Shared offering recipients

Organizations we share our offering with 2011-2012

Great Lakes Ministry – September
The Great Lakes UU Ministry is a program to provide weekly lay-led Unitarian Universalist religious services at the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Command. All Navy enlisted men and women come to Great Lakes for their initial “boot camp” training. Some of them request UU services. The Navy Chaplains are not able to provide UU services, so they rely on and welcome our lay-led ministry. Contributions from UCE and other area UU congregations help pay for travel expenses and worship supplies. This ministry happens every Sunday morning, every week of the year, so our need for support is on-going.

Iraqi Student Project – October
The support that our church has provided have been critical in supporting the national Iraqi Student Project and in sustaining Hala, the student at DePaul University, who was brought to the U.S. by the Project. She comes to us from Bagdad, and she is quite a remarkable young woman.

Although DePaul University has provided a full $22,000 tuition waiver for each of her four years as an undergraduate, our local group is responsible for all her other expenses until she graduates in 2013. Hala is majoring in computer security and is committed to returning to her beloved country to help in its rebuilding.

She has been able to achieve a 3.7 grade point average despite the challenge of adjusting to a new culture. Her work-study job on campus is with the International Human Rights Institute. This is an ideal position for her as the mission of the HRI is to work toward conflict resolution between the U S. military personnel and the Iraqi people.

Like all of the now 33 students brought to the U.S. by the Iraqi Student Project, she was forced to interrupt her education because of the Iraq war. Two Evanstonians, Theresa Kubasack and her husband, Gabe Huck, started the Iraqi Student Project in 2007 when they were living in Damascus. While there, they became increasingly alarmed over the large number of displaced Iraqis who were students. They began by working to obtain tuition waivers or full scholarships at American colleges and universities for these refugees. Then began the challenge of identifying, screening, and testing prospective students. Those selected had to meet an English proficiency standard, and had to agree to return to Iraq when their schooling was over to help rebuild their country. The Iraqi Student Project is meeting a real need since 84 percent of Iraq’s higher education institutions had been destroyed since the US invasion, according to a United Nations University report in 2005.
For more information, go to www.iraqistudentproject.org

Deborah’s Place – November
In 1985, a small group of women came together to share their outrage that there were women who were homeless and living on the streets in downtown Chicago. Within a few months, these compassionate and committed women started Deborah’s Place, Chicago’s only emergency overnight shelter exclusively for women. They were dreamers and doers – believing that every woman has a right to safe, affordable housing and a life beyond the trauma of homelessness. 25 years later, Deborah’s Place is no longer an emergency overnight shelter. Responding to the needs of the women, the organization is now the largest provider of supportive housing and services exclusively for women in Chicago. Interim and Supportive Housing and services are provided to more than 450 women each year at 3 sites. Every woman has access to case management, education, counseling, employment and health services.
Our passion is working with women who are considered the hardest to house and to serve because they face multiple barriers of addictions, mental illness, chronic health problems, little or no income, and for some, a history of incarceration. We believe that when women have a safe place to live, a sustainable income, and access to supportive services, they are able to make the journey out of homelessness, to recover from the trauma of that experience and rebuild their self esteem and take control of their lives and future.
Our mission is to break the cycle of homelessness for women in Chicago. That means that when a woman walks through our doors, she has experienced homelessness for the last time.
For more information go to www.deborahsplace.org

Mitten Tree – December
The Mitten Tree has been a gift-giving tradition at UCE for more than 25 years, helping many people in the community who need holiday cheer. We identify three or four groups to whom we provide food and gifts for the holiday season. In 2010 – 2011 we helped The Cradle, Teen Living Programs, and Connections for the Homeless Food Pantry. Volunteer help is always welcome. There is plenty to do. Contact: Laura Nelson Lfraser30@aol.com; or Carol Nielsen carolsnielsen@sbcglobal.net.

CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers) – January
The women prisoner population has grown eightfold since the “War on Drugs” began. Most are convicted of nonviolent crimes. When a mother goes to prison, her children are also punished. Children in foster care often lose touch with their extended families and communities. Without timely assistance, mothers may face termination of parental rights, which severs the mother-child relationship and permanently destroys their families.
• Advocates with women former prisoners for policy change, such as reducing termination of parental rights, increasing community-based sentencing and ending the shackling of pregnant women.
• Provides legal aid for guardianships to keep children with trusted caregivers instead of the state foster care system.
• Assists mothers with child custody, mother-child visits and, when they have stabilized their lives, family reunification.
• Educates women about their rights and responsibilities as parents under Illinois law.
• Facilitates a group for mothers who seek to support one another as they transition back into their communities, develop their leadership skills, and advocate for systemic change.

