Programs For
Healing,
Housing,
and Hope.

Our programs are designed to meet people where they are and promote healing and hope through community.

The Engagement Center

“I was alone and living on the streets for 18 months. Now I'm working on my sobriety and I have a job. ReVive saved my life.”

**- Kenny**

The Engagement Center offers a welcoming community where people living on the streets can grab a cup of coffee, find a safe place to rest, access food and other basic necessities and, perhaps most importantly, experience the warm embrace of a community that treats them with the respect and dignity that all deserve. The Engagement Center also welcomes those further along on their journey from homelessness to stably housed and offers them the opportunity build social networks, engage in the community through sharing their lived experience of homelessness and other skills and further their own personal recovery. Through the expert guidance of skilled ReVive team members, the community works to support and promote individual healing, hope and the confidence necessary to address individual barriers to better health, stable housing and increased income. The Engagement Center doesn’t measure success by numbers, rather by how its community members are flourishing in housing, resources, supports, time use, and community.

Most Engagement Center activities and services have been identified by community members who have lived experience of homelessness in collaboration with ReVive’s skilled clinical team. Community members frequently remark that the Engagement Center is different than other homeless service centers in that community members are seen, heard, respected, and provided the opportunity to contribute to the community and its programming.

Special Programming

Enrichment Groups: Offered daily, groups such as book club, game club, cooking/healthy lifestyle group, safe use group, mindfulness, recovery, mental health and music groups promote community, engagement and a sense of belonging.
Food: Partnerships with local pantries and community organizations ensure that community members always have something to eat.
Medical Care and Harm Reduction Services: Medical care is provided on-site weekly by Rush University Medical Center and once or twice a month by The Night Ministry. Substance use counseling and medically assisted treatment are provided on-site twice weekly by Family Guidance Centers. Harm reduction supplies are available whenever the center is open.
Monthly Drop-In Clinics: Specialized services are offered through community partners such as cancer screenings, free eye exams and glasses, vaccine clinics, mental health screenings, suicide prevention, and harm reduction programming. Rush Occupational Therapy and local university OT student organizations also provide free expert assistance in gaining skills to help participants accomplish their goals.
Mutual-Help Groups: On-site Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are available.

“ReVive helped me realize that I am worth it. Now I have the confidence and the support to help tackle my HIV/AIDS.”

Cressey House

Cressey House offers 28 units of permanent supportive housing. Single men, women and their children live in Cressey House which serves chronically homeless individuals with disabilities and their children. Disabilities include mental health and substance use disorders, chronic health conditions, HIV/AIDS, and developmental and physical disabilities. Cressey House offers low barriers to admission, goal driven supportive services and persistent engagement to assist tenants in housing retention, improved health, increased income and improved quality of life. As a member of Chicago's Continuum of Care, prospective tenants are referred to Cressey House by the Chicago Coordinated Entry System.

“I didn’t have a spirit when I got here, but ReVive staff members believed in me… I have never been this strong.”

**- Danielle**

Scattered Site Supportive Services

“ReVive helped me to find peace with myself. That peace is helping me to address my addiction.”

**- Dennis**

ReVive provides supportive services to residents of Cressey House and to low-income individuals living in scattered site housing who are at risk of homelessness. The goal of these flexible and person-centered services is to help our community members address their individual barriers to health, stable housing and increased income. ReVive employs evidence-based best practices in its service provision including: motivational interviewing, harm reduction, trauma-informed care, and strength- based practice.

Services include: intake and assessment; goal setting; creation of an individual service plan; case management; counseling; advocacy; occupational therapy; navigating and applying for public benefits; housing assistance, legal assistance referral; physical and mental health care referrals and on-site clinics; substance-use treatment referrals and on-site support groups; financial assistance for employment training and transit cards; employment readiness; life skills workshops; and computer use/internet training. Supportive services are encouraged, but are not required to maintain housing.

“I came here because my boy and me needed a place to live. I remember it like it was yesterday. I needed Cressey House to help me do better. You gave us home.”

Christmas Baskets

Christmas is a time of generosity when hearts are opened and joy is spread from neighbor to neighbor near and far. For over 100 years, ReVive has connected people from across the Chicagoland area to brighten each other’s Christmas season by donating and receiving gifts. When a struggling family receives a Christmas Basket, it not only helps them sustain their daily efforts to contend with hardship but it also demonstrates to the families that others care about them and empathize with their struggles. In this way, ReVive and its generous donors deliver one of the greatest gifts of all —the gift of hope.

Each summer, ReVive volunteers record the wish-lists of families and senior citizens in need. We ask sponsoring donors to provide at least one gift per person and a grocery gift card to provide Christmas Dinner for the family. To qualify for the program, family and senior households must live in the City of Chicago, have a household income at or below the federal poverty level, and either have a child or children under the age of 18 (families) or be 65 years old or older (seniors). Email christmasbaskets@revivecenter.org for additional information.

“We are grateful for the generosity and love that you give us…We thank you….May God bless you.”

**- A Christmas Basket Family**

Behind the Work

“ReVive isn’t just another homeless services program. The counselors are really invested in me."

**- Dennis**

Homelessness ends with a home.

The City of Chicago Homeless Point-in-Time Count estimated a total of 6,139 people experiencing homelessness in 2023; 5,149 individuals residing in shelters and an estimated 990 people experiencing homelessness on the street, a number that many experts believe dramatically undercounts Chicago’s actual homeless population. ReVive works to address this need by providing permanent supportive housing, rental subsidies, supportive services, and persistent engagement to help people move into and stay in housing.

ReVive is a member of the Chicago Continuum of Care and has adopted the Housing First approach which prioritizes housing without conditions for the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness. In addition to Housing First, ReVive employs evidence-based best practices in its service provision including:

Motivational Interviewing – emotional engagement and empathy to help clients with ambivalence to change.
Harm Reduction – strategies for managing substance use and risky behaviors that lead to safer use, moderation or abstinence depending upon client’s desire.
Trauma Informed Care – an understanding of trauma and its impact on individuals, families and groups.
Strength Based Practice – client led, sees the client as resourceful and resilient and builds upon the client’s strengths.
SOAR – method of applying for Social Security Disability benefits.

Housing is a cost-effective answer to homelessness. Persons living on the streets are frequent users of emergency rooms, jails, the court system, and emergency shelters, all of which are expensive, with limited long-term positive impact. Studies demonstrate that permanent housing can save taxpayers thousands of dollars a year, all while providing an opportunity for growth and change.