast of St Francis of Assisi.  Why is he known as the patron saint of animals? Everything he did demonstrated his sense that all persons and creatures are children of the same God.  In the book Francis of Assisi  by Gianmaria Polidoro, as translated by Fr Benet Fonck, a good friend of Franciscan Outreach, it is written:

Miracles about the saint started to abound. People were saying that he spoke to animals and to the birds who filled the air with all their chirping and chatter. "My sisters the birds," he would say, "you ought to give praise to the God who created you. He's the one who had fed you and clothed you." And the birds would nod their heads and jump for joy until the saint let them fly away freely across the sky.

Or there was the story about Francis making peace with the famous wolf of Gubbio on behalf of the terror stricken people of the town. The wolf gave Francis his paw as a sign of friendship, and the citizens promised to feed it. And then they treated it with respect and veneration as though it were a living relic of the holiness of Francis himself.

(Right, the 13th century fresco from Assisi depicting the legend of St Francis preaching to the birds)

If St Francis showed that kind of respect to the birds and a wolf, how much more should we show respect to the men and women who find themselves in difficult circumstances? You can help us do that by joining us next Saturday, October 11, for the Pooch Walk for the Homeless. Come our for a beautiful day at Lake Katherine Nature Center. Bring a dog if you have one or just come without one. You can register on-line. More details are at www.franoutreach.org/PoochWalk.htm 

Good News!! Today, October 3, the president signed into law an extension of the law that provides that persons who are age 70 1/2 or older can donate to charity from their IRA without incurring a tax penalty. If that applies to you, please remember the homeless!

You can buy tickets online for our Fall benefit dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy in Oak Brook on Saturday, Nov 15, 2008. Watch the mail for your invitation. We also have a raffle for a deeded timeshare that are available by calling our office. 

September 22 - Who eats dinner at the Marquard Center?

On Tuesday, Sept 9, we conducted a survey of the guests eating at the Marquard Center. Of the 132 persons who ate here that night, 101 agreed to fill out a survey. What did we learn? Here are some highlights:

Are they homeless?

• 32 live on the streets: some all the time (23), others when they can't get into a shelter (7), 1 lives in a vehicle, and 1 lives in a storage unit.

• 30 stay at a shelter:  ours (23) or another shelter (7)

• 14 live with someone else:  family (10), friends (4)

• 21 are not currently homeless: an apartment (14), a single room occupancy unit (4), in a hotel (2), or a house (1). An interesting question for next time is how many of these persons have found housing through our case managers.

How far do they come to get here?

• 51 come from within 2 miles away or less

• 36 travel 4 miles - (possibly from downtown Chicago?)

• 3 come 6 miles or more

What is the nationality or race?

• 38 are African-American

• 36 are Caucasian

• 25 are Caucasian-Hispanic

• 1 is American Indian and 1 is mixed race

How long have they been coming here to eat?

• up to a year - 19

• between 1 and 5 years - 45

• between 5 and 10 years - 21

• more than 10 years - 7

How often do they eat here?

• once a week or less - 11

• 2 or 3 days per week - 26

• 4 or 5 days a week - 30

• every day - 28

Any other info?

• 45 also see one of our case managers

• Most walk to get here (37), some take a bus (36), some ride a bike (21) and 3 drive a car

• The ages of the guests were as follow: in their 20s (4), in their 30s (18), in their 40s (30), in their 50s (34), and over 60 (12)

Some conclusions:

• almost half of the people we serve live within 2 miles of us

• we are serving those who are living on the streets, in shelters, and in some kind of home - roughly one-third of each

• we are reaching almost half with our case management services

• some people have been eating here a very long time - no wonder they consider us to be their family!

