Author: Ellen Raedeke

Below is a client story from successfully housed client Oswaldo. Names have been changed.

Oswaldo came to Cornerstone almost as soon as he first stepped foot into America, with a week’s stay sleeping at a police station in between. He speaks mostly French, but he’s in good company, as nearly half of our men’s program speak French. Many of them take EAL (English as an Additional Language) classes at Truman College, and when someone new comes to the program, they support one another in navigating a new city. 

Oswaldo left his home country after experiencing extreme violence at the hands of law enforcement there. Oswaldo considers Cornerstone his first home in America. He says he was very happy with Cornerstone – he says “The staff respected me and treated me as a human. Everyone in the program is treated as equals – everyone.” 

When someone moves to a new country, they lose so much of the support network they had before. Oswaldo was able to be regularly in touch with his family, thousands and thousands of miles away, through his phone – but in his present and immediate surroundings, everything was completely new, from the people to the places to the very words people spoke to him. Oswaldo’s case managers helped him get connected with Truman college to take English classes, and to start applying for housing. When Oswaldo told his case managers he wanted to get connected to a therapist, Cornerstone’s Medical Coordinator collaborated with a volunteer to find a French-speaking private practitioner – a woman who was so compelled by Cornerstone’s mission that she significantly lowered her rates for Cornerstone, and came on-site to meet with Oswaldo every week. 

And finally, Oswaldo got the news that he had been accepted into housing. He was thrilled. Cornerstone helped him pick out supplies for his new home, and celebrated with him as he signed his new lease and moved out of our shelter. 

The support system Oswaldo built while at Cornerstone continued to be there for him as he adjusted to living on his own. He and his therapist continued meeting together weekly at Cornerstone for several months after he moved out, to ensure that he still had mental health support during the major transition period from shelter to housing. He is still taking English classes across the street from Cornerstone at Truman College, and he visits Cornerstone often, to pick up any last pieces of mail and to speak with his friends and former case managers. 

When we asked Oswaldo what he liked most about being housed, he told us that he loves having a quiet place to read. He reads all the time now, and he loves it. In the men’s program at Cornerstone, our volunteers keep a bookshelf stocked with books tailored to the interests of the readers in the men’s program (the biggest hits currently are historical narratives among the older men, comic books among the younger men, coffee table books with photos for those who don’t like to read as much, and crosswords for the men learning English) and people love it – but it can be a challenging place to really get settled into a book. When you walk onto the men’s program floor, you’ll probably experience a barrage of different noises happening all around you – the TV on, people making phone calls, chatting with one another, the buzz of an electric razor as people help one another cut their hair and shave, someone playing video games, someone studying for school – in all, there’s a lot going on. As much as Oswaldo enjoys coming for a visit, there’s something truly special about getting to go home to his own place and read to his heart’s content. 

He dreams of one day bringing the rest of his family to join him in America. He wants to continue learning English, and to someday go to business school. “Cornerstone was my first home here”, he says. We’re honored to have been the place that welcomed Oswaldo into America, and we hope to be that place of refuge and rebuilding for many more years to come. 

Sheila was a client of our Naomi women’s story, recently housed.

“I want to say that the situation in my country is very hard.”

Sheila, a client from our Naomi program, tells us about what brought her to Cornerstone. She came from her home country to Chicago last year, and 11 months later she has a job and a home of her own. 

Growing up, Sheila studied rigorously. She was a high achiever and strongly believed in her own responsibility to her people. But she was kidnapped on her way to work as a young woman, an event which highlighted her need to escape the country she loved so much. “There is no food, no hospital, no education. I didn’t see my life there. I came to America. Sometimes I’m still crying for my family, sometimes I’m still crying for my country.” With the help of her niece, Sheila made her way to Chicago and landed at Cornerstone. 

She says, “Last year, when I came here I did not speak English very well. Trust me. You helped me go to Truman college,” she says, addressing her case manager, Eve. “It’s a very professional school – when you’re not speaking English well, the teachers have patience for you.” When asked what she most longed for upon her arrival, Sheila says that she wanted to go to school, go to church, and take care of her family and her community – and that’s exactly what she’s been doing ever since. She wanted to pay for her education on her own, so she got a job and started taking classes at Truman College. She found comfort in prayer, in walking the 20 minutes to Lake Michigan, in reading, and in listening to music.

“The shelter helped me with getting a doctor, with food, with clothes, and shoes,” she says, and “I see the team working – you have been given a job to do, and you do it well”. 

Sheila says she is leaving with contentment. She has not stopped thinking about her family, her community, back home. She has an admirable love and compassion for the country that was so unsafe that she had to leave – she says, “I tell you, I love my country, I love my people”, she says. Really, her stay at Cornerstone is just a tiny piece of Sheila’s life. 

I personally happened to meet Sheila for the first time a few weeks before she moved out of Cornerstone. She was wearing a sophisticated white pants-and-top set, and she told me she was about to leave for her graduation ceremony. That day, she got her nursing assistant certificate, and walked in cap and gown. 

Just a few weeks later, Sheila, the case managers, and the program aides on the women’s floor sang Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”, and danced, as the ink dried on Sheila’s new lease. It was a day of great accomplishment for Sheila – a milestone of her journey to the United States. She’s now working as a certified nursing assistant, a job which she loves. And she has her own kitchen now (she loved to cook back home, and she was very good at it). 

We wish the absolute best for Sheila, for her family, and for the communities she loves. 

“It’s time to come together – 

It’s up to you, what’s your pleasure?

Everyone around the world, come on!

It’s a celebration!”

• Written by Ellen, interview translated from French by Caro