Eyeing A Brighter Future, Chicago HOPES For Kids
Chicago HOPES for Kids, founded in 2006 by Patricia Rivera, is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides educational support and resources for children living in homeless shelters across the city.
By Grace Beyer
WITHIN THE BUSY STREETS of Chicago, along nearly every block and avenue, are bundled-up faces—the little ones with their heads buried in their parents’ chests to keep from the cold. The ones who often go unnoticed, beneath the long legs of pedestrian passersby.
Amid the city’s homelessness crisis that is growing by the thousands each year, these faces unite us all: Children.
We know them, we have them, we were them.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report noted a surge of more than 25,0000 people in families with children experiencing homelessness on a single night from 2022 to 2023. The 34,703 number of unaccompanied youths reported to be experiencing homelessness from 2022 to 2023 also marked a jump of nearly 5,000 people in a year’s time.
Woven within the fabric of the city’s growing homelessness crisis are organizations dedicated to helping children. To setting children up for a brighter future. To helping them learn and succeed. For example, Chicago HOPES for Kids, founded in 2006 by Patricia Rivera, is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides educational support and resources for children living in homeless shelters across the city.
The organization provides academic support programs based on age and grade level; some are catered to elementary school children, and others to children in grades six through nine.
“Often, in a shelter, there is no programming for the students,” said Rivera. “We try to … make sure that the kids have some ongoing support in terms of what they need for school, but then make it also fun.”
THE ORGANIZATION RELIES ON community volunteers, State and National AmeriCorps members, and AmeriCorps VISTA members to run their programs.
“I think, when I was able to actually go into the shelters…I learned that kids are kids,” said Kimberly King, a former AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer coordinator and current volunteer administrator for Chicago HOPES for Kids. “Despite what they’re going through, they’re still kids.”
The organization also brings in enrichment partners, which provide opportunities for children to engage in creative endeavors and exposes them to experiences they do not have access to in the public school system.
“An enrichment partner might be anyone from… music, to somebody who is coming in to show the kids how to bake, or somebody that is coming in to do an art project,” said Jen Harden-Finn, volunteer manager at Chicago HOPES for Kids.
The organization seeks to provide a sense of consistency for families used to constantly changing learning environments.
“For those children… they may be at one school for a while, and then depending on their housing situation, they may be at another school a year later,” she said. “The consistency isn’t there. Our program provides a consistency.”
THE ACTIONS OF CHICAGO HOPES for Kids seems to set them apart from other organizations.
“We are the only organization in Chicago… that actually goes into the shelter sites to work with the students. There are no other organizations, to my knowledge, that do that.”
Rivera said direct service fulfills a need for many children and families—especially for those who do not have the funds or resources to travel to after-school programs.
“Being in the shelter can be something very depressing,” she explained. “We’re hopeful that it’s giving them a sense of, okay, this is something for you, and that you’re special, and that we can see that, if you’re just given a little help, that you can do wonderful things.”
The program seeks to set future generations up for success and financial freedom.
“The ultimate goal is not to have children experiencing homelessness,” said Rivera. “But we are doing what we can do, which is to help kids, so that when they become adults, they won’t have to go through a homeless situation as well.”
Email: gracebeyer12@gmail.com
OTHER RELATED STORIES BY GRACE BEYER:
'Hidden In Plain Sight, But I See'
An Increasing Face Among the Homeless: Children
When The City Turns Cold, Homeless Families Seek A Refuge
