According to the Prison Policy Initiative, individuals who have been incarcerated are ten times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. The following essay is by Richard B., a member of Youth 4 Truth, The Night Ministry's leadership and advocacy group for young adults. Richard experienced homelessness after he was released f...
Housing instability and inadequacy are challenges that impact nearly all of the visitors to The Night Ministry's Health Outreach Bus. That's according to findings from the sixth annual Outreach & Health Ministry (OHM) Street Survey, conducted by the agency's Mission Fulfillment department earlier this year. One in every four Bus guests report h...
After 17 years in the neighborhood, The Night Ministry is moving its home office out of Ravenswood. The Chicago-based non-profit, whose mission is to provide housing, health care, and human connection to individuals struggling with homelessness or poverty, will be relocating its central administration, as well as Health Outreach staff, to a fa...
Construction continues at 1735 North Ashland, the new home of The Crib overnight shelter, Outreach & Health Ministry Program, and central administration.
Dear Friends, Throughout life, we define who we are as individuals and as a society. We question our values and beliefs – the foundations of our motivation to behave in certain ways – clarify them, change them, and reaffirm them. Our individual lives and communal stories are full of moments when we bear witness to or participate in events that make...
Homelessness is not a crime, but in municipalities across the country, more and more individuals experiencing homelessness face jail time or fines for sleeping on the sidewalk or in a car, camping in a public place, panhandling, or engaging in other activities they must do to simply survive on the streets. "It's a vicious cycle," said Sylvia Hibbar...
By Benita Natalini and Chintan Mehta, Co-Presidents, The Associate Board At this year's Lighting Up the Night, The Night Ministry's Annual Awards Dinner & Auction, President & CEO, Paul W. Hamann, Associate Board member Sam Ritchey, and other speakers provided reflections on the importance of human connection to the mission of The Night Min...
In the early 1990s, Dr. Jim Withers, a teaching physician at a Pittsburgh hospital, found himself frustrated by attitudes among the medical community that were antithetical to the goals of the profession. "When people come for health care, they're forced into boxes that we created for them," Withers said. "I suddenly put these glasses on and realiz...
On Friday, September 13, 2019, The Night Ministry's President & CEO, Paul W. Hamann, spoke to medical professionals and supporters of The Night Ministry's mission in a special event with Dr. Jim Withers, Medical Director of Operation Safety Net at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System and a pioneer in the field of street medicine. Below you'll fi...
Having made house calls while working for a safety net clinic in suburban Aurora, The Night Ministry's Senior Nurse Practitioner, Stephan Koruba, has experience bringing health care directly to people where they live. He's still doing that today as a member of the Street Medicine Team, but most of the patients he sees these days don't have a perman...
The Night Ministry's Associate Board is once again preparing for the annual Night Lights Gala, our biggest event of the year, which raises funds in support of The Night Ministry's work providing housing, health care, critical outreach, and other social services to Chicago's most vulnerable populations. This year, we're setting our most ambitious fu...
We have begun construction work inside 1735 North Ashland, the new home of The Night Ministry's central office, Health Outreach Bus Program, and our overnight shelter for young adults, The Crib. The first step was gutting the second and third floors of the building so we could build out our open office plan. The first floor, where The Cri...
While winter weather poses dangers for individuals experiencing homelessness, living on the streets during the summer can create its own set of challenges. Staff members with The Night Ministry's Health Outreach Bus and Street Medicine programs educate their clients about potential heat-related health conditions such as heat exhaustion and stroke, ...
During Lighting Up the Night, our Annual Awards Dinner & Auction, The Night Ministry took a look at the third aspect of its mission---human connection. Our President & CEO, Paul W. Hamann, spoke about how human connection is at the root of the services we provide. Read his remarks below. The Night Ministry has cultivated a data-driven cultu...
On June 11, 2019, The Night Ministry held Lighting Up the Night, its Annual Awards Dinner & Auction, emceed by WTTW host and producer, Geoffrey Baer. Thanks to event sponsors and attendees, we raised nearly $500,000 in support of our mission to provide housing, health care, and human connection to our community members experiencing ho...
Every year, a select group of students from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management join the boards of Chicago-area nonprofits as ex-officio members, tackling strategic projects while gaining valuable experience in board governance. The Night Ministry has been one of those organizations for more than a decade, one of the reasons Kell...
After 35 years as an interventional cardiologist in Michigan, Dr. Ralph Ryan is now practicing on the streets of Chicago. Ryan provides free health care to individuals who are experiencing homelessness, as a volunteer physician with The Night Ministry's Outreach and Health Ministry Program, most often on the Street Medicine Team. Being part of a te...
It's been a year of milestones at Phoenix Hall, capped off by six of the program's residents graduating from high school. Located in Chicago's West Lawndale neighborhood, Phoenix Hall is The Night Ministry's residence for high schoolers experiencing housing instability. It's named after the mascot of North Lawndale College Prep High School, which, ...
A poem by Tiana Johnson The world I wish to give to you. Though you are my world at the age of two. Growing and changing with phases of the sun. Seems that just yesterday you were only 1. Waking every morning with a smile that is true. I can only hope to be as patient as you. Forgiveness is in you, and love radiates from. For 777 days I have b...
By Daniel Barber Writing and performing music saved my life. When you're locked up, there's not much to do. I'd always loved poetry, so I spent my time reading, writing, and focusing on my vocabulary. Life doesn't always go your way, and to snap out of my depressive state, I had to put my thoughts into words on paper. Being homeless is tough. But I...