We know the needs of the people in Evanston who are hungry and/or homeless are many. We are committed to serve them, as are others in our area.
Because nobody seems to know all the services presently available at a level of detail useful to prospective guests, and because we know there is more that can be done, we are undertaking a deep dive into the many issues involved. It’s our “Community Discovery Project.”
As a result of an open request for proposals, we selected a team from the Executive Service Corps (ESC) of Chicago as our consultants. They are using interviews and other research tools to gather information including:
1) The services presently available including brief descriptions, notes about eligibility and paperwork needed to receive them, availability in Spanish or other languages, costs to guests, and for those who wish to help, how to donate time, materials, and/or money. We’ll create a directory for the public with these results, both in print and online.
2) The customary needs of people who are hungry and/or homeless. We know the reasons are many so the assistance needed varies by the situation. For example, chronically homeless people have different needs than suddenly temporarily homeless families.
3) The ESC team will then do a gap analysis, identifying the unmet or insufficiently met needs of the people we serve.
4) Best practices for filling these gaps or for modifying existing services will be offered.
5) New possible sources of funding will be identified, particularly those for which IAE would be eligible given our mission and practice of being a staff-lean, volunteer-heavy organization of faith based congregations.
We plan to complete this project in January 2020 so we can move forward discern what our roles may be as a gathering of communities of faith committed to serving hungry and homeless people in Evanston.
Questions? Send them to ia@interfaithactionofevanston.org and we’ll do our best to answer them quickly!
