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...
Construction continues at 1735 North Ashland, the new home of The Crib overnight shelter, Outreach & Health Ministry Program, and central administration.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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, ...
Its iconic water tower, decorated with the blue stripes and red stars of the flag of Chicago, is a landmark of the city's skyline. And soon the four-story building at 1735 North Ashland will house one of Chicago's most iconic organizations. The Night Ministry is moving key portions of its operations to the red-brick building, located just north of ...
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, ...
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...
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...
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...
The process of renting an apartment or buying a home can be difficult enough. But individuals experiencing homelessness face an array of challenges when trying to find stable housing. "There are some very common situations among the homeless population such as little or no income, a low credit score, an arrest record, or a history of evictions that...
The relationship with The Night Ministry doesn't end when residents move on from the agency's Youth Housing Programs. "The Night Ministry provides comprehensive case management for young people who have been discharged from our housing programs," said Bridget Thomas, Housing Stabilization Specialist. "We want to help them maintain their stability ...