Help That Empowers and Equips
Fosters Life Changing Results
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Providing Help that Doesn’t Cost a Person Their Dignity
Whether it is folks with developmental, physical, or social-emotional disabilities, individuals reentering society from incarceration,
people who have struggled with addiction, or just neighbors mired in generational cycles of poverty – we have been
present for over 20 years as a place of refuge where all are welcomed, affirmed, and challenged to grow.
How Our Program Works
Organizations working with people in poverty generally serve two fundamentally different groups of people:
Our program operates on two different “tracks” to facilitate growth for both groups:
1. A “Short-term” or Employment Track
For the first group, we recognize they need help meeting basic needs in the short-term, but the question is, “How do we help them to meet those needs in a way that affirms their dignity, empowers them to recognize their capacity, and cultivates growth so they can reach a place of greater self-sufficiency?”
2. A “Long-term” or Enrichment Track
The second group is typically seniors and folks with significant disabilities. This group will always need help meeting some of their basic needs, and the way we operate benefits them and the community far more than standing in a food pantry line or participating in another one-way giving model.
Everything We Do is Designed
With These Goals in Mind
Both Enrichment and Employment Track participants have access to our credit-earning opportunity, will be placed in affinity groups with their peers, and can attend the classes we offer.
The difference for Employment Track participants is the classes are mandatory, along with the job training/coaching as they work towards
full-time self-sustaining employment in the community.
Logic Model
We worked with professors from the University of Illinois in developing a logic model to aid in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of our programming.
You can see the problem(s) we have identified, which we believe impede a person’s ability to affect lasting change in their life and a solution to this problem.
The model also outlines the activities our programming includes and both the short-term and long-term outcomes we expect to see from those activities.
