Job Skills, Housing, and More for 25,000 People find their way to The Action Center in different ways. Paul, a college graduate and former professional skier, eventually found the center after getting caught up in an embezzlement scheme, putting in jail time, living...
In 30 years, 13,000 people housed “So many people come to us so broken,” Precious Stargell Cushman says of the homeless families she sees at Community LINC, a Kansas City agency. But her next thoughts are ones of success. Teenesha found herself homeless with two...
Cooking classes for families with very young children Feeding America, the nationwide network of food banks, recently produced a commercial sung by a little six-year-old boy as he scours an empty refrigerator. I want to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas I need to eat,...
Progress in Rochester When a first-time, low-income mother encounters the Nurse-Family Partnership, she benefits from parent education and support through home visits in the first year of her child’s life. But what then? With a low-wage job, uncertain childcare,...
Help for homeless pregnant girls and women When you’re 16 or 18 years old, alone, homeless, and pregnant, it’s hard to believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. But in Chicago there is. It’s called Bright Endeavors, a candle-making operation. But before that,...
At Cara, motivation is a mighty force Four mornings a week, joy and determination break out in a loft space just west of Chicago’s Loop. Some 60 men and women form an exuberant circle to share their stories, cheer each other on, sing, dance, applaud, and address...
