CCO is honored to be a part of The Chicago Innovations Awards! Thank you Chicago Innovation for recognizing CCO’s work of bringing medically integrated and non-congregate shelter to Chicago’s homeless population.
On September 12, we will be celebrating with 350 other organizations who are all nominated for their contributions to their individual fields. Thank you Chicago Innovations for accepting our nomination for our work with people experiencing homelessness.
Click here to learn more about CCO’s plan for non-congregate shelter for families.
Become a sponsor for our many services and events that CCO provides to our clients. We have sponsorships available for services such as laundry, transportation, toiletries, bedding, and meals. CCO also hosts several events and celebrations throughout the year that provide joy and encouragement to our residents. We need your help to purchase food, decorations, prizes, gifts, and other supplies.
Choose what level of sponsorship that fits in your budget and with a tax deductible donation, you can partner with CCO by providing funds towards a specific event or service.
Diamond Sponsors
Become a Diamond Sponsor with a tax deductible donation of $10,000 or more. Diamond Sponsors receive:
• Recognition in our E-newsletter to volunteers and donors • Your Logo or name on ALL printed material for events that calendar year. • Personalized plaque recognizing your organization or an individual. • Organization or individual name on sponsorship page with clickable logo linked to your website. • Social Media “Thank You!” Post
Platinum Sponsors
Become a Platinum Sponsor with a tax deductible donation of $5000-$9999. Platinum Sponsors receive:
• Personalized plaque recognizing your organization or an individual. • Organization or individual name on sponsorship page with clickable logo linked to your website. • Social Media “Thank You!” Post • Recognition in our E-newsletter to volunteers and donors
Gold Sponsors
Become a Gold Sponsor with a tax deductible donation of $2500-$4999. Gold Sponsors receive:
• Appreciation gift • Recognition in our E-newsletter to volunteers and donors. • Organization or individual name on sponsorship page with clickable logo linked to your website. • Social Media “Thank You!” Post
Silver Sponsors
Become a Silver Sponsor with a tax deductible donation of $1000-$2499. Silver Sponsors receive:
• Recognition in our E-newsletter to volunteers and donors. • Organization or individual name on cornerstone sponsorship page. • Social Media ”Thank You!” Post
Bronze Sponsors
Become a Bronze Sponsor with a tax deductible donation of $250-$999. Silver Sponsors receive:
• Organization or individual name on cornerstone sponsorship page. • Social Media ”Thank You!” Post
Cornerstone would like to take the opportunity to thank all the donors and volunteers who were a part of Bringing the Happy to the residents at CCO. If you would like more information on how to be involved in 2024 please go to our Volunteer or Donations page! Thank you!
Cornerstone is rolling out new sponsorship opportunities and packages for events at CCO. Events and celebrations are an important part of the wholistic care that CCO provides to our clients. Become a supporter of Easter Baskets, Back to School, Halloween and Christmas events at CCO. You can . Backpacks, shoes and socks for Back to School; costumes and prizes for Halloween; Christmas gifts for each child, parent or guardian, man and woman sheltered at Cornerstone.
Easter Baskets
Easter is hopping our way! Click here to visit the Easter Amazon Wish List and shop for Easter goodies that will put smiles on the faces of children staying at CCO with their parents. A simple Easter basket with treats and toys could create a delightful memory for a child at CCO.
Back to School
Every year Cornerstone hosts and event for our resident children who are returning or just starting school. CCO provides the students with new items such as backpacks, school supplies, shoes, underwear and socks. Giving them a fresh start for the new school year. Cornerstone has set up an Amazon wish list for the needs of this event. Go here to purchase items to give these kids a new start on their school year.
Back to School Party 2024 August 14, 6:30PM – 8:30PM
If you would like to sponsor this event beyond the Amazon Wish list, please refer to our sponsorship page for sponsor tiers. Monetary sponsorships for this event needs to be received by June 3rd.
Halloween
For children and their families at CCO, being able to participate in national celebrations is so important to bring normalcy and connection to society around them. Every year Cornerstone hosts a fun Halloween party with costumes, games, treats and dancing! It is a good time for all. If you would like to help with this event, please go to the Amazon Wish List and purchase items like costumes, treats, prizes and games.
Family Halloween Party 2024 October 29, 6:30PM – 8:30PM
If you would like to sponsor this event beyond the Amazon Wish list, please refer to our sponsorship page for sponsor tiers. Monetary sponsorships for this event needs to be received by September 24th.
Christmas
Christmas is a time to reach out and share love and compassion with each other. CCO makes it a point to collect wish lists from the children to try get them a gift that they would want. We also proved gifts to the parents to give to give to their kids and each other. An army of elves organizes, sorts, wraps and distributes presents to families and single residents. If you would like to contribute to our Christmas efforts, go to our Amazon Wish List for children and adults, there you can support us by purchasing gifts, gift cards, wrapping paper, tape, and decorations. If you would like to volunteer go to our volunteer page for more information.
Family Christmas Party 2024 December 20th, 6:30PM to 8:30 PM
If you would like to sponsor this event beyond the Amazon Wish list, please refer to our sponsorship page for sponsor tiers. Monetary sponsorships for this event needs to be received by October 14th.
