Pastor Lance and I took a trip over to the Chicago area this past Thursday and we were shown a suburb named "Ford Heights". This is located in South Chicago just a short distance over the Indiana line. At least for now we will not be going into the inner city of Chicago. We have found that most of the homeless there are living there by their own choice. Our last trip in we ran across 3 other ministries taking food and supplies in. It has become a thing of "what do you have for me today" and "I really don't like that food I will wait to see what the next ministry has". In the past you had people really looking for help but now it is an easy way to get support for your addiction. Many (not all) try to get as much as they can so that they can sell items to support their habit. Below is an article I found on Ford Heights and we know from driving through this area that it is an area that we can be much more productive.
Poverty is on the rise in Illinois and increasingly visible. It would be an easy bicycle ride down Lincoln Highway from the Lincoln Mall in Matteson to Rick’s Food & Liquors in Ford Heights. Just a tad over six miles, though the traffic in this far south suburban region of Chicago would be busy at the start.
In Matteson, middle-class shoppers buy cosmetics at Carson Pirie Scott, motorists gas up SUVs at Mobil, Citgo or Shell, parents fill shopping carts at Jewel and Cub Foods and executives dine at Olive Garden, Red Lobster or Fazoli’s.
As the road heads into Ford Heights, though, the scenery changes. The pharmacies and hotels cede to a currency exchange and a couple of corner stores selling cheap beer. There are no gas stations, no supermarkets — certainly not a bank. Vacant properties abound, as do burglar bars. This town of 3,456 is beset by formidable problems: unemployment, inadequate education levels and a lack of quality housing. Sociologist Pierre DeVise once called it the poorest suburb in America. In the last U.S. Census, Ford Heights earned the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage in America — 34 percent — of households headed by single mothers.
Gloria Bryant, executive director of the Ford Heights Community Service Organization, has been battling the town’s problems for more than three decades, starting as a volunteer and working her way up. Child care classes, computer training, a food pantry and other programs Bryant coordinates aim to bridge the gap between welfare reform and a lethargic economy. But jobless men still mill about outside the community center, which also draws residents of such neighboring towns as Sauk Village and Lynwood.
Neighborhoods in Ford Heights, once filled with tidy homes populated by blue-collar workers, are pockmarked by sagging porches, potholes, vacant lots and uncollected garbage, monuments to the region’s economic tailspin. Half of the residents ages 16 and over are unemployed. One in four households makes less than $10,000 a year. Ninety-six percent African American, the town is a symbol of racially concentrated, female-headed poverty in America.
“Without some supportive services, they’re going to continue to remain at the bottom of the economic scale,” says Bryant, speaking about the single moms she works with. “Some of them feel like, ‘What’s the use, I’m never going to work out of this situation."
In Matteson, middle-class shoppers buy cosmetics at Carson Pirie Scott, motorists gas up SUVs at Mobil, Citgo or Shell, parents fill shopping carts at Jewel and Cub Foods and executives dine at Olive Garden, Red Lobster or Fazoli’s.
As the road heads into Ford Heights, though, the scenery changes. The pharmacies and hotels cede to a currency exchange and a couple of corner stores selling cheap beer. There are no gas stations, no supermarkets — certainly not a bank. Vacant properties abound, as do burglar bars. This town of 3,456 is beset by formidable problems: unemployment, inadequate education levels and a lack of quality housing. Sociologist Pierre DeVise once called it the poorest suburb in America. In the last U.S. Census, Ford Heights earned the dubious distinction of having the highest percentage in America — 34 percent — of households headed by single mothers.
Gloria Bryant, executive director of the Ford Heights Community Service Organization, has been battling the town’s problems for more than three decades, starting as a volunteer and working her way up. Child care classes, computer training, a food pantry and other programs Bryant coordinates aim to bridge the gap between welfare reform and a lethargic economy. But jobless men still mill about outside the community center, which also draws residents of such neighboring towns as Sauk Village and Lynwood.
Neighborhoods in Ford Heights, once filled with tidy homes populated by blue-collar workers, are pockmarked by sagging porches, potholes, vacant lots and uncollected garbage, monuments to the region’s economic tailspin. Half of the residents ages 16 and over are unemployed. One in four households makes less than $10,000 a year. Ninety-six percent African American, the town is a symbol of racially concentrated, female-headed poverty in America.
“Without some supportive services, they’re going to continue to remain at the bottom of the economic scale,” says Bryant, speaking about the single moms she works with. “Some of them feel like, ‘What’s the use, I’m never going to work out of this situation."
Please help us financially in taking the life changing message of Jesus to this area. We are excited about going in and making a difference in this area!! We will be taking bags of groceries along with other items that they may need. We will feed as many people as we can also on the 13th.
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