• some people continue to eat here after we find them housing

For September 8, 2008 - Unseen Flood Causes Two Night Closure of Shelter

In an event reminiscent of the Great Chicago Flood of 1992, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Flood), an unseen flood caused the closure of our shelter at Harrison and California.  As the rains of Hurricane Gustav moved through Chicago on Thursday, September 4, at around 7:00 pm. the power went off at the shelter. Since we normally let the women in at 8:00 pm and the men in at 8:30, we had little time to spare to get the power back on so we could open. Even with the emergency back up lights, it was pitch-black in parts of the shelter. We determined that it would not be safe to open, since the emergency lights, flashlights, and any other battery operated lights we could get wouldn't last long.

The guests, at this point, were standing outside in the pouring rain waiting for us to open. Some had gone down the block to stand under a construction scaffolding. We told them what had happened and asked them to be patient. Although they were cold, wet, tired and hungry, most were very cooperative.

When ComEd said that they wouldn't be out there until 9:15 to look at the problem, we started working on a plan B. Several calls were made to the City, the Red Cross, the police, and the Department of Human Services. Many of the original 37 women and 209 men who had signed up decided that they would not wait in the rain. Eventually, four CTA buses were dispatched to at least get the guests out of the rain and warmed up. By the time the buses arrived at 11:00 pm, 22 women and 132 men were still outside. After a little while we brought the evening's sandwiches and water onto the buses to serve the guests dinner.

Despite a false report that the power was out in the whole area, it was only our building that was affected. We called a 24 hour electrician, CDG Electric Corp, who had someone on site within 15 minutes. An inspection of the electrical box revealed an inch and a half of water in the bottom of the box. Rain water from the roof above the electrical box had leaked onto the pipes going into the box which shorted out all of the breakers. Apparently, the problem had been happening for a little while, without our knowledge, because some of the breakers were rusted. We had had the roof in that area repaired a few months earlier but apparently it didn't fully solve the problem. 

Meanwhile, the representative from the City had been trying to locate alternative shelter for the 154 guests who were dozing on the buses. Since we are such a large shelter, doing so was not easy.   

By 12:50 pm the electrician had installed a few temporary breakers and restored partial power in two of our three of our dorms, but by then the buses had left. The 22 women were taken to another shelter. The men were taken to a Department of Human Services community center where they received two blankets each and a place on the floor. When we learned this, we turned all the electricity back off and sent the electricians home.

The next morning, the electricians purchased the supplies they needed while the roofers that had repaired the roof several months earlier added more tar where they thought it might be helpful. After determining that the repairs would not likely be completed with enough leeway to be certain that we could open on time, we worked with the City to find alternative space for our guests for Friday night.

The Department of Human Services arranged for the 37 women to go to another shelter, 75 men to go to a temporary facility set up for them with emergency cots and staffed partly by our shelter staff, 95 men to go to a seasonal shelter that doesn't usually open until October, and the remaining 38 men to a fourth shelter. We conducted opening as usual but handed out numbered flyers that the guests used as their admission tickets into the other shelters. We sent various members of our staff to the seasonal shelter and the temporary facility to assist with our guests. The City and one of the shelters provided vans to transport the guests for the first two hours of opening.

On Saturday, the electricians replaced our electrical box and installed new circuits. The work was complete by 6:23, so we could open Saturday night as usual.

Many of the guests were very grateful that so many persons had gone out of their way to find them shelter. They realized that we could have just closed our doors and were happy that we took care of them. We would like to thank the following individuals who made this situation less traumatic than it otherwise could have been:

• The staff of the Chicago Department of Human Services who did a terrific job of finding shelter space, setting up the temporary facility, bringing extra cots to the seasonal shelter, and transporting guests to the other locations, 

• Hope House and Pastor Scott, who opened their seasonal shelter for one night to accommodate our guests and provided dinner,

• The Salvation Army, who brought breakfast to our guests at the community center,

• The Red Cross, who helped us get in touch with the emergency management office of the City,

• The temporary facility and their staff that housed and fed 75 of our guests, even though they prefer to remain un-named,

• David Galvez of CDG Electric Corp and his staff, who came out in the middle of the night on Thursday and worked all day Saturday to get us up and running

• Our own supervisors, Crew Staff, and full time volunteers at Franciscan Outreach, who handled this emergency with calmness, patience, and compassion.

