Respond Now Celebrates 50 Years Of Linking Vulnerable Residents With Social Services
Respond Now Celebrates 50 Years Of Linking Vulnerable Residents With Social Services
BY KATHERINE NEWMAN
Based in Chicago Heights, Respond Now is a nonprofit organization that has been providing critical support for vulnerable residents of south suburban Cook County for almost 50 years. The organization connects residents with social services that can help them with food security, rent or mortgage assistance, utility payments, clothing, transportation, and prescription medication costs.
Respond Now serves over 12,000 residents living in 22 specific south suburban communities where high levels of poverty and unemployment exist. The organization has also recognized that the communities they serve suffer from high rates of food insecurity and home foreclosures. All of these combining factors have dictated the services that Respond Now aims to provide.
“We are an agency that is part of the community,” said Carl Wolf, executive director of Respond Now. “The far south suburbs is an area that is particularly impoverished and over the last 50 years, Respond Now has been a real stabilizing force for many families.”
While there are many organizations operating in the area to provide important services like workforce development, mental health services, and drug addiction services, Wolf said Respond Now is there to fill in the gaps and make sure that everyone has their basic needs fulfilled.
“We provide housing services and basic needs services like operating our food pantry, giving rent assistance, helping the homeless, getting bus passes, and providing clothes. We are able to do this in a way that is really, I think, part of the community. We want people to feel comfortable and be able to access our services with no judgment. That’s something that we stress over and over again because at our agency, we want the community to feel like they can come in and feel welcome and loved,” said Wolf.
As part of their goal to help stabilize the lives of south suburban residents, Respond Now will host Financial Fitness and Homebuyer Education Workshops from May through September. By the end of the workshops, Respond Now hopes participants will be able to make well-informed decisions with a better understanding of financial concepts. The workshops will also allow them to meet with a housing specialist who can guide them through the home buying process and answer specific questions.
As a nonprofit organization, Respond Now relies on community members to help them make an impact by donating food, clothing, money or their time.
“We always need volunteers, particularly in our community garden, and groups of volunteers are welcome for any particular project we might have in the facility. In terms of donations that we take, food drives are always great because they get more people involved in thinking about the needs of the community,” said Wolf.
Respond Now will celebrate their 50th anniversary on Sept 19. To learn more about the upcoming workshops, volunteer opportunities or needed donations, visit www.respondnow.org.
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