Rahm Emanuel's fiscal year 2009 earmark request.

WASHINGTON–Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the number three Democrat in the House, released his fiscal year 2009 earmark requests on Monday. So far, Emanuel is the only House member from Illinois–that I am aware of–who has made public their earmark requests. (If someone else has disclosed, please let me know and I will post.)

All of members should reveal their requests. While Congress has debated earmark abuses, a lot of the problem stemmed from earmarks tucked into bills that no one knew about. New House rules call for earmarks disclosures. Emanuel goes a step further and puts out what he asks for, not just what he gets.

A request does not mean that Congress will approve the spending.

Academy for Urban School Leadership – Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School, $1,075,200

Academy for Urban School Leadership – Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School – Campus Enhancement Project, $300,000

Adler Planetarium Sky Theater, $1,000,000

Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, $750,000

Center on Halsted, $475,000

Chicago Architecture Foundation, $1,000,000

Chicago Department of Environment Calumet Environmental Center, $1,700,000

Childrens Memorial Hospital Critical Injury Sciences Initiative, $4,800,000

Chicago Park District Theater on the Lake, $1,000,000

Chicago Public Schools Transitions Project, $5,000,000

Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line, $30,474,404

Columbia College Chicago Construct Project, $2,000,000

The Field Museum Roof Conservation Project, $1,500,000

Great Lakes States Invasive Species Project, $2,000,000

Illinois Institute for Technology (IIT) Energy and Sustainability Institute, $1,000,000

Illinois Community College Sustainability Institute Network, $1,850,000

Illinois River Nutrient Farming Pilot Project, $2,800,000

John G. Shedd Aquarium Center for Great Lakes, $1,000,000

Kohl Children’s Museum’s Early Childhood Connections Prevention Program, $500,000

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago Early Childhood Residents Program, $500,000

METRA Station in Bellwood/Melrose Park, $3,000,000

METRA UP-NW Line, $25,000,000

Milwaukee Avenue Rehabilitation, $8,000,000

Navistar International Corporation Next Generation Diesel Engine for Ground Vehicles, $5,000,000

North Lake Shore Drive Rehabilitation, $5,000,000

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, $1,500,000

Northwestern University Great Lakes Restoration, $2,000,000

Old Town School of Folk Music, $500,000

Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, $135,000

Shedd Aquarium Great Lakes Conservation Program, $1,000,000

Uhlich Childrens Advantage Networks (UCAN) Alumni Services Department, $350,000

Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN), $300,000

Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN) Violence Prevention Program, $300,000

Village of Franklin Park Franklin Avenue Rehabilitation, $1,000,000

Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS), $250,000

from Emanuel

Emanuel Announces FY 2009 Earmark Requests

CHICAGO, IL Continuing his personal effort to bring more transparency and accountability to the earmark process, U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) today released a list of his earmark requests for Fiscal Year 2009, which includes local education, transportation, health care and cultural projects.

Last year, in response to a series of scandals involving earmarks, Emanuel led the fight to reform the secretive and unaccountable earmark process in Congress. Under new rules implemented by the Democratic Majority last year, any earmark included in an appropriations bill will be made public and attributed to the member who requested it.

In the spirit of this effort to make the process more transparent, I am happy to make public today the complete list of meritorious projects for which I have requested federal help, said Emanuel. I have never opposed the ability of Members of Congress to direct federal funds to vital programs and projects, but the taxpayers deserve to know where their dollars are being spent.

Following are Emanuels complete earmark requests for Fiscal Year 2009:

Academy for Urban School Leadership – Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School

The Chicago Academy and the Chicago Academy High School offer an unrivaled elementary and high school education along with a teacher training program which provides underserved Chicago schools with dedicated, experienced teachers. A joint program of Chicago Public Schools and the non-profit Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), the schools offer resident teachers a year-long teacher training program, combining an unprecedented level of classroom experience with a Masters degree in education. In return for their participation in this program, residents commit to teaching in underserved Chicago Public Schools for five additional years, during which they are placed in failing schools and continue to receive support from AUSL. The program provides Chicago Public Schools with a farm team of talented, experienced teachers who are helping to ameliorate Chicagos teacher shortage and bringing hope to underserved city schools. As AUSL continues to expand its high school program, and an increasing number of graduates, federal funding will provide for resident stipends and ensure the programs expansion.