• The guests, who responded to what little we could do for them with gratitude.

If you'd like to help us recover financially from this event, we would be very grateful. You can participate by covering the unexpected expenses:

• $300 for the electrician who came out from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. Although we only paid for one person, David came out from a distant suburb as well.

• $1,100 for the commercial grade electrical box to replace ones that were damaged

• $2,400 for other materials and labor for the nearly two days of repairs to the electrical service.

• We'll eventually need more roof repairs, but the final diagnosis on that isn't in yet. There are currently a few drips in the area of the electrical box with today's rain, so we've covered the box in plastic and are keeping a close eye on it.

If you can appreciate how important basic shelter is, please consider making a donation to help offset our everyday operating expenses. It costs us $2,007 per day to run the shelter. That's a very efficient $8.16 per person per day and includes two meals and many extra services.

We are presently in debt and waiting for donations and grants to pick up in the Fall. If you value the emergency shelter we provide, please help support it financially. If we can't raise enough to avoid incurring debt, then we may be at a turning point at which we have to reconsider our ability to provide these basis emergency services. The specialized housing and case management services are of more interest to the City and foundations, while basic food and shelter needs the support of individuals like you. We don't charge our guests, so we can only provide these services if you support them. 

If you can participate in this good work, mailing a check is better than making an on-line donation. We use a credit card processor that doesn't charge us any fees, but as a tradeoff, it holds the donations until the middle of the following month. That would be mid-October for donations made in September. Contact Diana if we can provide you with any more information about our programs or finances. We're also happy to provide tours of our shelter and soup kitchen or sign you up to volunteer so you can see first hand what good work we do.

With your help, the invisible flood at Franciscan House will become a piece of our history, one, we hope, that will never be repeated.

July 18, 2008 -  Fr. Larry concludes 9 years of Service, Diana Faust appointed Executive Director  

     After 9 years of dedicated service, Fr. Larry Janezic, OFM, leaves his position as Executive Director of Franciscan Outreach Association to begin a new ministry as a legislative advocate for the new Franciscan Action Network in Washington Dc.

     Franciscan Action Network is a grassroots, faith-based legislative advocacy organization with a growing national base of organizations and persons who are inspired by he witness and example of St. Francis and St Clare of Assisi. Its mission is to bring a coordinated and effective voice to matters of justice, peace, and care for creation to Washington DC, the US, and beyond.

     Fr Larry will build upon his experience here at Franciscan Outreach, his one year internship as a lobbyist with Catholic Charities before he arrived here, and his many years of prior experience as a pastor and community organizer in San Antonio and Chicago. We are sorry to see Fr Larry go but are excited for him as he begins an exciting new position in Washington.

     We welcome Diana Faust as our new Executive Director. Diana has been with Franciscan Outreach as the Assistant Executive Director and Director of Development for 11 years. Diana is a Secular Franciscan who will continue the tradition of Franciscan care for the poor that has been the hallmark of Franciscan Outreach. Prior to arriving at Franciscan Outreach, Diana practiced law for 10 years in Chicago.

     We also welcome

• Fr Vaughn Fayle, who is joining the Franciscan friars, as our Mission Effectiveness Coordinator

• Chasity Wells-Armstrong as Program Director at the shelter, and

• Greg Foster as Director of Development

• Kathleen O'Connor as a Streets to Home case manager

Join us is pledging your prayers of support to Fr Larry as he begins a new career and to Diana, Fr Vaughn, Chasity, Greg, and Kathleen as they continue a fine tradition of service here at Franciscan Outreach.

Air conditioners needed!  The air conditioners in our conference room (which is the only source of air for Fr Vaughn's office) and the full time volunteer living room are so old that they don't emit cold air anymore. We can purchase a 10,000 btu one for the conference room for $249 and an 8,000 btu one for the volunteers for $199, both Kenmore brands from Kmart.  Please contact Diana by 3 pm today if you can help.

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