Below please find the Letter of Intent for the Washington Square Health Foundation.

Community Survey Link

“I can find a lot of clothes for my family at the Free Store.  I don’t have to worry about going out and buying clothes while I’m homeless. I can always find something new and CCO has a good variety. That’s how I’m blessed by the Free Store.”  

 – Victoria, Mother, CCO shelter guest & Free Store patron

Imagine a store filled with clothes, shoes, coats, jackets, and household items. Now imagine that everything in that store is FREE! It’s not too good to be true. It is true! Since the 1990s, CCO has operated the Free Store to meet the basic clothing needs of shelter guests.

This humble service fills a real and critical need. Over 75% of CCO shelter guests report no income at intake. That means shopping on a half-price day at the local thrift store is not an option. Many households have children who arrive needing clothes for school or play. Parents or single adults often need professional clothing for employment interviews, training, or jobs. The Free Store is open to all CCO shelter guests regardless of circumstance or situation.

The CCO Free Store has dedicated volunteers that make sure the needs of shelter guests are their number one priority. They assist families and single adults with their individual needs. A family with a newborn baby can find warm clothes and blankets for their little one. A single adult can find the shoes they need for their new job. Parents can find school clothes, coats, and boots to ensure their kids are warm on the way to school.

We want to say a huge thank you to all who have donated new or gently-used items to CCO! Without your donations, CCO volunteers would not be able to keep the Free Store stocked, sorted, organized, and ready for the next round of “shoppers.”

Please consider scheduling a drop-off by calling the CCO Donation Center at 773-271-8163 ext. 335 or by sending an email to donationcenter@ccolife.org. If you would like to print a donation receipt you can fill it out and bring it with you when you drop off your items. Click here if you would like to make a financial donation that would benefit CCO’s shelter guests.

Thank you for supporting CCO!

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, ideas around what care in shelters should be provided began to change to. The theory is for there to be a Medically Integrated Shelter Model. This isn’t a new idea for Cornerstone, but the pandemic gave the opportunity for more discussion to be had due to the increased and emergency medical needs.

Below is an excerpt from that document, that was written specifically for adaptation at Cornerstone.

Cornerstone Community Outreach
Medically Integrated Shelter

The majority of people who are experiencing homelessness have underlying medical vulnerabilities and or behavioral health issues. Our experiences show that there are not enough resources activated in the shelter system to meet these needs. And in many ways these issues can be barriers to accessing permanent housing and are part of the cause of their current situation. This isn’t new information to those working with people experiencing homelessness, but this current pandemic has highlighted it. And as so many entities and individuals are joining together in this moment to care for this population, the clarity across the whole sector is so powerful, and the “what if’s” being asked are great.

The “what if” that we’ve been asking for a long time, prior to COVID, is what if the shelter model in Chicago had fully integrated medical and behavioral health care alongside the normal shelter services? How much more fully could we serve and provide for the individuals and families in Chicago that come to us all for support and care? And applicable to this current pandemic, how would this new model reduce the isolation response needed, like what has to be done using the respite spaces at A Safe Haven, the Y’s, and the boutique hotels downtown?

So as this idea is resonating with more people now, we have been putting real-world thought to what this would look like for the system, or at least at Cornerstone. Any of the ideas we have are in “draft” mode, perceived from our perspective, and we do want them looked at from others perspectives. We have been working with an architect for general drawings and costs too. For simplicity I’ve put them in bullet point format, and they are just an example of how we could address the idea of a Medically Integrated Shelter Model.

Background

Three of our shelters are congregate and one is semi-private with shared bathrooms, and all had different positivity rates. Rates include residents and staff.

Sylvia Interim, shelter for families in semi-private rooms, had zero cases of COVID-19 Naomi, congregate shelter for women had 53% positivity rate
Epworth, congregate shelter for men, had a 11% positivity rage
Hannah Interim, congregate for families, had a 14% positivity rate

Isolation onsite for people who tested positive was tried but not optimal and probably increased the spread of COVID-19, as in all programs there are shared bathrooms, shared eating spaces, and no clear way to keep individuals apart. It was also detrimental not having medical staff to keep and eye on them as their symptoms worsened.
WIth the decompression of the shelters, our capacity dropped by half, though we are willing to provide for more.

How to upgrade to a Medically Integrated Shelter Model

The overarching idea is to combine the resources and abilities of an existing shelter provider with medical and behavioural health providers, and have the shelter facilities built out to meet a continuum of needs. There is the model of respite coming out of hospital, but not a model providing the support for people coming “off the streets” into shelter, and that’s where we see ourselves doing what we do best.