Academy for Urban School Leadership – Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School – Campus Enhancement Project

The Chicago Academy High School (CAHS) is Chicagos main high school teacher training academy. Managed by the successful Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), the CAHS has 500 students and 20 new teachers who are preparing to teach in other high schools around Chicago. Located in the Portage Park neighborhood, CAHS has approximately 75% poverty (free/reduced lunch), but has shown consistent student achievement through AUSLs leadership and the establishment of a positive school culture and environment. Currently, the only gymnasium available to CAHS sports activities is inadequate, shared with the Chicago Academy K-8 Elementary School. In addition, The Chicago Park District has identified the schools as a potential Campus Park, which would both meet TCA facility needs and serve as public park space, and would include a playing field, a track, and numerous picnicking areas. Previous funding was made for this project in 2006. Federal funding, along with local support, would see this project to completion.

Adler Planetarium Sky Theater

Part of Chicagos Museum Campus, Adler Planetarium is a world renowned planetarium and educational facility. Adler’s central attraction has been scientifically accurate simulations of the night sky produced in the historic Sky Theater. The Sky Theater’s original planetarium instrument was replaced with a newer model in 1970. Almost 40 years later, parts are no longer available and this instrument and its supporting technology are beginning to fail. This request is for a new projection system and supporting technology which will allow the museum to deliver higher quality sky shows without interruption caused by the failure of aging equipment.

Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center

Since 1986, Illinois Masonic Medical Center (IMMC) has functioned as a state-designated Level III Perinatal Facility, one of 25 in Illinois, providing the highest level of maternity and newborn care. Through its affiliation with Rush University, IMMC is designated as a Co-Perinatal Center, one of only ten Perinatal Centers in Illinois. Federal funding will be used to renovate and reconfigure the Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit to better meet patient/family care needs, improve patient safety, construct a new nurses’ station to minimize noise and disruption to neonatal care, enhance infection control and patient transfers, meet all prenatal guidelines, and create a more family centered environment of care.

Center on Halsted

Since its establishment in 1973, the Center on Halsted has served more than 500,000 members of Chicagos LGBT community. The new Center on Halstead has continued in that tradition to provide Chicago with vital programming focused on youth services, mental health services and community and cultural programming. The Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE) program provides daily programming utilizing the Wellness model, including recreation, educational, social, and cultural events; a friendly visitor program for isolated or homebound elders, and mentoring of LGBT youth. Funding will be used to conduct valuable research on the needs facing LGBT elders living with HIV, create a film focusing on LGBT elders living with HIV and offer needed professional training to mainstream senior service providers about the needs of LGBT elders.

Chicago Architecture Foundation

In May of 2009, the Chicago Architecture Foundation will present the exhibition Chicago: Model City. This request will support the exhibit which will feature an interpretive model of Chicagothe first of its kind in the country. The large-scale interactive model will engage broad public audiences, including regional, national, and international visitors, in learning about Chicago and the planning of urban regions. The large scale interactive model will be developed for the visit of the International Olympic Committee. It will be a tool for securing Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics as well as a transportation and urban development model for regional, national and international visitors. Both Sydney and Beijing have created city models as marketing tools in their successful Olympic bids.

Chicago Department of Environment Calumet Environmental Center

This request will help fund the construction of the Calumet Environmental Center, an innovative and architecturally exceptional green building achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum status. The Center will be the most sustainable building in Chicago, and will be visited by people of all ages who come to learn about the natural, industrial and community history of the Calumet area. The importance of the Calumet Wetlands as a hydrologic system connected to Lake Michigan will be one of several topics highlighted in the building’s 5,000 square foot exhibit space.

Childrens Memorial Hospital Critical Injury Sciences Initiative

The Critical Injury Sciences Initiative at Childrens Memorial Hospital, addresses two of the most significant types of injuries being experienced by our military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. The components include research on the methods by which the human brain responds to injury in order to develop improved therapies for recovery from brain injury. Children’s Memorial researchers are presently at the cutting edge of this research. This integrated program is directly relevant to the health research efforts of the Department of Defense in addressing traumatic injuries to war fighters, support personnel and collaterally damaged civilians. The neurosciences research has clear application to the treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury in adult populations while the regeneration sciences component is relevant to recovery and rehabilitation in injured personnel.

