Options for Youth is a community-based nonprofit whose mission is to expand opportunities for vulnerable adolescents.

Options for Youth’s mission is to expand opportunities for under-resourced youth on Chicago's South and West Sides by developing programs that build upon the strengths and maximize the potential of each young person. Our programs have a rich history of more than 30 years service to vulnerable Chicago adolescents.

Options for Youth

Surge is a nonprofit organization with a global mission. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Surge was founded in 2008.

Surge for Water's mission is to invest in communities with safe water, sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health solutions to help end the cycle of poverty.

To date, Surge has provided safe water and sanitation access to hundreds of thousands of people in 12 countries — while keeping true to our core values of sustainability, local empowerment, and equality for all.

Surge For Water

Franciscan Peacemakers Inc connects survivors of sexual exploitation to housing, meaningful work and a healing network of support.

OUTREACH MINISTRY

Franciscan Peacemakers have had a visible presence on the streets since 1995 distributing bag lunches and personal hygiene items, allowing us to be in contact with women engaging in prostitution due to sexual exploitation, trauma, human sex trafficking, and drug addiction. In service to both these women and the wider community, we develop trust over time and provide information about Franciscan Peacemakers’ healing pathway to a sustainable healthy, safe, and productive life. 

Franciscan Peacemakers Hospitality Center on Lisbon Avenue opened in August 2019 to provide a respite from the streets. The sanctuary provides a place to meet basic needs (restrooms and food) while also offering an opportunity for longer conversations with Franciscan Peacemakers staff. The Hospitality Center has been key to the referral of women from the streets into the Clare Community program since it has opened. 



HOUSING AND HEALING

Clare Community was opened in January 2014 in response to the growing need for resident-based trauma care for the women served by Franciscan Peacemakers' Outreach efforts. Named in honor of St. Clare of Assisi, Clare Community is a unique holistic program where exploited women find sanctuary and connections to resources needed to become sober, stable, safe, and prostitution-free while living in and contributing to the community. Clare Community consists of a residential facility that can provide two years of housing for up to 10 residents who live at the St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House.

Clare Community also encompasses a network of clients and volunteers who are not in residence but are committed to journeying together in healing. This community and staff gathers weekly for ‘Candlelighting’ - a time for prayer, reflection and mutual support.

EMPLOYMENT

The Franciscan Peacemakers Social Enterprise (formerly known as Gifts for the Journey) was launched in January 2013 as a supportive workplace where women in recovery from drug addiction and/or sexual exploitation are employed while learning skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and sales. While acquiring the skills they need to earn a living wage, the employees who live at Clare Community have the opportunity to put a percentage of their earnings in a matched savings account to begin a strong financial foundation upon their graduation from Clare Community.

Franciscan Peacemakers products include soaps, lotions, candles, bath bombs and salt scrubs - beautifully handmade with all-natural ingredients by women working together toward individual and collective healing.

EDUCATION

With our service rooted in Franciscan Spirituality we are committed to creating community awareness about women engaging in prostitution due to trauma, human sex trafficking, and drug addiction, including why it exists and persists.

Members of our Board and Staff speak to faith communities, community service organizations, businesses, schools, and foundations. We explain how to recognize the signs of human trafficking and how Franciscan Peacemakers ministries are working to help address the problem and provide a healing pathway to a sustainable healthy, safe, productive life for women seeking healing and recovery. 


Franciscan Peacemakers Inc

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