Covenant House Illinois Annual "Sleep Out" Raises Over $250K

Earlier this year, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless released its annual survey of how many Chicagoans are homeless as of 2016: 80,384 Chicagoans are homeless, of those, 11,067 where unaccompanied homeless youth ages 14-24.

In recognizing this statistic, Covenant House Illinois opened its doors in February 2017 and since then has received over 10,000 visits from youth. It features a daytime drop-in Youth Development Center (open 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) in addition to a recently launched residential facility providing 12 units of interim crisis support housing that are 24 hours.

On Thursday, November 15th Covenant House Illinois (CHIL) hosted its 2nd Annual SLEEP OUT at St. James Commons in downtown Chicago. 125 business leaders, celebrities and young professionals came together to raise $250,000 (surpassing their $200k goal) and awareness for Chicago’s homeless, trafficked, and at-risk youth by sleeping outside on the 30 degree, snowy, night.

The evening began with a community candlelight vigil followed by a light dinner and program featuring breakout sessions with CHIL youth and a painting exercise. At 10:45pm, participants were given a box and sleeping bag and headed outside to pick their spot on the plaza.

Sleepers included notables such as eight cast members from Hamilton and actress Nikki James (Fox’s Proven Innocent), along with employees from Morgan Stanley, Accenture, Cisco, Starbucks, William Blair, Mesirow Financial, Tao Chicago, and IAT Insurance Group.

Photos by: Erik Kommer: https://www.dropbox.com/home/C...