Mary Baker is a mother of three and has experienced homeless on and off since 1997. She has worked hard to make sure her children get a good education. Mary has been active with coalition since 1997 fighting to make sure that all families have opportunities to improve their lives.

Gloria Evans is a formerly incarcerated women who is creating a new life for herself by making positive choices. While living at Grace House, transitional housing for women, Gloria become interested in policy, going to Springfield, and participating in rallies. She has things to tell people that they might not have thought about and give people a different outlook on formerly incarcerated and homeless people. This will give people a better understanding than by only getting information from TV or in the newspaper.

George A. Huff Sr., 52 year old, formerly homeless man is creating a new life for himself through recovery from addictions and making better choices. He has achieved a basic certificate in addiction studies, and is returning to school to get the advance certificate and an associate's degree. He has done volunteer work with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for 6 years. He has served in leadership capacity, lobbied for affordable housing, speakers' bureau at various venues. He is currently conducting workshops, the Quest for a New Man, at the Chicago Christian Industrial League that benefit people in transition and anyone looking forward to becoming a better human being.

Stephanie Hooker lives at Deborah’s Place which is supportive housing for low-income housing. She has been a leader with Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for 3 ½ years. She has taken groups around Springfield to educate legislators about homelessness and met with alderman locally here in Chicago to explain why they should pass important initiatives. When she became homeless in New York, she had to rely on people she had just met to help her take care of her daughter. After securing a place to live, she worked at the Chicago Hilton and is happy to say that her daughter is now a successful lawyer.

Melody Brynne DeGagne is a 54-year-old mother with 3 grown children who lost her husband in 2004 and in spite of trying to overcome the grief and working for a year after that, the job ended and she lost her housing and had to enter a women's shelter. After 8 months of hard struggle, she now has a subsidized apartment and is also a leader with CCH and part of their speaker's bureau attempting to educate and motivate others to the cause of helping the homeless to help themselves ,have hope and to gain community support and understanding of the issues surrounding homelessness. She has spoken with legislators, policy makers, civic groups, churches, and many other interested people to forward the cause of ending homelessness. Her plans include getting her college History degree supplemented by an MCSE in Microsoft Office XP and obtaining her CPA certification in Accounting. She hopes to work with government and private entities to provide affordable and subsidized housing here in Chicago and go on to obtain a Master's Degree in International Relations and understand these same issues around the world.

Lucretia Clay was only 12 years old when her biological mother sold her to a pimp. For a time, the life seemed glamorous to a girl who had been abused and abandoned by her own family. As time went on, the constant violence, degradation, and periodic homelessness took a toll on her physical and emotional health. Twenty-six years later, she made a final plea for help after trying to take her own life. Thankfully that call was answered, and she was admitted to a program that provided the structured residential treatment and services she needed. Since 2003, Lucretia has been an active member of Prostitution Alternatives Round Table (PART), which is a project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless that addresses issues faced by people caught in the sex trade. She first got involved with PART when a friend in prostitution was murdered by a customer. Lucretia says this was “a wake-up call that I got out before it was too late. I wanted to show other women that they aren’t lost causes, like everybody had told me I was.”

Tremaine Roundtree was formerly homeless and would like to share with you what led up to that. He feels it is important to convey a message to the audience that the use chemicals, drugs, and alcohol can lead you to place you don’t want to go and to do things you don’t want to do. The use of drugs, alcohol, and chemicals was instrumental in him becoming homeless, jobless, breaking up his relationship with his family, friends, and two separate marriages. If you never start experimenting then you will never have to fight to straightening you life. He is doing things like he has never done before in his participation Chicago Coalition gone to City Hall meetings, been to a signing of the Governor for a law that he helped to get passed, spoke at universities and civil rallies.

Jose Vasquez is a resident of Mercy Housing’s South Loop Apartments. Jose, 63, is a former construction worker and newspaper vendor. When he was homeless and living on Lower Wacker Drive, Jose rose at 4 a.m. to sell the Chicago Sun-Times and made a dime a copy. Currently, as the coordinator of the coffee project of CCH, Jose places and prepares orders and schedules leaders for jobs. Jose believes passionately in the need for living wages jobs and is active in educating alderman and fellow community members about this need.

Lorenzo Rowell's main objectives in life are to help people and earn money so he can support himself. He is 22 years old and is currently staying at the Chicago Christian Industrial League because of money problems. He became homeless as a youth due to illness in the family and is now struggling to find a job. He is trying to start over in life by obtaining his GED after not being in school for the past 8 years, his certification in the Microsoft Office 2003 Program, and is in the last stage of applying for college to study to be a teacher. He has done various speeches on topics ranging from the need for a Transitional Jobs Program to creating awareness about Homeless Youth. He currently serves in a leadership role for Youth Futures, a group advocating for homeless youth, and has just begun expanding his role with Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to include work on the Coffee Project.

Timothy Davis is
a highly motivated individual, who made bad decisions. He currently resides at St. Andrews court,
which part of St. Leonard’s Ministries. Timothy feels driven to let
people know about change, because he wants people to understand that people who
are formerly incarcerated can make a change and can make a difference. He does this to be a voice for the voiceless.

Johnnie Lee Savory became involved in CCH when he met an organizer who was reaching out to people who are labeled "ex-offenders" to work on social injustice to build power within the reentry community. His first task at hand was educating legislators about the SMART act, an alternative to incarceration. He traveled to Springfield several times several times to lobby various legislators and was successful in passing this legislation. After being wrongfully convicted, he spent 30 years of his life fighting for freedom and now that he is out, he is fighting for a second changed. But not only for himself, he is fighting for the thousands of voiceless victims and families who are affected by the issue.

Carmelita Taylor Dowd
is a 48 year old African-American woman with three grown daughters, five
grandchildren, presently homeless with great expectation of housing for
herself. She is excited to be working to
help others secure housing as well. She
enjoys her volunteer work with Women of Power, a resource for women coming out
of incarceration and provides support for women to build up their self-esteem
and confidence. It builds her
spirituality doing volunteer work, because through this work she is able to
touch the hearts of others and give them hope.

Helen
Smith, 48, is a survivor of the sex trade and is currently homeless. 
She became involved in prostitution at the age of 13.  Her work with the Prostitution Alternatives
Roundtable has given her a sense of purpose and the strength to work toward a
positive life.  Now she spends her time
taking care of her aging mother, searching for a job that will hire her with
her background, and fighting for policy changes that will help the women coming
after her lead better lives.

 Charles Jenkins

Cary Martin speaks about the harsh reality of growing up without
a home. One of the unseen faces of homelessness is children; over one
million children in the United States are homeless. Cary's mother lost
her Section 8 subsidy when Cary was just ten years old. Cycling between
the streets and the system, Cary became a ward of the state when she
was 13 years old. Cary has fought hard to obtain an education in the
midst of poverty, homelessness and social isolation. Cary was a summer
intern with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and received her law
degree from Northwestern University School of Law. Cary speaks about
her experience as a homeless youth and advocates for a better system.
She speaks about the role education can play in breaking the cycle of
poverty and dependence.