HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION:
March, 2001-- Men’s Outreach Ministry launched
In March, 2001, You Can Make It opened the doors of our first homeless shelter for single men, located on Chicago’s Southside at 6012 South Honore Street. The Men’s Outreach Ministry program provided housing, food, counseling, and a safe and warm environment for hundreds of homelessness men every year. Many of the men we s
erved became homeless due to their criminal backgrounds, drug and alcohol addictions and gang violence. April, 2002 – Women’s Outreach Ministry opened
In April 2002 the Women’s Outreach Ministry opened at 3108 West 59th Street. This program was also subsequently expanded into a 9-month residential program that provided services to women that were battling various drug addictions, alcohol problems, domestic violence and prostitution. We provided shelter and support services and placed dozens of women into permanent housing each year. June, 2003 -- Shelter for Women and Children started
You Can Make It opened its first shelter for women and children funded by The City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services via The Inner Voice Inc. In June 2003, building on prior successes, the goals of this 30-bed program was to provide housing and support services, individual and family counseling sessions, job training, job placement services and permanent housing placement. In spite of numerous challenges (funding, changes in housing policy, shortages of affordable housing), this program continues to help families move from homelessness to permanent housing. March, 2005 -- Shelter for Women and Children moved to a new location
In order to meet the constant growing need for housing, You Can Make It acquired a 50-bed facility at 5200 South Morgan Street. This facility, located directly across the street from Sherman Elementary School -- Chicago’s first official turnaround school help mothers, that would normally have to travel far distances to take their children back and forth to school, have more time to utilize the support services we offer them. This shelter made You Can Make It a pioneer in addressing the problems of homeless students. January, 2007 -- Interim House program was initiated
The main goal of Interim Housing is to place families into permanent housing within 120 days of entering the shelter program. The agency’s first interim housing program (65 beds) opened in January, 2007 at 5052 South Laflin Street on Chicago’s South Side. Services in this program are designed to help clients secure permanent housing as quickly as possible while assisting clients with increasing their incomes by connecting them to an array of resources and help assure housing retention after families are housed. January, 2010 – Another Interim House program was started
At the request of The City of Chicago, Department of Family and Support Services, You Can Make It transitioned our 50-bed emergency shelter program on Morgan into an interim shelter program. This expansion resulted in You Can Make It having a total of 115 beds available in our extended stay facilities. January, 2013 – present
YCMI-IH increased from a 115 to 120-bed interim house program in order to meet the growing need for shelter services. In order to submit to funding guidelines that were put in place by The Continuum of Care, our 70-bed Laflin site now offers shelter and support services to intact families. An intact family refers to families in which both biological parents are present in the shelter or home. You Can Make It presently provide services to families headed by single mothers, families headed by single fathers and families with both biological parents. Our 50-bed Morgan site facility only houses families headed by single mothers.
