Our vision:
A community where everyone thrives.
Our Mission
Too often resource and economic opportunities limit participants’ choices and capacity to achieve their vision and goals. CCL partners with those held back by lack of resources and economic opportunity to uncover possibilities, overcome barriers, and realize their potential. Our work includes coaching on financial, employment, and resource mobilization goals that enhance lives, training, and skill enhancement opportunities, and advocacy and organizing on economic policy and practices that open up opportunities and resources.
Huge thanks to Mark Wetzel and Mandy Work Wetzel for their generous efforts in directing, producing, and editing this video!
Theory of Change
Community members access their Poder both individually and collectively to work towards economic vitality, community well-being, and Black and Brown solidarity.
Our History
Center for Changing Lives (CCL) has been responding to the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness since 1989 when the congregation of Humboldt Park United Methodist Church began an outreach ministry. Initial programs focused on mitigating crisis, including a shelter for those experiencing homelessness, a food pantry and a soup kitchen.
Today, CCL innovates to expand access to resources and opportunities and to find more effective solutions to individual, organizational, and community challenges. CCL connects people, resources, and opportunities so that households may uncover possibilities, overcome barriers, and realize their potential. The organization works in service of building a community where everyone thrives.
To that end, CCL brings a continuum of high-quality, financially focused services to Chicagoans currently experiencing homelessness or housing or financial hardship, especially those on the Northwest side of Chicago. In 2022 CCL opened a satellite office on the Southeast side of Chicago in South Chicago, located inside Claretian Associates Salud Center. CCL works in partnership with clients to increase income, access career pathways, improve credit, build assets and develop the skills and capacities needed to achieve their vision for their life.
Center for Changing Lives’ Organizational Values
Innovation: We believe in continuously learning, improving and evolving. Therefore, we practice flexibility and creativity to find more principled and effective individual, organizational, and community solutions that will expand access to opportunities and better reflect our values and vision.
Poder (Spanish, meaning noun: power and verb: to be able to): We believe in the inherent worth of each person and in their innate ability to overcome their own challenges. Therefore we approach participants as peers and partners, working together to enhance their capacity to achieve their vision for their own life.
Economic Justice: We believe everyone has the right to lead a full and abundant life. Therefore, we promote equal access to and allocation of opportunities and resources; advocate for the personal and structural changes needed for equity to flourish, and encourage the radical acts of sharing that open doors to opportunity and lift all people.
Solidarity: We believe in celebrating and fostering mutual understanding of the beliefs, aspirations, and values represented in our diverse community. Therefore, we build relationships across boundaries and differences in order to learn from, encourage, support, share with, and nurture one another.
Accountability: We believe that we are all responsible for living out our promise and potential. Therefore, we hold ourselves, the individuals and communities that we work with, and institutions responsible for the stewardship, learning, change, and outcomes necessary to fulfill our personal and corporate aspirations and obligations.
Center for Changing Lives’ Organizational Principles
Visioning: We recognize the power of having the freedom to dream both on a client-level as well as on a community level. We believe that imagination is a critical tool to achieving progress and manifesting the future we desire and know is possible.
Inclusion: We believe that regardless of a person’s demographic make-up or social status, all are welcome in CCL programming and resources. This principle shows that we are dedicated to building a community and a supportive network of relationships both internally and externally.
Resourcefulness: Our team is adaptable and agile in the face of adversity, showing that we see an abundance of resources within ourselves and networks.
Unity: We understand that people are only as strong as their team. We know working together and seeing each of our work as integral and a part of the greater whole is critical to their success.
Self-determination: While many of the choices that determine our life are socially constructed, we recognize that each person has inherent power and wisdom to guide their path forward.
Our 2023 Impact:
We supported 5 BIPOC*-owned small businesses in obtaining their LLC in 2023, offered resource development for $20,000 in grants to be secured by CCL small business members, and engaged almost 150 community members about worker co-operatives & the restorative economy! (*Black, Indigenous, People of Color)
CCL supported our community to obtain and maintain safe & secure housing by helping 450 households in obtaining rental assistance and offering ongoing HUD-approved housing counseling services to 641 households *Including undocumented & mixed status families
We served over 900 individuals through one-on-one counseling and group workshops. A 130% increase from 2022!
CCL launched "Capacitación Digital" to ensure our Spanish-speaking community members have improved access to digital & computer learnings. We also launched a bilingual "Digital Skills for Small Business" to support entrepreneurs in thriving!
In 2023, the average net worth increase for CCL members was $11,351. The average increase in credit score was 59. And, the average increase in savings was $4,193.
95% of program participants engaged in two or more CCL services. With this integrated service approach, members (clients) felt more connected and had a lower risk of dropping out of the economic mainstream.
