Each year, more than 5,670 Chicago residents struggling with homelessness and poverty receive lifesaving resources from The Night Ministry. The nonprofit’s Health Outreach Program brings free health care, resources such as food and clothing, and supportive services directly to individuals and families where they live, while its Youth Housing Programs provide safe and supportive living environments for young people who face multiple challenges.
The connections the nonprofit builds with those it serves — life-changing relationships rooted in compassion and acceptance — are as equally important as the services it provides.
“If housing and health care are what we do, then human connection is how we do it,” said Paul W. Hamann, President & CEO of The Night Ministry. “We believe that building supportive relationships with those whom we serve recognizes their dignity and helps lay the foundation for journeys to greater stability.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, The Night Ministry has remained committed to fulfilling its mission by continuing to offer housing, health care, and human connection to the young people, individuals, and families it serves, without interruption. The agency has even expanded its work to meet the evolving challenges faced by community members struggling with homelessness or poverty during the pandemic. It is now providing health care, supportive services, and resources such as food and clothing at select CTA stations during late-night hours to assist members of Chicago’s homeless population seeking shelter on public transit, and it has been vaccinating Chicagoans living on the streets against COVID-19. Even in a time of social distancing, The Night Ministry staff show up for their clients every day, on the streets of the city and in the agency’s shelters.
The Night Ministry’s annual Lighting Up the Night Awards Dinner and Auction provides critical funding for its Health Outreach and Youth Housing Programs. Because the organization is unable to hold this benefit in person this year, it has launched Illuminating Human Connection to spotlight the human connection that is at the heart of its work and raise $260,000 to support its mission.
Companies such as ComEd and Jones Day have already joined the initiative, and Make It Better Media Group will be match up to $10,000 raised now through May 28! You can join us and double your impact by making a donation here.
There are other ways to support The Night Ministry!
- Watch and share its Illuminating Human Connection videos
- Follow The Night Ministry on social media and use #connectTNM to share content
- Start a fundraiser
- Or share its stories
“It can be such a long road from staying on the streets to being stably housed. Having someone supporting you through it is so important,” said Allison Boyle, one of their Youth Outreach Case Managers at The Night Ministry.
Through your gift to The Night Ministry, you support some of Chicago’s most vulnerable residents on their paths to better outcomes and more stable lives.
