Beginning a New Century: 2001 - 2011

Restructuring Service Areas

The Agency organized its services into five distinct program areas: Community Services, Behavioral Health, Child Welfare, Out of School Time and El Cuarto Año High School. All community center programs are consolidated at the 1116 N. Kedzie location.

Filling The Need For Community Health Education

Since its inception, Association House has been involved in alleviating poverty and hunger and has provided food baskets to hungry families. In the spring of 1998, a contribution from Kraft Foods enabled us to start an expanded Food Pantry Program. The impetus for this effort was a survey conducted by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago that indicated a great need for food assistance in the Humboldt Park area. While each bag of food we provide includes a wholesome combination of healthy food products and fresh produce, we became aware that more needed to be done. Challenges like joblessness, lack of health care, under-education, and disproportionately high occurrences of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, substance abuse, and infant mortality have not been adequately addressed, giving the Association House a bigger challenge and increased opportunities to assist our constituents. Poor health and nutrition are particularly important issues in this community, exacerbated by endemic poverty, which force many families to choose between food and medicine.

In 2004, Nutritional Education became an important part of the Association House’s social services when Kraft stepped up again, recognizing our proven track record in combating hunger in our surrounding communities, and chose us to be a partner in their Salsa, Sabor y Salud health and nutrition curriculum. With their seed money, the Association House was able to leverage additional support from the Oberweiler Foundation and other donors, which permited us to hire staff to design and implement the Healthy Lifestyles program and to expand the scope of our preventive health services.

Completing First Ever Major Gifts Campaign

On June 30, 2005, Association House exceeded its goal to raise $5 million  in new funds during it first-ever major gifts Campaign: Opening Doors for  a New Century. The work of a dedicated Board of Directors and Campaign Cabinet, along with the generosity of hundreds of donors, helped Association House reach this historic milestone.
The campaign doubled the size of the Association House family of individual donors, and brought new and increased gifts from foundations, corporations, and churches. Highlights included a coveted $400,000 Brick and Mortar Challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation, and major gifts from Chicago Community Trust, Elizabeth Morese Genius Charitable Trust, Comcast Cable, Northern Trust Company, Kemper Education & Charitable Fund, Bristol Fund, Inc., and  Oberweiler Foundation.  A special challenge grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation at the close of the campaign helped Association House surpass its goal.

Mayor Daley & Mrs. Daley Visit

In June 2005, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his wife Maggie Daley, Chief of After School Matters, joined members of the City’s Department of Children and Youth Services at Association House. The City of Chicago was selected to receive an $8 million, three-year grant from The Wallace Foundation to create a system of support to ensure the continued existence and growth of Chicago’s nationally reconized programs for teenagers. Association House was selected as the venue for the announcement because of its reputation as having one of the most outstanding after school programs in the city for both children and teens.

Enhancing Community Services

As an agency serving a Latino and African American community with high rates of poverty, unemployment, low literacy, and re-entry of persons with criminal records, Association House has responded to the interconnected issues associated with poverty and in 2006 developed a Career Center that integrates adult basic education, sector-based bridge programs in growth industries, employment services, financial education and coaching, and income support services.

This integrated Career Center provides clear pathways that match individual participants’ needs, Association House has developed flexible, holistic services to help low-income participants become financially stable and continue to advance.

The goal for the Career Center is to ensure that the over 5,000 people who utilize Career Center programs each year have full access to the range of  its services regardless of their point of entry. This way, participants coming for employment assistance have access to appropriate adult education options and vice-versa. Career planning activities in all employment and adult education programs also help participants learn about career path options and the relationship between training and higher wages, so that they can develop individualized career plans that integrate targeted employment and training opportunities over the long-term.

Revision Of Mission Statement

The Association House successfully coordinated a group of current Board Members and Board Alumni to form the 2007 Agency Mission Revision Task Force. This diverse group was strategically chosen based on influence and commitment to Association House. Working with key leadership staff, the Task Force was able to draft a revised Agency Mission Statement. Pre-work included planning with the Task Force facilitator to review and integrate current mission statement and key messages. The new Mission Statement was adopted and approved in November of 2007.

Recognized For Outstanding Programming

• September 2008 and 2010: the Annie E. Casey Foundation invited Association House to present its program design as a national model for effective integration and delivery of employment, financial, and education services at the Foundation’s national Center for Working Families Conference.
• May 2009: United Way of Metropolitan Chicago awarded Association House with the 2009 Outstanding Partner Award and selected one of the Agency’s participants as a featured success story in the United Way 2009 Campaign video.
• June 2009: the Wallace Foundation selected Association House as one of 14 Chicago nonprofits to participate in its five-year innovative Chicago-based initiative “Building on Quality: Strengthening Financial Management in Out-of School Time.” The Agency received this nomination to apply due to being cited by the City of Chicago as providing exemplary programming to children and teens.
• June 2009: El Cuarto Año High School and the Out of School Time Program were selected, through a highly competitive selection process with the Illinois State Board of Education, to be a Supplemental Education Service Provider during the 2009-2010 school year.
• June 2009: Association House of Chicago was awarded the Raza Development Funds 10th Anniversary Award for “valuable and high-quality services.”
• August 2009: The Out of School Time Program was selected, as one of three organizations nationally, to work with the National Council of La Raza to develop and implement culturally competent computer-based youth curriculum through Thinkfinity.org, and was asked to be the lead agency to present project accomplishments at the NCLR National Conference.
• September 2009: The Out of School Time Program was selected as the 2010 Host Site of the Year from Break Away, a national organization that organizes alternative spring break programs for colleges/universities that inspire lifelong active citizenship.
• November 2010: Income Support Services was awarded a special grant from Jewel-Osco in recognition of the Emergency Services provided to the Humboldt Park Community for Hispanic Heritage Month.
• January 2011:With the highest rate of service bundling of all the 12 Centers for Working Families in the Chicago area, Association House’s Center for Working Families has been recognized as a best practice model for service bundling. The Annie E. Casey Foundation invited two new Center for Working Families from Michigan to visit Association House to learn about how we implement our highly successful services.