CLAIM has served thousands of families over the past 25 years. Our executive director, Gail Smith, has been a member of UCE since 2000. CLAIM’s work makes a difference: a 2010 study of 75 CLAIM clients released from prison three years earlier revealed that only 8% went back to prison. Overall 42% of women released from Illinois prisons go back. Your support will make a difference for incarcerated mothers and their children. Thank you for any donation you can make to support our work.
For more information go to www.claim-il.org

Visit Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers on Facebook!

Orchard Village – February
Orchard Village has been a leading provider of supports for people with disabilities for over 39 years. Our organization believes in person centered planning, which is based on 21 measurable Personal Outcomes. We serve individuals with a wide range of disabilities through our Residential, Vocational, Intermittent, Transition, Respite, Specialized Services and Orchard Academy. Orchard Village provides supportive services to 300 individuals in 28 communities in northern Cook County. Orchard Village seeks to uncover each person’s unique gifts, talents, and interests, and then offer choices on these important matters.
Orchard Academy – Provides the independent living, vocational and social skills necessary for high school students in special education to transition successfully into life after high school.
Residential Services – Helps people realize their dreams to live in a place of their own. We provide varying levels of support, depending on self-sufficiency.
Vocational Services – Facilitates the desire for a competitive job. Job placement is based on skills and interests, with individualized training and support provided at work sites as needed.
In-Home Services – Supports families who provide ongoing care in their own homes to their loved ones with disabilities. It offers active support treatments and gives family members time to relax, recharge or attend other obligations.
Transition Services – Provides the independent living, vocational and social skills training necessary for individuals to live on their own with limited support.
For more information go to www.orchardvillage.org

Engineers Without Borders – March
Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. This partnership involves the implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.

Engineers Without Borders was founded in 2001 by a University of Colorado civil engineering professor, Dr. Bernard Amadei, when he traveled to Belize and was stunned to see the children were not in school because they had to carry water all day from the river, since the village had no water system. Dr. Amadei returned in May, 2001 with eight engineering students and, working with the local community, they installed a clean water system powered by a local waterfall. Simple, sustainable, and low-cost, the entire project was completed for $14,000. As he harnessed the power of water, Dr. Amadei decided to harness the power of professional and student engineers to complete similar low-tech, high-impact projects in other developing countries. “The world doesn’t need any more big dams. The world needs clean water, energy and basic services for the billions struggling just to stay alive at the end of each day,” Dr. Amadei says. EWB-USA currently has about 13,000 members in 250 student and professional chapters nationwide, and EWB chapters have been started 46 other countries.

UCE has funded the Chicagoland Professional Chapter of EWB twice before, in 2007 and 2009. Money collected this year will fund a project in Candelaria, Honduras that we started about 1 ½ years ago. This project is working with the community to build a landfill and a recycling station, as well as help to develop microbusiness opportunities by making some of the waste into usable products that the community could sell, either locally or internationally. The project is currently headed up by Ken Kastman, of Evanston, who is also involved locally in The Talking Farm.

For more information go to www.ewb-usa.org

Faith in Place – April
Faith in Place is an organization with which we have had a long and helpful relationship. Founded in 1999 by Unitarian minister Clare Butterfield, it has supported and led campaigns for sustainability. Its appeal to many different religions is based on a conviction that no matter what one’s religious faith, one is obliged to protect the environment as a matter of faith.

Faith in Place is now a substantial organization, which has partnered with over 600 Illinois congregations—Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Ba’hai, Unitarian and Sikh. Clare has preached at UCE at least twice and has been supportive of our Green Sanctuary efforts. Faith in Place has been a leader in lobbying for sustainability at the state level, and shares credit for a number of successful energy and transportation legislative initiatives. It has also led numerous local seminars for congregation members to learn about various aspects of sustainability.

For more information go to www.faithinplace.org

Fabretto Foundation– May
This organization offers education and nutrition, along with community development, to impoverished children in Nicaragua. Public schools in Nicaragua are just ½ in length, and they have no school lunch program. Fabretto uses the school facilities, or facilities adjoining the government schools to provide the other ½ day of education. In addition, they give a noon meal to the children, which is often the only food they have all day. The organization also helps communities. For example, they assist local farmers and train them as to the best methods to grow food/coffee organically; and they facilitate selling particularly coffee to places like Whole Foods and Walmart in the United States. (And guess who pays a higher price for the coffee? Walmart!)

Fabretto is based in Nicaragua and is run by Kevin Marinacci, who is from Evanston and whose father still lives here. It is mostly financed by sponsorships, which are quite personal. People can email and visit their children, and the kids are extraordinarily appreciative. Fabretto also receives some grant funding. But they always need money, because sponsorships do not always continue.

