A New Life In a New Homeland “I wanted to finish school and live the American Dream,” says Chenge, an immigrant from Zimbabwe who fled his home country to escape torture. “There’s a lot of worry when you don’t know if you can stay in this safe place and stabilize your life.” Heartland Alliance helped him gain asylum, obtain a visa, prepare for and find a job, and integrate into American culture.
As part of our program to help stop gender based violence in Iraq, Heartland Alliance hosted an exhibit of local Iraqi photographers. The program is supported by the UNDP (United Nations Development Program),
Both domestically and internationally, the emotional and physical toll of human trafficking is high. Through our international and domestic programs, Heartland Alliance focuses on helping survivors rebuild and secure their lives through comprehensive, coordinated support.
January 12th marks the second anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake. Two years ago, more than 230,000 lives were lost in five minutes. A year later, more than one million people are still living in camps or on the street.
President Sid Mohn's latest Huffington Post discusses Heartland Alliance's Social IMPACT research center's 2011 Report on Illinois Poverty. It contains new data on the state of poverty in Illinois, and, unsurprisingly, the news is grim.
Trauma is one of those "hidden" conditions: It has a huge impact on many people's lives, but for those of us who are blessed never to have encountered it, it is often invisible
After Luis witnessed a gang murder and was subsequently threatened by gang members and beaten by police, the family decided their only hope for survival was to flee
Pathways Home is an outreach facility for the city’s most desperate of homeless populations — people with mental illness who also have a substance use issue, or co-occurring disorders.
Like a lot of kids at day camp this summer, Lily is enjoying going to the beach once a week, traveling around Chicago on special field trips, and generally playing around with her friends.
Benton Harbor, Michigan needs education and job placement programs for its many residents without adequate skills; fewer than five percent of residents have a bachelor's degree and unemployment exceeds the national average.
There are over 670,000 people in Illinois living in extreme poverty, which for a family of four is less than $30 a day to pay for food, shelter, medical care, clothing, and all the necessities of life.
Heartland Alliance’s new Lincoln Square Health Center offers the community’s diverse population a wide range of affordable health care, including midwife and pediatric services.
A community-based alternative to incarceration for women helps families stay together, find permanent housing, secure transitional jobs, and rebuild their lives.
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights recently produced needs assessment reports on health care for seniors in Rogers Park and Albany Park.
Illinois has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country – meaning that those with the least ability to pay end up paying more than their fair share of taxes. For families with low-incomes, this creates a challenging and often impossible balancing act to pay for basic needs, such as food, housing, and health care.
“Lauren” a mother in her mid-30s and a recent participant in Heartland’s financial literacy training class, lists going back to college as one of her five year goals. Her story is a familiar one to many in the course: she works full-time in an administrative office, earning just enough to cover rent and expenses for herself and teenage son, but she has nothing left over.
Doug Schenkelberg, associate director of policy and advocacy, recently discussed the changing face of poverty in Illinois on the “City Voices” radio program.
Financial education programs that share a common goal: increasing the assets of these families and individuals through financial literacy training, matched savings accounts, and escrow funds.
As a result of Heartland Alliance’s ground-breaking From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois, the State of Illinois and several organizations partnered with Heartland Alliance to hold “Opportunities for Change: Taking Action to End Extreme Poverty in Illinois” on December 9-10 in Evanston, Illinois.
Jim Grusecki and his wife Brenda have a passion for supportive housing, which connects supportive services such as employment resources and counseling to affordable or subsidized housing.
Heartland Alliance is thejavascript:doNext('step',%20'body-edit.jsp?wizard=true&itemID=22233285'); new owner of Hollywood House, an apartment building for independent seniors at Hollywood Avenue and Sheridan Road on the north side of Chicago.
Joseph Sewedo Akoro, the director of The Independent Project for Equal Rights (TIP), completed a human rights fellowship in Heartland Alliance’s offices this past summer.
In spite of a difficult political and budgetary environment,
Heartland Alliance succeeded in getting two important pieces of legislation passed during the 2008 legislative session with nearunanimous approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Heartland Alliance is participating in a pilot program with the Chicago Police Department to train 1,000 police officers on how to better respond to calls on people experiencing a mental health crisis.
The emphasis throughout Heartland Alliance’s programs is on serving and creating opportunities for people who have no other place to go, those whose circumstances leave them beyond the reach of typical social service programs. With services designed to be comprehensive, respectful, and effective, Heartland Alliance provides a chance for a safer and better life for people for whom society has no other answers.
As Iraq plunged into deeper civil turmoil after
2002, the need for medical and mental health care grew
exponentially. Recognizing that we could offer a unique skill set that might help Iraqis begin a process of healing, Heartland Alliance established a presence in Iraq in 2004.
Safety net programs are a critical public benefit for individuals trying to escape poverty. But many of these programs are in need of significant reform to better help those trying to move from crisis to stability. Heartland Alliance’s daily interactions with people participating in our programs has provided a first-hand view of how the safety net should be improved.
Benton Harbor needed education and job placement
programs for its many residents without adequate skills; Michigan Works!,the state of Michigan’s workforce development organization, identified Heartland Alliance as the right partner to bring effective programs and solutions to Benton Harbor and its residents.
For the men and women filling the waiting room of the Heartland Community Health Center (HCHC) on Lawrence Avenue, the facility represents one of the few places in Chicago where they can receive medical care and be treated with dignity.
Heartland Alliance's Street to Home program is based on a successful model implemented in New York City that moves people who are homeless out of shelters and instead endeavors to find them permanent, stable housing with public benefits and support services.
Heartland Alliance's From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois seeks to reduce extreme poverty in Illinois by 50 percent by 2015.
All over the world, International Human Rights Day is recognized today, Dec. 10. For many of us, the mention of human rights evokes powerful images, like the tragic loss of life in Sudan, or the brutal crackdown on Burmese monks. For others, it draws out deep cynicism about governments - our own and others.
Heartland Alliance’s Transitional Jobs program, the largest in the Chicago metropolitan area, offers an innovative employment-readiness and job placement approach for low-skilled people who have obstacles entering the workplace.
Heartland Alliance established FBC in 1993 to assist families thrust into homelessness, helping them obtain and maintain safe housing. Since FBC’s launch, more than 500 families have moved from homelessness to stable housing.
Heartland Alliance, which has successfully resettled other refugee groups, was selected to aid the resettlement of about 60 Burundian families starting in 2007.