Our programs evolved from The Night Ministrys start over 33 years ago, when we began as a collaboration of 18 north-side congregations of diverse faith traditions. Our founders sought to address the lack of services for persons on the nighttime streets of Chicago who were homeless or otherwise at-risk. Since The Night Ministry's founding, we have grown to be an agency that continues to uphold the ideals of our founders, by serving all individuals with dignity and respect. Our programs in youth shelter and health outreach have come to be seen as model programs for serving homeless adults and youth with innovative service delivery dedicated toward empowering individuals to better meet their own needs.

At The Night Ministry, our mission statement was developed from our history of making connections with individuals in need. Our mission statement is as follows: The Night Ministry was created out of diverse religious traditions to build relationships with vulnerable youth and adults on the nighttime streets. Today, we build relationships in a variety of settings. Through these relationships and the provision of housing, health, spiritual, and social services, we seek to empower people of all ages to meet their own needs. Recognizing the uniqueness, dignity, and value of each person, we accept individuals as they are, in an affirming and compassionate manner. We call the larger community to the same mission.

The Night Ministry currently operates four main programs: Our Open Door Youth Shelter in West Town houses a 16-bed interim housing program (120 day) for homeless youth, ages 14-20, and an 8-bed, longer term transitional program (2 years) for youth ages 16-20 and their children. The Night Ministry's newest program, developed by our Youth Shelter Network, is the Open Door Shelter in Lake View/Response-Ability Pregnant and Parenting Program (RAPPP). The RAPPP program began in 2007 to provide 8 interim housing beds and established community-based case management programs specifically designed for precariously housed pregnant and parenting teen girls, ages 14-18. Our Youth Outreach Team co-staffs a collaboration at the Broadway Youth Center, a drop-in facility for homeless and at-risk youth, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Among the services provided, either directly or through referral, are medical care, psychological counseling, HIV/STD prevention counseling and testing, case management, and public policy advocacy/empowerment groups. The Youth Outreach Team also conducts twice-weekly nighttime street outreach events for at-risk youth, along with day-time outreach to at-risk high school students. Our Outreach and Health Ministry Program uses a state-of-the-art, customized 38-foot long Health Outreach Bus and an HIV services van to conduct outreach to street locations, shelters, and drop-in programs serving homeless youth and adults. At the Health Outreach Bus, we provide consistent and regularly scheduled hospitality, health services, HIV prevention counseling, rapid HIV testing, hepatitis A/B vaccinations, and hepatitis C, chlamydia, and gonorrhea testing in six Chicago neighborhoods. Programs in disease self-management for hypertension and chronic respiratory illness are also provided through the supervision of our nurse practitioners.