Meet Your Neighbors: December Street Outreach with Street Samaritans

Join us on Sunday, December 7th, for a powerful morning of community connection on Chicago's streets. This isn't just volunteering. It's an opportunity to meet your neighbors experiencing homelessness exactly where they are, offering hot meals, warm winter clothing, emergency supplies, and most importantly: human connection.

Here's how the morning unfolds:

10:00 AM — We sort donations and pack care packages before gathering together for a brief orientation covering respectful engagement, what to expect, and how to approach conversations with dignity and openness.

10:30 AM - 12:50 PM — We hit the streets in teams, walking through Chicago neighborhoods to meet people experiencing homelessness. You'll distribute care packages filled with food, water, hygiene supplies, socks, warm clothing, and first aid materials. More than that, you'll have genuine conversations, practice active listening, and simply be present with people who are often treated as invisible.

12:50 - 1:00 PM — We reconvene to debrief, share reflections, and process the experience together as a community.

No experience necessary. Whether you've volunteered with us dozens of times or this is your first time engaging with homelessness, you belong here. We'll guide you every step of the way.

In our recent Community Homelessness Needs Assessment- the only survey in Chicago that directly asks homeless people what they need- our neighbors told us something powerful. When we asked what regular people could do to help, the most common answer wasn't money or resources. It was acknowledgment.

People asked us to:

• Make eye contact
• Say hello
• Have a conversation
• Treat them like the regular people they are

As one person told us: "Just talk to people on the streets, let them practice social skills. Don't treat them like they're invisible. Acknowledge we're human."

That's what this outreach is really about. Yes, we bring critical supplies that help people survive the brutal Chicago winters. But we also bring something equally essential: the reminder that they're seen, valued, and part of this community.

Street Samaritans exists to create a Chicago without homelessness; not through top-down charity, but through solidarity, connection, and walking alongside our neighbors on their journey toward stability.

Since 2017, we've been committed to meeting people where they are—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—through street outreach, case management, mobile services, and crisis intervention. We believe that human connection is the starting point of change, and that people experiencing homelessness are the experts on their own needs.

Our approach is grounded in five core values:

• Dignity — Every person has inherent worth
• Compassion — Solidarity, not charity; being with, not doing for
• Curiosity — Listening and learning before assuming
• Integrity — Doing what's right, even when it's hard
• Accessibility — Making justice tangible through actions anyone can take right now

We don't serve from above- we stand alongside. We don't have all the answers- we listen to the people who do. We don't do this work alone- we build community with people like you who believe Chicago belongs to all of us.

Volunteers consistently tell us this experience changes how they see their city, their neighbors, and themselves. You'll:

• Build genuine connections with people whose resilience and wisdom will surprise you
• Learn directly from people with lived experience about what Chicago's homeless community actually needs
• Join a community of Street Samaritans committed to solidarity and justice
• Take action in a way that's immediate, tangible, and deeply human
• Practice compassion in the most literal sense—being with people in their reality

This isn't about saving anyone. It's about showing up. It's about recognizing our shared humanity. It's about being the kind of neighbor you'd want someone to be for you.

• Yourself — Your presence and openness matter most
• Weather-appropriate clothing — We'll be outside for 2+ hours in December
• Comfortable walking shoes — We cover significant ground
• Open heart — Come ready to listen, learn, and be changed

We provide all supplies, care packages, and materials. You just bring you.

Homelessness isn't a single-issue problem, and it won't be solved by a single sector. But every conversation matters. Every care package matters. Every moment of acknowledgment matters.

As one person in our survey said: "Its not easy but its always gonna be ok." That resilience, that hope in the face of impossible odds—that's who we're showing up for.

Hope is a practice. We live it daily, through every care package, conversation, and connection.

We can't wait to walk the streets with you.

Please reach out if you need accommodations to participate fully. We're committed to making this experience accessible to everyone who wants to join us.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Street Samaritans