Dear Friends:
Greetings from Cornerstone Community Outreach (CCO)! We find ourselves at the end of another adventurous year and we are so grateful you have been a part of it! We have had continued success in housing our shelter participants, thanks to some new housing initiatives offered by the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services and All Chicago. Two stories come to mind – first, a senior Vietnam vet who has been homeless for over 40 years now holds keys to his own apartment! Even at CCO, he remained homeless for several years, but thanks to our faithful and persistent staff, he stabilized enough to receive permanent housing. A woman lived on a park bench for months. She wouldn’t even come inside to our women’s program. CCO staff repeatedly engaged her in conversation, eventually earning her trust. From there, small steps followed by bigger movement and finally an apartment of her own! On top of that, staff worked to help her reunite with her daughters whom she had not seen in a few years, who had been looking for her!
It is a joy for all of us here at CCO to be able to help our residents. We want to share these stories with you so when you see the person living on the bench or wandering the streets, you can know that they can be reached and housed. We are happy to do the work and invite you to be a part of these stories.
Please remember us and those we serve when you consider your year-end, 100% tax-deductible gift. You can see more information at ccolife.org. If there is anything we can do for you, please feel free to contact us.
Happy New Year!
Sandra J. Ramsey
Executive Director