At Home with Success

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...

Nourishing Lessons

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,...

A Tighter Knit for the Safety Net

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,...

Lighting the Way

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,...

Sing, Shout, Learn, & Work

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...

Getting Ahead

The first step: imagine life as it could be People arrive at Crossroads, a supportive living program for men and women transitioning out of homelessness, from every stage of life and also loss—loss of family, friends, home, job, health. But they also arrive with...