The HELLO group for street youth is profiled in a touching feature story published Jan. 31 in the Chicago Tribune's Sunday Magazine.

Our youth attorney Beth Cunningham co-facilitates the group, which began weekly drop-in meetings in January 2005 – five years later, they’re still meeting every Tuesday night at the Broadway Youth Center, on Chicago’s North Side.

Read the excellent feature, Verses for adversity, here.

Through our Youth Futures mobile legal aid clinic, Beth offers extensive outreach. Eighty percent of clients are “unaccompanied youth” – that is, teens who are homeless and on their own, without the support of family or guardian. Her outreach includes stops at Teen Living Programs, La Casa Norte, Youth Pride Center, and the Center on Halsted. In 2009, the clinic represented 107 homeless and unaccompanied youth, with much of the casework focused on school access and shelter/housing issues.

The HELLO group is one of Beth’s weekly stops. Among its efforts, the youth group stages an annual arts showcase – everyone was excited when Mayor Daley accepted an invitation to attend last November’s show. The mayor agreed to meet again to talk about issues faced by youths fending for themselves on the street.

On Friday, Jan. 29 at City Hall, Mayor Daley met with 25 youth and young adults, as well as Beth and several staff members from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and The Night Ministry. Youth talked about the need for shelter beds and housing, training and job programs, and a 24-hour drop-in center dedicated to helping youth move toward self-sufficiency. Mayor Daley said he is interested in creating a commission to study the needs of homeless youth, and promised that youth would be asked to serve on the panel.

- Anne Bowhay, CCH Media Coordinator

- Photos courtesy of Brooke E. Collins, Photographer, Office of the Mayor