LIFT

LIFT’s Chicago region offices provide client services in the areas of:

• Employment (both lack of employment and underemployment),
• Housing (including emergency housing, subsidized housing, and transitional housing),
• Public benefits and tax credits
• Referral services (including education/job training, legal services, children’s services, immigration, food assistance, health care, and computer literacy

Chicago
In Chicago, clients hear about LIFT through word-of-mouth, and also from case managers and workers at partnering shelters and organizations.  The deinstitutionalization decades ago of mentally ill patients in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood sent many of those community members to Single Room Occupancy living situations.  As a result, a number of social service providers set up shop in Uptown, where LIFT is located, to meet the community’s need.  Many of these service providers today rely on the hands-on, personalized services of LIFT volunteers to serve as a “safety net to the safety net” in Uptown.  For example, a team of LIFT-Chicago student advocates regularly conducts outreach at Ezra Multi-Service Center down the street, and engage clients who are not eligible for Ezra’s services.  Thanks to the collaboration of LIFT and Ezra these families are not falling through the cracks.  Local shelter case managers also refer clients to LIFT for one-on-one employment support, including resume creation, help searching for and applying for jobs on the Internet, and interview preparation.

LIFT-Chicago is continuing and expanding its partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Community Schools Initiative by providing targeted outreach and services to parents and caregivers of school children, both on the North and West sides of the City.  By helping parents stabilize their housing, connect to legal services, and obtain employment LIFT-Chicago volunteers are helping prevent CPS families from having to relocate and cause their children to transfer schools.  Outreach is done during report card pick up nights, back-to-school fairs, and through mailings with support from school personnel.

Evanston
Many LIFT-Evanston clients come referred from LIFT’s former co-locators at the local unemployment office.  As workers at the Illinois workNet Center in Evanston find themselves swamped with people in need, they consistently refer clients to LIFT-Evanston for more personalized support with employment, housing, and tax preparation.  LIFT-Evanston is also working with the City of Evanston’s Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing (HPRP) program to help families recently affected by the economic downturn to maintain and access affordable housing so they can stay on their feet and avoid spiraling into debt and homelessness.  Families enter the HPRP program by calling the City directly, or by being referred by a community organization.  LIFT-Evanston is not only serving HPRP clients, but also helping connect current LIFT-Evanston clients to this program that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

One of the most effective services for clients in the Chicago region is LIFT-Evanston’s free tax preparation.  Working with Evanston’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, LIFT volunteers are trained to prepare tax forms for low-income individuals, as well as identify critical tax credits for working poor families, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (which experts list as one of the most effective measures available to keep families from falling below the poverty line.) In 2009, LIFT-Evanston volunteers helped more than 150 clients receive nearly $175,000 in tax refunds. $78,300 came from the Earned Income Tax Credit for working poor families.