Tag: Community

Meet Penny: New Volunteer Coordinator

Ask anyone what makes Northwest Compass such a special place and you’ll likely hear the same answers. Of course, the caring and compassionate staff, but also its faithful volunteers. Volunteers from the Giving Back program work alongside professional staff to selflessly donate more than 35,000 hours of service each year. And at the heart of Giving Back is the Volunteer Coordinator.

We are pleased to introduce our new Volunteer Coordinator, Penny Regan. Penny is a neighbor and part of our community. She and her husband raised a family in Mount Prospect and currently live in Arlington Heights. When you see Penny around Northwest Compass, be sure to ask about her grandchildren, her travels or about Bridge.

What else makes Penny tick? Watch her story to find out!

CompassPoints Penny R from Mary Ellen Ottenstein on Vimeo.

Penny retired recently from the Mount Prospect Public Library, and during her time at the library, she learned about programs and services Northwest Compass offers. This gives her a head start in her new role because as Volunteer Coordinator, Penny is responsible for screening, scheduling and supporting volunteers across the organization. Giving Back includes a mix of skills-based, associate and community-service volunteers as well as interns and corporate groups. Following are some examples of roles typically filled by our volunteers:

  • Career Coach
  • Food Pantry Associate
  • Greeter
  • Administrative and Data Entry Support
  • Accounting Intern
  • Marketing & Development Intern

Northwest Compass hopes that volunteers use their passion, skills and knowledge to support our mission as they become our best ambassadors. If you would like to help us help our neighbors turn crisis into opportunity, visit Get Involved today to find open volunteer roles.

Who Are Your Neighbors?

At a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to draw people’s attention to what we, as members of the human family, have in common, and the deep interconnected nature of our existence and welfare.

When I was a kid in the 60’s growing up on the Northwest side of Chicago, we knew all our neighbors and hung out with them every day. It was fun, and helped build a sense of community. During these days of two-paycheck parents commuting and cocooning because they’re afraid to let their kids run unsupervised outside, it is becoming increasingly common to buy a house and eight years later realize that you have never met your neighbors. Why is it so easy to just stay in a little bubble, and not interact with those around us? These times seem to hold a great deal of division instead of unity. February is a month dedicated to Love, and a great time to help your neighbors and community.

How would you describe your neighborhood today? Do you know everyone on the block? Do you feel safe and secure in there? Is your neighborhood comprised of a community of people working together toward a common goal or individual families living independent lives?

Some people are very fortunate to have great neighbors that they interact with every day. Some neighborhoods thrive on over-the-fence conversations each day. Having someone close by to socialize with can create wonderful friendships that may not have otherwise happened. Psychologists at the University of Michigan just completed new research that tested how socially connected people felt and how healthy they were. Turns out, feeling socially connected to your community reduces the risk of a heart attack…a lot. But building trust can be hard. A 2016 Pew Research survey revealed that only half of Americans (52%) say they trust all or most of their neighbors.

Being on friendly terms with your neighbors can lead to better life. Good neighbors watch out for each other and their property. Living in a proactive neighborhood can increase your family’s safety, as multiple sets of eyes and ears can help thwart criminal activity and promote a safer area. There’s an old cliché about borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbor. It really is convenient to have someone close by who can help you out when you need an egg to finish a cake, borrow a shovel or drag in your trash cans when you’re gone. The crossing guard on the corner where my dad lives in Des Plaines noticed his need for help, and began to drive him grocery shopping once a week. These examples surround us.

Neighbors can unite in joint ventures, plant a mutual garden, host a community yard sale, or maybe a block party. If you get to know your neighbors more intimately they may share their troubles, which can be an opportunity for you to help. If you hear that a neighbor just got home from the hospital you could make them a casserole. The neighbor two doors away shares that he lost his job you can secretly donate a gift card. When you discover a family living in their car parked in the vacant lot down your block, invite them for dinner and listen to their story.

Giving to your neighbors is contagious. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. This month let’s reach out, get involved, plan an event or make a connection. Be the kind of neighbor you want to have.

Celebrate Giving Tuesday With Your Neighbors

Giving Tuesday, launched by New York’s United Nations Foundations in 2011, expands each year. Do you sense a noble desire to give back? I hope this blog can help you to redefine your philosophy of philanthropy. This is your opportunity to give back in your own community by supporting our vision to rid the northwest suburbs of homelessness and hunger.

Let me point out the duality of poverty and charitable giving. Do you hold the same view of helping poverty as your parents did? Attitudes about poverty have remained largely consistent over time despite dramatic economic and social change. A recent survey of public opinion regarding people’s attitudes of the poor reveals sharp differences. One group seems void of empathy toward the poor, and believes the homeless should just try harder. The opposite view states jobs are hard to find, and social service programs help people get back on their feet. What view do you hold?

I’ve worked in social services in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago for over thirty years, and seen many changes. In 1990 welfare got a major overhaul. The number of poor Americans dropped sharply in that decade as programs transformed their vision from recurring giving to educating the poor. Clients were able to attend job training, and independent living skills classes in an effect to stand on their own. Poverty rose again in 2007 because of the recession. I witnessed more need than money budgeted to fill the need.

