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!
Read More