Focused on Building Community with the City of Chicago's, Operation Help a Hero

In partnership with the City of Chicago and Operation Help a Hero, Focus team members collected goods throughout the month of June with the goal to provide homeless veterans with the essential items they need as they transition from shelters or transitional housing to permanent housing.

The City of Chicago struggles with homelessness among it’s veteran population, with hundreds of service men and women living on the streets today. In partnering with Operation Help a Hero, the City of Chicago aims to create a system where homelessness is rare and, in the instance, that it does occur, it is brief. Through state and city agencies, veterans are provided transitional housing as they prepare to enter more permanent housing. As part of this mission, the City of Chicago turned to it’s businesses and charities to help in this mission by supplying move-in kits to these veterans

The challenge was presented to Focus as part of the End Veterans Homelessness Initiative (EVHI), to collect and donate as many of these essential items, like cleaning and kitchen supplies. As part of our focus on building community, teams at the corporate office and across the various Focus jobsites, competed to collect the most items. This spirit of competition in combination with the mission of helping our heroes, resulted in one of the largest donation drives in Focus history.

After all the items were collected, counted and packaged, Focus delivered over 25 boxes of donated goods to Alderman Reilly of the 42^nd Ward at the end of June.

Click here to learn more about how you can help the City of Chicago’s mission to end homelessness among veterans.

Click here to learn more about Operation Help a Hero and their programs for supporting veterans.