The face of poverty today does include those families who have been poor for several generations and unable to break free. Additionally, we assist middle-class families unable to pay the rising cost of living, discharged veterans with no employment and young adults who can’t secure their first job even after graduating from college. At Northwest Compass we hold the belief that poverty is a temporary condition. Who of us hasn’t felt hard times or known someone who has? Most of our clients want to be self-reliant. Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Our goal is to educate our clients, so they can feed themselves for a lifetime, and we need your support.

Donating money or time increases one’s capacity for expressing love, and generates gratitude. This action requires a selflessness, which can be challenging. Some people respond from their heads by judging what the person or agency may do with the gift. Can you open your heart, and give? A study at Harvard business school reveals that giving to others directly correlates to an increased sense of individual happiness.

Express your gratitude while increasing your personal happiness by clicking the Donate tab at www.northwestcompass.org. Any amount makes a difference and is tax deductible. Our agency is Guidestar Exchange Gold, and a BBB Accredited Charity with a commitment to transparency.

Busting the Myths of Homelessness

If you don’t think there are any homeless people in your community take a closer look around. What do they look like these days? Veterans of war suffering with PTSD, individuals suffering from mental illness or drug and alcohol problems, single moms running from a domestic violence situation, middle age out of work professionals who can no longer care for their families, and are temporarily squeezed into a relative’s basement. Perhaps a seventeen-year-old female who ran away from an abusive home and now lives in her broken-down car or a disabled adult male, who has no way to care for themself. Another family with a sick child lost everything to pay their medical bills, while down the road a family is working hard making minimum wages and can’t afford food or rent.

I challenged myself to be more aware and took one week to observe the homeless in my surroundings. Suddenly they appeared no longer invisible to me.

At the intersection of Mt. Prospect and Central Rds. in Mt. Prospect I drove by a family of four, mom and dad with two small children sitting on the corner. Dad held a sign up begging for money for food.

Coming out of Macy’s in Schaumburg I discovered an old man asleep on a Starbucks chair, with six overflowing shopping bags holding all his belongings next to him. The heat of the day dripped from his forehead. I said hello, and he didn’t respond. I checked his pulse and he mumbled. He was alive!

In downtown Des Plaines in the Walgreens parking lot an elderly woman sat on a bench mumbling to herself while guarding the cart that held all her belongings.

Near downtown Palatine a car is parked on a neighborhood street. It’s filled to the brim with boxes and a blanket and pillow. I wonder who is sleeping in there at night.

What would you do if you saw a person in need? Drive by too busy to help? Yell out your car window at them to go back to their own country? Or shout out telling them that they are losers littering your neighborhood. Look the other way and pretend not to have seen them? Convince yourself they’re not really homeless. Fool yourself with the myth of my parent’s generation that “bums too lazy to work” or “they’ll use the money to buy drugs or alcohol”. We have all been guilty of such reactions.

Do you know how to help? A new awareness can be the first step to dispelling your stereotypes. If you’re in a hurry make a plan to do some research or donate to the local agencies. Offer them the same respect you would to a friend or family member. Open your heart and respond with kindness and a smile. Make eye contact when you chat with them, it helps them feel visible. Offer them some food or a few dollars. Create a card that lists all the local shelters, pantries and food kitchens. Store your old blankets or clothes in your trunk to donate to the next homeless person you see. Give them the number to Northwest Compass 847-392-2344, or call our outreach program with the location, and time of day, so one of our outreach staff can go help them. Volunteer! Northwest Compass has many opportunities. Giving back restores balance in your community and your soul.

Intentions

Northwest Compass in Mt. Prospect, a long-standing organization in the Chicagoland Northwest suburbs, formerly partnered with CEDA, is busy rebranding its services to the homeless. We offer a variety of programs to lift clients from a crisis to an opportunity.

We are living in constant change and contrasts in our demographics, economy, and beliefs impacting homelessness. We live in the shadows of one of the wealthiest cities in America. Our neighborhoods are dotted with modern office complexes, gourmet restaurants, luxury homes and condos, yet on the same street a family of four lives in its car or is crowding up in the home of family or friends until they get back on their feet. Are you conscious of the face and scope of homelessness in your area?

There’s no single solution to the needs of those in crisis that can be addressed in one blog. An ever evolving economy, persistent terrorism, growing wealth inequality, an aging population, and shifting beliefs about philanthropy are a few of the issues that have fostered homelessness. We hope to open your eyes and your heart to the issues of the homeless in your own backyard.

Our monthly blog is dedicated to reflect on these issues in the context of the work the team does every day within the community we all share. This exploration will be driven by local knowledge, experience and insight developed through working hand in hand with other nonprofit, compassionate, organizations in the Northwest suburbs, and informed by the latest research and data on trends we can find.

We encourage you to join the conversation by posting your comments and experiences from your own community work and living.