Voices of Hope

Caprice Morales is a voice of hope.  A formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated mother, Caprice is now a leader at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH).  In this episode, Caprice talks about her life, her work with CCH, and her commitment to social justice.

Recently, Caprice helped CCH win significant victories in the FY 09 budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly.  While these budget items will help thousands of people across Illinois like Caprice, they are in immediate danger of being vetoed by Governor Blagojevich.  That is why Caprice and CCH are urging all of our allies to call the Governor today at 312-814-2121.  Tell him to finding for
Your voice can help change a person's life.

Twelve of Illinois’s largest advocacy organizations – advocates who work for children, the chronically ill, and families living in poverty – are calling on state leaders Wednesday to adopt the fiscal year 2009 state budget recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly. The tentatively approved state budget includes $105 million of largely overdue funding increases that provide advances in housing, health services, and children’s programs, including:


“Middle- and low-income families struggle to get by, particularly in this tough economy. Circumstances can quickly change for these families, leaving breadwinners out of work and uninsured and families without adequate housing or health care,” said Eithne McMenamin, a policy specialist with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “That’s why it’s critical that our state budget retain substantial, new investments in children’s well being and in the families that need help with their health care and housing,” said Sean Noble, director of government relations for Voices for Illinois Children.

Advocates speaking out at the press conference:
·AIDS Foundation of Chicago · Chicago Coalition for the Homeless · Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers · Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois · Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights · Illinois Action for Children · Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition · Ounce of Prevention Fund · Protestants for the Common Good · Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law · Supportive Housing Providers Association · Voices for Illinois Children

Carisa Suddoth is a voice of hope.  Less than a year ago, Carisa and her kids were homeless and living in a shelter. Thanks to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and its push to create the Illinois Rental Housing Support Program, they now have a permanent home of their own: they moved into their South Side apartment in March 2007.  Recently, Chicago Coalition featured her story in its Mother's Day fundraising appeal.

In this episode of Voices of Hope, Carisa reflects on her experiences and what it means to have a home.

Drea Hall is a voice of hope.   Though she experienced homelessness throughout her childhood, Drea worked her way through high school, college, and graduate school, where she received a masters degree in social work. Today Drea uses her experiences and training to empower others at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, where she organizes victims of the sex trade and formerly incarcerated men and women.

In this episode of Voices of Hope, Ed Shurna, CCH's executive director, talks about what we as individuals and as a society need to do to prevent and end homelessness.  

Janet Cade is a voice of hope.  Ms. Cade is a client of CCH's Law Project.  In 2007, she spoke at CCH's annual meeting.  In her speech, she talked about her experience with homelessness and how she is fighting to make a better life for herself and her children.

At the end of 2007, United States Representative Judy Biggert (R-13th-IL) delivered the keynote address for Chicago Coalition for the Homeless's Annual Meeting.  In her speech, Representative Biggert talks about her work in Washington to provide critical rights and services for America's homeless youths.

This episode of Voices of Hope features a press conference Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) convened to publicize the findings of its recently released report on the needs of homeless youths in Illinois.   

The report found that more than half of the approximately 25,000 homeless youths who sought help in Illinois had to be turned away due to insufficient resources.

The speakers at the press conference include several formerly homeless youths who talked about their experiences, as well as Illinois state Representative Greg Harris.

In this episode of Voices of Hope, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless executive director Ed Shurna delivers the 2007 State of the Organization Address.

The eight-minute address highlights CCH's successess and struggles in 2007. It provides an excellent way to learn about CCH and its fight for the human right to housing.

Kieara Keys is a Voice of Hope.   A Chicago Coalition for the Homeless Scholarship winner, Kieara has experienced homelessness throughout her young life.  Despite her and her family's struggled with poverty, she preserved.  In Fall 2007, she began her freshman year at Joliet Junior College in Illinois.  

Johnnie Lee Savory epitomizes the struggle for justice and the power of hope.  In 1976, Johhnie was fourteen and living in Peoria, Illinois, when he became a victim of the criminal justice system.  Convicted for a double homicide he did not commit, Johnnie was sentenced to fifty to one-hundred years in prison.  With the help of some amazing people and organizations, such as the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, Johnnie won his right to parole on December 19, 2006.

While he continues to fight for the release of DNA evidence that can definitively prove his innocence, Johnnie has also become a leader at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.  Using his own experience to empower others, Johhnie helps advocates for the rights of ex-offenders, many of whom suffer from homelessness.

To learn more about Johnnie’s story, and how you can help him fight to clear his name, please visit his blog at http://justiceforsavory.blogspot.com.

 

Bryan Riddle embodies perseverance in the face of tragedy. As a child, Bryan was in the foster care system. Though his foster mother adopted him and loved him deeply, Bryan was left homelessness when she died during his senior year of high school. In spite of these struggles and traumas, Bryan graduated from Christian Fenger Academy in Chicago, won a Golden Apple Scholarship, and received one of the 2007 Chicago Coalition for the Homeless Scholarship Awards. This fall, Bryan will be a freshman at Northern Illinois University, where he will he prepare for his career as a future teacher.

In this episode of Word on the Street, Wayne turns the commonplace idea that job programs, economic growth, and care systems are the ways to end homelessness on its head. Wayne argues instead that these solutions are really part of the reason why homelessness is so entrenched in our society.

In this episode of Word on the Street, Wayne talks about the meaning of opportunity as he reflects on an Action Forum he attended which was sponsored by the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois. To learn more about this Campaign, please go to www.povertytoopportunity.blogspot.com.

This is the inaugural pod column of The Word on the Street, by Chicago Coalition for the Homeless organizer, Wayne Richard. In this week’s column, Wayne talks about the experience of homelessness, the false assumptions that prevent many of us from seeing people who experience homelessness as full human beings, and what we can do to fight not only our society’s systemic lack of resources in terms of living wage jobs, affordable housing, and adequate healthcare, but also the lack of love we as a community have for people suffering from extreme poverty.

In this episode of Voices of Hope, John Maki interviews Kianca Fincher, one of the 2007 Chicago Coalition for the Homeless College Scholarship Recepients. Ms. Fincher discusses her experiences of being homeless in high school.