For more information, go to www.fabretto.org

Metropolitan Family Services Evanston/SkokieValley – June
Last year I joined the community board for Metropolitan Family Services Evanston/SkokieValley. I am requesting that this organization be considered for our Shared Offering Program during the 2011-2012 church year.
The Evanston/Skokie Valley Center of Metropolitan Family Services has offices in Evanston and Skokie and serves the communities of Evanston, Skokie, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood, and Golf and Maine Townships. These areas have seen a dramatic increase in immigrant and refugee populations from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. The Village of Skokie, for example, has the largest growing immigrant population outside the city of Chicago. These families struggle to make a new life in a different culture and are impacted by issues of poverty, unemployment, the lack of affordable housing and mental health services for families, navigating an unfamiliar education and human services system and English language proficiency.
Metropolitan Family Services Evanston/Skokie Valley has been a resource in our community since 1910. With its long and rich history of responding to those in need this not-for-profit organization provides counseling and mental health services to many of these families. The agency’s counseling services build on individual and family strengths and capacity for change while addressing behavioral and situational problems as well as special needs and mental illness. In addition, the Family Support and Prevention Program assists families in strengthening parenting skills to help prevent child abuse. The Center also investigates reports of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation of seniors and works with adoptive families to help preserve adoptions.
Evanston/Skokie Valley Center
820 Davis Street, Suite 450
Evanston, IL. 60201
Additional Location:
5210 Main St.
Skokie, IL 60077
Executive Director: A. Fernando Freire, LCSW, LCPC, ICDVP

For more information go to www.metrofamily.org

Ted Fund – July
The Ted Fund began in 1996 as a memorial fund for a beloved Evanston District 65 teacher, Ted Muller. Ted, an athletic, lanky man won the hearts of his students with his playful, firm ways and extended himself to the community’s children each summer as a local camp counselor. The Ted Fund grew out of Ted’s desire to see every child enrolled in meaningful summer and after school activities. As a result, in partnership with the School District 65 Social Work team, scholarships are awarded annually to students in the 3rd grade on the basis of need. To provide maximum benefit, each scholarship continues for three consecutive years. In 2010, 100 children, representing all of Evanston’s public elementary schools, were enrolled in the program; we plan the same level of commitment in 2011. Over the years, as the program has grown, so has Ted Fund’s partnership with local agencies. The McGaw YMCA has been instrumental in providing space for the Ted Fund Tuesdays mentoring program, as well as giving scholarships to Camp Echo in Michigan for several of the Ted Fund graduates at the junior high grade level. Also, the Evanston YWCA continues to provide free lessons in their Learn to Swim program to Ted Fund kids and their siblings; upon completion, graduates are invited to join the YWCA Flying Fish swim team. Finally, the, Northlight Theatre is awarding scholarships to several deserving Ted Fund graduates for their Summer Academy Theatre Camp.

The Ted Fund is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, run entirely by volunteers, in donated office space. There is no paid director or staff; every dollar benefits children. To enroll a single child in this vital three year term of after-school programming and summer day camp carries individual expenses of $2,400 ($800 per year). For more information go to www.tedfund.org

HOW – Housing Opportunities for Women – August
HOW is at the forefront of a national movement to end homelessness in Chicago and across the nation through a holistic approach to combating homelessness. We are significantly expanding affordable, supportive housing to help the growing number of homeless families while providing them with the support services needed to empower them toward lifelong self-sufficiency.

HOW’s Permanent Supportive House Program is designed to help women and families gain access to safe, affordable homes and comprehensive services to ensure each household maximizes their self-sufficiency goals. In fiscal year 2010, HOW served 733 households, or 1,300 individuals, through our five programs with a portfolio of 250 housing units and nearly 200 units of housing saved through our homelessness prevention efforts. Support services offered included health and wellness education, career and educations services, child and youth programming, housing counseling, housing location and financial literacy.
For more information go to www.how-inc.org

UCE Dedicated Funds – 5th Sundays
October 30: The Endowment Fund
January 29:The Susan Walker Social Action Fund is dedicated to social justice, cultural diversity, and a respect for all life. Susan was a member of UCE for only a brief time until her death in the 1990s, but her belief in the essential goodness of others lives on.
April 29: The Marjorie Fischer Green Opportunities Fund supports Green Sanctuary initiatives, such as organic lunches, wind energy credits, and similar programs.
July 29: Community Action Fund used to support our efforts to alleviate homelessness and hunger in our area. We’ve used it to buy supplies for the Saturday morning baking at the Jonquil Hotel, the redo of the Jonquil kitchen, and to contribute to the food pantry and clothing supplies at Hilda’s Place Shelter.