Tim Bock, CEO of Lakefront Roofing and Siding Supply, and Chris Spicer, CCO Board President, believe in a business model that uses the profits of their company to support a mission. Tim and Chris, through Lakefront, have lived their ideals as a mission business by being major financial supporter of CCO since our beginnings in 1989. One of the ways they financially support CCO is through Lakefront Springs, a bottled water brand sold by Lakefront to contractors and jobsites. Lakefront partners with NPC Colored Sealants who pay for the production costs of the water, while Lakefront sells it from their showroom. All the proceeds from Lakefront Springs go to Cornerstone.
This year the Lakefront Springs donation went to fund buying winter necessities and Christmas gifts for our single men and women’s program. Thank you Tim, Chris, NPC and all of Lakefront for your continual support of CCO. We couldn’t do it without you!
If you would like to learn more about Tim’s mission business model you can check out his books here.
In August, CCO received a box of hats and neck-warmers from Turtlefur as a part of their Project Warmth. All the staff in the office was so excited not only to receive quality winter hats and neck warmers for people experiencing homelessness, but to receive them early before the cold season starts.
It’s hard to think about the cold winter months when beaches days and backyard BB-Qs are still happening. The reality is that many people don’t start thinking about providing winter gear to people experiencing homelessness until the weather has already changed. It is possible to get snow in late October in Chicago and with many coat and winter gear drives starting in November there is sometimes a gap in our available cold weather clothing and coats.
If you are considering a coat drive for CCO, think about starting it in September. As fall blows in with colder temperatures the need for coats, hats, scarves and gloves comes as well. If you would like to drop off donations of winter gear, contact out Donation Center to schedule an appointment.
Through Turtlefur’s Project Warmth, people who have purchased Turtlefur products can add the hashtag #projectwarmth to photos of themselves wearing their Turtlefur products, tag @tutrlefur, and share to the social media platform of their choice. Turtlefur will then donate a hat or neck warmer to people in need. Thank you Turtlefur for providing quality winter gear to people experiencing homelessness in our programs and thank you to all the individuals who participated in Project Warmth.
Go to Turtlefur.com to find out how you can participate in Project Warmth
Eve Haycock, Naomi Program Director, was visiting friends and a young lady found out she worked at CCO. She was very curious asking many questions about the shelter and the people living there. This young person was moved by Eve’s description of CCO’s work with people experiencing homelessness and wanted to donate something to encourage and help the residents. She gave Eve the sketchbook she had been drawing in all year to encourage people to have hope in hard times. Then she gave all the money she saved over the summer from her allowance.
We at CCO are so grateful for this young ladies gift. It may seem small on the surface but the gift of hope goes deep into the hearts and lives of those who have little. This donation of hope may be the best gift we have received all year. Thank you.
Thanks to the amazing CCO staff, East Bank Club and Grace and Truth Church volunteers, donors, and partners; the children at CCO enjoyed a Back to School rally with games, activities, treats and a reptile show. Celebrations are so important at CCO and this rally is a great way to encourage and prepare kids for a new year of learning. It’s an opportunity for families to have some fun, get new school supplies and get excited for the coming school year.
On Wednesday afternoon, the kids had a pizza party with a reptile show hosted by Alison of Curious Creatures on Broadway, providing an opportunity for kids and families to experience and learn about animals in person. Local cartoonist, Tim “Spike” Davis, drew cartoons for the kids to color. Anna Ingerson did face painting, Isaac Ingerson did balloon twisting, and the staff facilitated more fun and games.
Along with fun the kids received a backpack, school supplies, and new shoes thanks to our many donors and partners. Chicago Public School and DFSS provided basic school supplies for each child and CCO donors supplied backpacks and supplemented other supplies. We partnered with several local businesses to collect backpacks and supplies. Combined with donors purchasing items from our Amazon School Supply wish list and financial contributions through our GoFundMe page, CCO was able to outfit each child with a backpack, new shoes, and supplies for the school year.
CCO is excited to partner with individuals and organizations to find creative solutions to everyday problems that our staff and clients face. Recently, CCO received a large donation of restaurant, wire shelving from Starbucks through Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago. Even after the CCO kitchen and pantry were outfitted with new (to CCO) shelves, there were still many shelf parts left. The CCO staff found themselves trying figure out what to do with the extra shelf pieces and had a brilliant idea. WARDROBES!
Finding robust, spacious and hygienic storage for our client spaces is a tall order and most options are unavailable to CCO. With a few modifications, the CCO staff was able to construct wire rack wardrobes from the Starbucks shelving for our clients. The new wardrobes are being placed in the family rooms at the moment but we would like to expand their use to all CCO client living spaces.
Thank you to Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago and Starbucks for providing the materials and thank you to the CCO staff for providing the ingenuity and manpower to make this improvement to our clients lives.
I know, I know school just got out. And we’re talking about Back to School already?! Yes we are.
During the 2021-2022 school year, CCO had an estimated 60 students enrolled in Chicago Public School. Now that they are going back to the classroom for in-person learning, our younger residents have many school needs. CPS wonderfully provides a box of school supplies for each child at CCO, however when it comes to Back to School that is just the tip of the iceberg. Kids need backpacks, lunchboxes, school uniforms or new clothes, new shoes, and miscellaneous supplies like calculators, extra markers and crayons.
So, CCO has started a GoFundMe and an Amazon Wish List for the Back to School needs of our student residents. Please consider a financial donation and/or donating school supplies to give young CCO residents a better chance of success in school. Thank you.
If you are local in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, you can go to these businesses that have a CCO Back to School box and drop off items there for CCO residents.
Everybody’s Coffee 935 W Wilson Ave, Chicago, IL 60640 Monday-Friday 7-2 Sat-Sun- 8-3