Chicago Park District Theater on the Lake

Theater on the Lake is a small covered, outdoor theater located along Lake Michigan. The Park District seeks to rehabilitate the interior and exterior to improve the overall utilization of the facility. Federal funds will cover ADA compliance, upgrades to its operation systems and air circulation.

Chicago Public Schools Transitions Project

Chicago Public Schools afterschool programs provide opportunities for students across the city. Funding will be used to address transitions of at-risk students between 10 preschool and the primary grades and between 100 elementary and 20 high schools. Specifically, funding will support project components which include screening, professional development, parent education, counseling, and after-school programming.

Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line

The Brown Line Capacity Expansion is a New Start Heavy Rail project. The Full Funding Grant Agreement project funds capacity expansion and station rehabilitation for the 9.1 mile Brown Line. This project will provide fully accessible stations capable of supporting eight-car trains and improve station conditions. Project will extend platforms at 18 stations and install ramps at four ground level stations, renovate station house at 16 stations, install 26 elevators at 13 stations, install four escalators, and restore eight historic stations.

Columbia College Chicago Construct Project

The Interactive Arts and Media team at Columbia College Chicago has been working with the U.S. Army on the implementation of their High-Rise Evacuation Learning Platform (HELP) and the Construct Program. Building on the initial success of HELP, the Army identified additional areas for Columbia College to assist in their training and readiness efforts through simulation training, creating the Construct Program. Federal funding would help Columbia College develop interactive simulations to train individuals to solve problems as a team, making the move from solo effort to teamwork involving knowledge and skills that can be developed systematically. The Army has effectively utilized programs for task-specific real-time training in the Full Spectrum Warrior and America’s Army models. Applications such as the Construct Program simulate real world environments and provide opportunities for students and trainees to gather real experience in moderated environments taking sometimes dangerous chances without suffering the attrition of real world consequences.

The Field Museum Roof Conservation Project

The Field Museum is one of Chicagos leading educational and cultural institutions. Funding will allow for the construction of a new roof on the Museum’s landmark Lake Michigan building. The roof will create a stable base for future installation of water conservation technologies to capture the millions of gallons of rainwater that fall on the roof each year and redirect them back to Lake Michigan and out of city storm-water systems.

Great Lakes States Invasive Species Project

In October 2006, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a federal order to prevent the spread of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), which is a serious disease for freshwater fish. The order stopped the interstate movement within the Great Lakes states of more than three dozen species of live fish that are susceptible to VHS unless they are certified to be free of VHS. The order impacts the federal, state, and provincial hatcheries in the Great Lakes basin that want to move live fish in preparation for the 2007 fishing season. Further, the order impacts bait dealers and shops, commercial fish propagators who raise fish for human consumption, lake and pond stocking, and other related businesses. Some of these operations are located outside of the Great Lakes basin and may not even conduct business in the Great Lakes basin. Funding will be used by the Great Lakes states to operate testing facilities to determine whether fish are infected with VHS.

Illinois Institute for Technology (IIT) Energy and Sustainability Institute

Over the past three decades, the Illinois Institute for Technology (IIT) has positioned itself as one of the nation’s leading universities in energy and the environmental research. In 2004, IIT established the Energy and Sustainability Institute to coordinate university-wide research and education programs on energy and Sustainability. This initiative incorporates several key focus areas that are particularly relevant to U.S. energy independence: reducing net energy use by office buildings and high rises through building-integrated photovoltaics and wind turbines; reducing production expense and increasing fuel choice flexibility in solid oxide and gasifier fuel cells; developing new, safe and energy-efficient alternatives for hydrogen production storage; and demonstrating cost-efficient systems for retrofitting fleet vehicles as plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Funding will be used to support targeted energy research on building integrated systems to reduce energy use; improving solid oxide and gasifier fuel cell technology; developing new alternatives for hydrogen production and storage; and demonstrating cost efficient systems for retrofitting fleet vehicles as plug-in hybrids.

Illinois Community College Sustainability Institute Network

This project will allow for a coalition of seven community colleges in Illinois (Black Hawk College, Heartland Community College, Kankakee Community College, Lewis & Clark Community College, John A. Logan College, Wilbur Wright College, and Olive Harvey College), to collaborate on a state-wide Sustainability Network. The goals of this initiative are to establish an applied resource center, a Sustainability Institute, at each of the seven community colleges emphasizing their already-established expertise in energy education; to accelerate community awareness and implementation of energy conservation and green building practices; to serve as an education center for career development; and to create a national model for community-based sustainability education and development.

