Community Care serves hungry and homeless
If Circle is like a hospital, community care serves as our emergency room and intensive care wing. Community Care staff serves the hungry and the homeless through Daily Bread food pantry and Eagle's Nest second-stage housing. Often, Community Care becomes a doorway to our other, development-oriented programs.
Daily Bread Food Pantry
Daily Bread serves thousands of bags of food each year to hungry families and individuals. Neighborhood residents can visit Daily Bread up to once each month. At Daily Bread, they not only receive nutritionally balanced food packages but also receive spiritual nourishment as our chaplains deliver a gospel message. We also interview participants to discover if they have other needs. We then refer them to our other departments or referring agencies.
Eagle's Nest
At Eagle's Nest, families of four or more stay in fully-furnished apartments for up to a year. While here, they carry out a plan to obtain permanent housing. Unlike many other second-stage housing programs, we welcome whole families, including both parents and children of all ages.
Over the past two years, our Eagle’s Nest Program has seen 86% of our families move on to permanent housing. This is well above the City of Chicago’s standard of 55% for all types of shelter programs (most of these deal with individuals or small families – which are easier to place).
Secret to Our Success
The success of Eagle's Nest might be due to the extensive support system we have in place. While at Eagle's Nest, families can access such resources as:
