CHICAGO HOUSE AND SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY

The mission of Chicago House and Social Service Agency (Chicago House) is to serve individuals and families who are disenfranchised by HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ marginalization, poverty, homelessness, and/or gender nonconformity by providing housing, employment services, medical linkage and retention services, HIV prevention services, legal services, and other supportive programs. Chicago House envisions a Chicago free of HIV stigma and LGBTQ discrimination in health, housing, employment and other support services for people living at all levels of economic opportunity. The strategic goals for Chicago House are to: Improve health and well-being; improve self-sufficiency; and reduce stigma and discrimination.

Chicago House recognizes the importance of providing consistently high quality services to improve the lives of its clients. Chicago House believes that integrating Performance & Quality Improvement (PQI) systems throughout the agency assures the highest degree of excellence exists. We also believe that every client is entitled to optimum care and respect and that every employee is charged with maximally contributing toward the achievement of that status. All activities performed support the vision, mission and values set forth by Chicago House, and build a culture of quality, as is put forth by the agency's CEO and Board of Trustees. The agency adheres to the following principles to encourage an agency-wide culture that values and promotes quality.

• Chicago House promotes a broad-based, organization-wide commitment to excellence and shall have ongoing performance and quality improvement processes that include many opportunities for staff and stakeholder involvement.
• Accurate and reliable data is critical to Chicago House's efforts at being a high-learning, high-performance, and results-oriented agency.
• Senior leadership shall set expectations within their departments for using quality improvement results to change operating procedure as indicated, and shall involve their managers and other staff in the PQI process.
• Soliciting input from community members and other stakeholders is vital to the PQI process and their feedback shall be incorporated into strategic and short-term planning efforts.
• The PQI committee in conjunction with program leaders shall develop and evaluate annual program goals and outcomes, which summarizes programmatic accomplishments and challenges. It is critical that the goals and outcomes are shared with staff. Through this process of self-evaluation we are able to note trends and progress that can be utilized in our ongoing quality improvement initiatives.

Programmatic Goals
• Improve health and well-being
• Improve self-sufficiency
• Reduce stigma and discrimination

Indicators
• Increase medical engagement
• Increase housing stability
• Increase economic stability
• Reduce harm of substance use
• Improve mental health

Program Strategies
• Conduct screening/assessments around clients' health needs and co-occurring social determinants of health, including housing, mental health, poverty, employment, social support, and HIV status.
• Co-create with client Individual Service Plans.
• Refer and link to services.
• Advocate on behalf of clients.
• Provide housing and housing support.
• Provide linkage and retention to medical care services.
• Provide substance use support and case management services.
• Assist clients in mitigating and managing crises.
• Elicit consumer feedback and input.
• Provide trainings to decrease stigma and discrimination.
• Collaborate with other organizations on behalf of clients.

Founded in 1985, Chicago House has repeatedly demonstrated innovation and expansion to serve community members impacted by HIV/AIDS, poverty, and LGBTQ marginalization. In the earliest years of the epidemic, Chicago House was the first agency to address the need for care and support among those dying from HIV/AIDS. As the Midwest's first HIV/AIDS housing provider, we initially provided housing to eight single adults who were dying of AIDS. With advances in medication and people with HIV living longer lives, Chicago House's services have evolved and expanded considerably in the past 30 years. We now serve approximately 1,800 individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS per year.

In 1992, Chicago House became the first local provider of housing and services for families with a parent living with HIV, through our Family Support Program. In 2001, through our Prevention with Positives programming, we became the first local, community-based agency to target HIV prevention services to those already living with the disease. In 2005, responding to our clients' wish to return to employment, we developed our Employment Program, which remains the Midwest's only HIV-specific employment program.

In 2013, we opened the TransLife Center, a national model for the provision of culturally-competent services to transgender individuals living in poverty with or at high risk for HIV/AIDS. We rehabilitated our former hospice and turned it into a safe space that provides housing, employment services, legal services, case management, and linkage to medical care specifically for the greatly-marginalized transgender population.

Chicago House and Social Service Agency continues to make progress towards a Chicago free of HIV stigma and LGBTQ discrimination in health, housing, employment and other support services for people living at all levels of economic opportunity. The 2012 International AIDS Conference marked a significant change in language regarding HIV/AIDS, and the rhetoric around “the end of AIDS" continues to build steam. Chicago House will continue to work for those affected by HIV as we move toward the end of AIDS, developing new social networking strategies that target young men who have sex with men and transgender individuals. Chicago House will continue to monitor all five of its program areas (HIV Prevention, Case Management, Employment, Scattered Site and Residential Housing, and TransLife Programming), looking for and observing the opportunities for growth in each area. Chicago House will continue to explore new collaborations and structures for the broader communities in LGBT and HIV services, with particular emphasis for those who are living in poverty in those communities.