Chicago House And Social Service Agency

Programs: Residential housing - the family support program offers housing, case management, and other supportive services to 15 hiv/aids affected families that include over 25 dependent children. Designed for families facing homelessness and poverty in addition to hiv/aids, the program works intensively with both the parents and the children. The supportive living program is a 16-unit group living facility in chicago's west town neighborhood, which provides the "first step" of housing and supportive services to adults living with hiv/aids who come directly from the streets or the shelter system; this facility is staffed 24 hours. The independent living program is a 24-unit apartment building in uptown, providing permanent housing to adults living with hiv/aids in need of affordable housing with supportive services available to meet intermittent needs.

scattered site housing - the gaining ground program links housing services with chicago house's employment program. Clients in gaining ground develop the skills necessary to return to work and increase their income level, moving them to greater self-sufficiency and ultimately allowing the housing subsidies to pass to others beginning the employment process. The hospital to housing program (hhp) and the samaritan program are scattered site housing programs which provide stable, safe housing for individuals with a chronic medical illness, such as hiv/aids, who are homeless or lack permanent housing. Under these programs, case managers findattainable housing for the chronically ill and homeless by locating interim housing until permanent housing becomes available or by placing clients directly into permanent housing. Family ties, finally home and housing first are three additional scattered site housing programs that provide stable and safe housing for chronically ill individuals who are homeless. The family ties program houses 10 families while finally home and housing first primarily house single individuals, each housing anywhere from 15 to 20 households. The housing advocacy program assists low-income individuals and families living with hiv/aids in obtaining and maintaining appropriate and affordable housing.

prevention - h. O. P. E (health, outreach, prevention and education) historically, aids prevention focused on those who were hiv negative, helping them to not become positive. Since 2002, chicago house pioneered the prevention with positives initiative with one underlying principle: every new infection is contracted from someone that is already hiv impacted. If "safe" practices can be encouraged among those who are hiv positive, it can help stem the tide of aids while keeping those already impacted from contracting a drug resistant strain of hiv. The h. O. P. E. Department is an hiv prevention program involving three core services: hiv testing and counseling, care coordination for persons living with hiv and care navigation for individuals at high risk for hiv. Hiv testing and counseling is provided for persons living with hiv who are having difficulty maintaining safer sex or needle sharing behaviors. Factors that may impact a client's ability to maintain safer behaviors include: mental illness, homelessness or risk of homelessness, domestic violence, and substance abuse. The hiv prevention counselor works one-on-one with clients toassist them with achieving risk reduction goals. Hiv rapid testing is also provided. This program seeks to help identify some of the estimated 25% of individuals in the united states living with hiv who are unaware of their hiv status. Care coordination chicago house addresses the needs of out-of-care people living with hiv/aids and offer retention-in-care activities. Connect to care provides client level outreach, linkage, and education activities to help individuals with diagnosed hiv/aids connect or reconnect to continuous hiv medical care and other essential services. The program recruits case managed clients to conduct outreach to out-of-care people living with hiv in their social networks and facilitates efforts to (re)connect them to hiv care services. In addition, the program provides newly connected clients educational and peer-based services and addresses clients' individual-level barriers, such as fear, stigma, or lack of knowledge about treatment in order to support care retention. Prep navigation chicago house addresses the needs of high risk negatives by creating a client centered approach to care that mirrors our care coordination model. Regardless if a client is hiv positive or at high-risk for contracting hiv they are in need of the same type of services. Because prep requires adherence, the care navigation program gives navigators the opportunity to work with clients over an extended period of time, allowing them to develop a deeper relationship with the client and a more comprehensive negative care plan, similar to what is done with hiv positive clients. The navigator ensures that they schedule regular follow-up meetings with the client to continue to test the client for hiv, to ensure the referral is continuing to serve the client, and to address any other needs that may arise as the client becomes more comfortable with the navigator.