Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights 2004 Annual Report Safe Passage s someone embarks on a journey, you may wish them luck. You may tell them, “Farewell.” A In Spanish, you may say “Vaya con dios” or ‘Go with God.’ The wish for safe passage is secular and not limited to one culture. It is a universal expression of affection, a wish that only good things attend you on your path, whether you are just starting your journey or nearing its end. It is a hope that wherever you are going, you arrive safely. Heartland Alliance believes there are basic rights that must be secured to assure someone safe passage through life – housing, health care, personal safety, and the opportunity to succeed. That is what we do. For more than a century, Heartland Alliance has been offering the most poor and vulnerable members of society safe passage. Farewell Alafia Shubh Yatra Adieu Valla con dios English Yoruba/Nigeria Hindi German Spanish 2 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report For some, the journey through life starts out difficult, born into a life of poverty. For others, the journey takes a surprising turn for the worse. It could be as simple as the loss of a job or as frightening as state-sponsored violence. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 3 Last year 1,200 women placed calls to Heartland Alliance seeking protection from domestic violence or persecution in their home countries. 4 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report 132 In the last year, acts of torture by authorities were reported in 132 countries – nearly 70% of the world’s countries. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 5 Heartland Alliance provided expert consultation needed to launch and maintain torture treatment facilities in the violence-ravaged countries of Haiti, Guatemala, and Iraq. 6 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Heartland’s Mid-America Institute on Poverty released a first-of-its-kind • 77,041 Illinois households are on waiting lists to get into public housing. analysis of Illinois’s public housing waiting lists with startling findings. • Many waiting lists for subsidized housing vouchers are closed, which This innovative report helped shed new light on the profound housing means that families in need of rental assistance can’t even get onto waiting crisis in Illinois. lists to get help. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 7 6,100 Each day, approximately 6,100 people access Chicago’s homeless shelters. This does not include the number of people who do not access the system. In a year, more than 1,800 families were kept off the streets through homeless prevention funds managed by Heartland Alliance. 8 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report 5,600 In the last year, Heartland Alliance staff reached out to more than 5,600 homeless men, women, and teens to begin reconnecting them to housing, health care, and social services they would otherwise do without. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 9 1/3 In the U.S., one in three adults under age 65 does not have health insurance. 10 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Through a comprehensive continuum of services, Heartland Alliance offers the right kind of help, empowering people to create change in their own lives. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 11 Immigrant children who come to the U.S. alone (sometimes sent, sometimes sold by their parents) have new advocates, thanks to a Heartland Alliance pilot project. Volunteer child advocates help shepherd the children through the complex legal system as well as become mentors for children who are alone in a foreign country. 12 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Girls who commit non-violent crimes now get a second and better chance at going home to their families instead of being locked away, thanks to Heartland Alliance. Last fall, Heartland opened a residential alternative detention center that allows social workers to focus on individualized plans to guide these girls onto a better path. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 13 Heartland’s refugee services forged an alliance with African-American churches to co-sponsor African refugees. The unique relationship has been a big success thanks to an outpouring of generosity from church communities, including trips to the airport to greet newly arrived refugees and two cars packed full of clothes and shoes. 14 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report 137 Construction began this year to renovate Heartland’s Leland Apartments. Once complete, the rehabbed building will provide 137 units of quality, affordable housing to Chicago’s rapidly gentrifying Uptown neighborhood. Heartland Housing’s expertise at developing quality, affordable housing led to a collaboration with a DuPage County homeless service provider. A project is being explored to move people who are homeless directly into permanent, supportive housing rather than emergency shelters. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 15 16 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report 189 Last year, Heartland’s residential treatment program for people living with HIV/AIDS and recovering from addiction served 189 individuals. Heartland Alliance strengthened its collaboration with the Chicago Housing Authority to help residents prepare to move into new, mixed-income communities, teaching them financial management, job training, and parenting skills. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 17 Heartland Alliance opened a new resource center for people who are homeless and use drugs. The center fills the gap for people who are not currently receiving services because of their inability to meet conventional treatment expectations. 18 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report eartland Alliance creates lasting change by Hcombining innovative and respectful service with policy recommendations, both aimed to provide individuals and families the opportunity to succeed. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 19 Through Heartland Alliance, 382 seniors moved from unsafe or unstable housing conditions to safety and stability. 20 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Last year, Heartland’s health center at Senn High School moved into its newly built space on the first floor. The larger clinic allowed the center to triple its services as well as offer new ones, such as classes to combat obesity. For the predominantly low-income student body, the increase in services means more teens get the health care they might otherwise have to do without. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 21 Eleven percent of Illinois children are uninsured – the highest percentage in the Midwest. 22 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report 35,000 An estimated 35,000 survivors of torture reside in the Chicago area. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 23 Survivors working with Heartland’s Marjorie Kovler Center began a cooking group last year as a new form of therapy. While participants take turns bringing in recipes from their home countries, everyone shares in the meal’s preparation and further builds community by enjoying the meal together. 24 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Craig Walker moved from homelessness to owning his own home, thanks to a Heartland program that works with people who are homeless through individualized plans that address each person’s own challenges to regaining housing. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 25 356 356 immigrant children – alone in the U.S. and being held in a detention facility – received legal counsel through Heartland’s Midwest Immigrant & Human Rights Center. As a result of new Illinois legislation, which protects immigrants from notary publics posing as qualified lawyers, Heartland staff attorneys had the increased opportunity to offer sound immigration advice on Spanish- speaking radio and television shows. 26 | Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report Stewarding Safe Passage President Sid Mohn and Board of Directors Chair Frank Quinn are on their own journey – a journey of mission. Through skillful leadership and generous investors, Heartland Alliance continues to offer multiple points of contact to those needing assistance on the journey through life. From crisis intervention to long-term skills building to ongoing health care, Heartland Alliance sets the most poor and vulnerable on the path to safety and opportunity. Sid and Frank’s vision allow Heartland to engage policy makers and other community leaders in dialogue that can lead to lasting, meaningful change for the people Heartland serves. Heartland Alliance 2004 Annual Report | 27 Investors Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois Patty and Rob Moore N. Lynn Hiestand $5,000 - $9,999 Securing safe passage for our Supports the Jeanne and Joseph Sullivan Supports the Midwest Immigrant & Supports lasting, meaningful change for Supports the Board Gifts Campaign. Midwest Program for Refugee, Asylee, Human Rights Center. the most poor and vulnerable, the Anonymous Lynne and Lee Hillman program participants would and Human Rights, and the Board Gifts Board Gifts Campaign, and the Supports lasting, meaningful change for The Libra Foundation Supports the Board Gifts Campaign and Campaign. Midwest Light of Human Rights the most poor and vulnerable. Supports human rights programs and the Lee & Lynne Hillman Fund for not be possible without the Awards. Women’s Board of Heartland Alliance the publication of a report on human Family Health. Anonymous Supports lasting, meaningful change for rights in the Chicago area. Sara Lee Foundation Supports the Women’s Board thousands of supporters who Kraft Employee Fund the most poor and vulnerable women Supports lasting,