Effectively addressing homelessness requires our community to do more than solve individual crises. We have to build deeply connected systems of care with the whole person in mind. In many communities, physical health, mental health, behavioral health and homeless services function as mostly isolated systems of support, leaving people to figure out how to navigate […]
heartland housed
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
A better way forward for youth experiencing homelessness
“Every little thing I did, I felt like I was in their way, even breathing.” This statement, shared during a focus group by a young person in our community without stable housing who relied on relatives and acquaintances for a place to stay, highlights the emotional toll youth face as they try to meet their […]
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
Are we making progress on efforts to address homelessness?
In 2020, our community began to take tangible steps to evaluate gaps in services to address homelessness and chart a new way forward. Community leaders, service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness and community members gave input about challenges related to homelessness and shared their hopes for what could be. The result was the […]
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
We can build a mental health system we can all count on
For most of us in Sangamon County, gaps in mental health services are felt in deeply personal ways. A recent survey of every census tract in our community found that four in 10 of our neighbors have had an unmet mental health need in the last three years. While a decade of assessments has warned […]
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
Improving housing stability benefits our community
Safe and stable housing creates the foundation that every person in our community needs to thrive, live a healthy life and reach their goals. As achieving stable housing grows difficult so too does the number of our neighbors forced to spend their energy in survival mode each day trying to figure out where and how […]
Posted inNews
Doing more for the homeless
There it stood, a three-foot-tall Christmas tree marking the entrance to a litter-strewn encampment in a wooded area near a railroad line on Springfield’s north side. The tree was decorated with about a dozen ornaments, with a dirty pink jacket serving as a skirt. A few steps down a hill from the tree was a […]
