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   Order a bag of Inspiration Cafe |
Keep up with all the current news about Inspiration Corporation. This section contains information about our upcoming events, coverage in the media and organizational news.What a Year! Dear Friends, As we close our fiscal year 2008 today, I want to say to each of you … Congratulations! We’ve had a record-breaking year, achieving extraordinary outcomes in every area of the organization: - The Employment Project helped more than 100 homeless and low-income men and women secure jobs or obtain further education and training, and extended its services to youth at the Broadway Youth Center. Community Voice Mail reconnected more than 1,100 phoneless Chicagoans seeking employment, housing and services. - Cafe Too enrolled its 50th culinary training class, and helped more than 35 people find transitional and permanent jobs in food service. The restaurant earned almost $200,000 in the past 12 months, and all signs predict continued growth and customer delight. - Housing & Supportive Services placed 65 long-time homeless individuals and families into permanent supportive housing, provided intensive and walk-in case management to more than 350 people, and coordinated more than 90 group therapeutic events. - Each program devoted considerable time and energy to exploring new ways of helping participants with substance use disorders with the Midwest Harm Reduction Institute, and to paving the way for the launch of our new CHANG database. - Operations coordinated the preparation and service of nearly 30,000 healthy meals at Inspiration Cafe and The Living Room Cafe, kept our facilities running smoothly and looking sharp, and added an eight-passenger van to transport our participants. - Finance & Administration successfully transitioned to Fund EZ and Paychex Premier/HR Online, added a 401(k) plan and Flexible Spending Accounts, and continued to fine tune our accounting and government contracting efforts. - Development & External Relations achieved more than 20% growth in private fundraising revenue, set a new standard for One Inspired Evening, oriented almost 400 new volunteers and set up a new web-based tool (Volgistics) to coordinate all volunteer efforts, and prepared the way for an exciting capital campaign feasibility study this summer. Can you hear me clapping? Give yourselves a hand! Thanks to your dedication and daily drive, Inspiration Corporation touched more than 2,500 people in need this year, giving them new resources, life-changing opportunities, and the hope that comes from caring. All the best,John Pfeiffer Housing Program Expands Inspiration Corporation provides housing locator services, rent subsidies, housing retention services and eviction prevention assistance to help homeless individuals and families find and maintain permanent housing. Currently, our Housing Program leases 47 apartments in Chicago’s Uptown, Lakeview and Woodlawn communities. With funding from the City of Chicago, Inspiration Corporation has launched an initiative to house and assist an additional 160 households across Chicago. Through the Rental Housing Support Services Program, Inspiration Corporation will place individuals and families into affordable rental apartments. Residents’ landlords will receive rental subsidies through the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund, and a team of Housing Retention Specialists will provide supportive services to help residents successfully transition to stable housing and self-sufficiency. “This initiative represents a major new investment in permanent supportive housing for Chicagoans with long tenure in the homeless services system, which is a core strategy of Chicago’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness,” notes John Pfeiffer, Inspiration Corporation’s Executive Director. A Recipe for Hope Karen Skalitzky, a long-time volunteer with Inspiration Corporation, has written a beautiful book, Recipe for Hope: Stories of Transformation by People Struggling with Homelessness, that shares the trials and triumphs of many of the men and women who have walked through the doors of Inspiration Cafe and Living Room Cafe. To order your copy today, please contact Alex Ginsburg at aginsburg@inspirationcorp.org or 773/878-0981 ext. 221. Copies are available for $9.95 each, and a portion of each sale benefits Inspiration Corporation. |
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