Programs and Services
138 women participated in case management services during fiscal year 2006.
Sarah's Circle's life sustaining services provide an average of 40 women per day with a day and evening shelter seven days per week and four hot meals per week. Snacks are available on days when we do not serve meals, and we also offer clothing for the women. We provide a telephone for local calls for the women, and they may use us for their address. In our facility, there is a large, accessible bathroom with showers, significant storage space for clothing and the women's belongings, laundry facilities, and a large, fully equipped kitchen from which to serve meals. Staff and volunteers are available throughout the week to meet the participants' most basic needs of food, home and friendship. [Return to top]
The socialization/image building component of Sarah's fosters working together, non-violent interaction and positive self-expression. The goal is for women to develop new relationships and break out of their isolation, learn ways to interact in community, and improve their self-image. A part-time art and activities director, along with other staff and volunteers, tailor activities to help participants. Women participate in arts and crafts activities, holiday celebrations, picnics, bingo, field trips, interactions with staff, volunteers, workers from collaborating agencies, and other participants. Another regular program is the Women's Response Committee, where a number of participants can share program ideas, concerns, and participate in the governance of the agency. There are also "Movie Nights", reading and creative writing workshops, additional art and recreation activities, and occasional talent shows. [Return to top]
Advocacy seeks to help women who are homeless become their own advocates and equip them to take the next steps toward health and independent living. The staff works one-on-one with women to obtain needed services for them, ranging from health care to education, from housing to job search skills. The staff helps women fill out public aid, low-income housing, and social security applications. We also encourage women to participate in community-wide events, in letter-writing campaigns and other efforts.
We have also added more support and empowerment groups to meet the women's needs: domestic violence/healthy relationships, computer skills, money management, and addictions recovery. Case management plays a significant role in advocacy for and with the women. Women who choose to participate in case management can work one on one with trained staff to search for housing, jobs, or to find other programs they may need in order to stabilize their lives. The first steps in case management for some women may be to seek help in re-establishing her identity, by getting assistance from the staff in applying for a lost birth certificate or state identification card. Case management is an essential element in assisting women who come to Sarah's to ready themselves for the steps they need to take toward independent living.
In order to follow up on women who do achieve housing, we now provide outreach services to those women, helping them connect with needed resources, and assisting them in maintaining their housing.
Sarah's has recently added two programs focused on self-sufficiency. The first is a series of life skills workshops, designed to enhance participants' abilities to live independently. Classes so far have included nutrition, grooming, a number of classes on money management, and hygiene.
The second new endeavor involves a partnership with a neighboring agency, Inspiration Café. Our Cook/Food Services Manager is leading classes for our participants to provide readiness training for the Café's food services employment training program. We initiated this program in April, and our first participant is now successfully enrolled in Inspiration Café's Café Too program. [Return to top]
Sarah's maintains a network of relationships with other agencies in Uptown and in the city as a whole. This network serves people who are homeless and/or poor; agencies include REST, Cornerstone Community Outreach, and Lincoln Park Community Shelter (three overnight shelters), the Salvation Army, Genesis House, Lakefront SRO, Inspiration Cafe, Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4), Housing Opportunities for Women, Deborah's Place, Single Room Housing Assistance Corporation, Chicago Health Outreach, Inc. and ACCESS (divisions of the Heartland Alliance), Project JOBS, Oliver's Kitchen, Enterprising Kitchen, Jewish Vocational Services, Thresholds, Ezra, and Pegasus Players.
In addition, a mental health care team from Chicago Health Outreach/ACCESS, and a team of podiatrists and podiatry students from Dr. Scholl's School of Podiatry meet with women who need their services.
In addition to our partnership with Inspiration Café, we are involved in two other partnerships, focused on domestic violence and sexual assault. A staff member from Hull House-Jane Addams Center has been meeting with a group of women weekly to discuss healthy relationships, especially related to domestic violence.
Another outside resource person from the Y.W.C.A. comes to Sarah's to provide individual counseling and a support group especially focused lesbian/bisexual/transgender issues of sexual assault. BE-HIV comes to Sarah's twice a month to offer education and testing, test reporting and counseling. Sarah's Circle is an active member of the Local Planning Group (a cross-service group of agencies serving people who are homeless and who have mental illness).
Sarah's participates actively in the following groups: the Organization of the Northeast, an advocacy community-based organization, and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the Partnership to End Homelessness, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness. We also take part in the Chicago Continuum of Care.
Because we are such an active part of so many networks of service providers, we are able to connect women with the services they need. Also, we see hundreds more women each year than most shelters do, so we can match more women on an individual basis with the help they seek. In our current location, we are located in the same building with many services the women already use and need, including ACCESS, the CHO clinic and the Department of Human Services. [Return to top]