Illinois River Nutrient Farming Pilot Project

The Illinois River Nutrient Farming Pilot Project will support research activities designed to more fully understand how wetlands naturally process nutrients, including sequestering carbon, so as to enable the development of a nutrient farming market and industry. Specifically funds will be used to purchase instrumentation and equipment, baseline monitoring by participating academic institutions, and research and sedimentation analysis by the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The 1,325-acre Illinois River Nutrient Farming Pilot Project will provide a pioneering research and demonstration site for scientists, policymakers, and the general public to learn how large scale wetland restoration can be an environmental and economic solution applied across the country.

John G. Shedd Aquarium Center for Great Lakes

With more than 2 million visitors annually, the John G. Shedd Aquarium is the most popular aquarium in the United States. Federal funding will allow the Aquarium to leverage its high profile to educate the public on issues important to the Great Lakes. This funding would enhance its region wide grassroots expansion effort to organize the public around Great Lakes issues. Utilizing a state-by-state national campaign model, Shedd Aquarium’s Center for Great Lakes will remain the hub for all Great Lakes public awareness activities.

Kohl Children’s Museum’s Early Childhood Connections Prevention Program

Kohl Children’s Museum’s Early Childhood Connections Prevention Program for Children At-Risk of academic failure will provide participants with teaching strategies that will improve the classroom environment, provide strong social skills training and offer a parent involvement component.

Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago Early Childhood Residents Program

Kohl Childrens Museum of Greater Chicagos Early Childhood Residents Program is a strategic investment in workforce development that will increase the number of qualified educators in Illinois with advanced opportunities for employment. The Early Childhood Residents Program will support the needs of students who wish to enter the early childhood education field and also tap into pools of qualified early childhood professionals who wish to complete their Bachelor of Arts degree and receive Type-04 certification by providing employment and benefit, practical experience, and tuition assistance.

METRA Station in Bellwood/Melrose Park

The request will fund the proposed joint project by the Village of Bellwood and the Village of Melrose Park to construct a new modern METRA commuter station to spur redevelopment and economic revitalization for both communities. The proposed project consolidates two existing outdated METRA commuter stations into one new station. The new station will serve existing commuters, new residents, and encourage additional ridership of current Bellwood and Melrose Park residents. The new facility will be relocated and establish a 70 acre redevelopment area as a transportation hub, facilitating ridership from METRAs Chicago-Geneva Line. Improvement to the UP railway and the intersecting IHB will be included in the project.

METRA UP-NW Line

The Union Pacific Northwest Line (UP-NW) is METRAs longest line, extending 63 miles from the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago to Harvard, with a 7 mile branch to McHenry. This lines 65 trains per day serve 16 suburban stations in portions of McHenry, Lake and Cook Counties and seven City of Chicago Stations. The UP-NW corridor includes more population and jobs than any other METRA corridor and caries the third highest ridership of METRAs 12 radial commuter lines with an average weekday ridership of 39,000. Federal funding will add capacity for more trains, provide service to a new station, increase train speeds and improve reliability and maintenance costs. This federally authorized project involves extending the McHenry branch north to a new station in the growing area of Johnsburg in McHenry County; adding central train control signaling to the branch (which is currently not signaled); and building new efficient coach yards in Johnsburg and in Woodstock. These improvements will provide for more and faster service on the branch, as well as attract new riders in a growing area, reduce station access times for existing area residents, upgrade signals on the main line of UP-NW to allow more express trains to downtown and improved suburb-to-suburb and reverse-commute service.

Milwaukee Avenue Rehabilitation

Milwaukee Avenue is a vital corridor through the Fifth Congressional District in Chicago. The project will provide pavement rehabilitation, gutter and curb repair, viaduct clearance improvements, crosswalk updates and traffic signal modernization from Gale Street to Devon Avenue.

Navistar International Corporation Next Generation Diesel Engine for Ground Vehicles

Working in partnership with TARDEC, Navistar and Ricardo will undertake an R&D effort to modify several high volume COTS engines and adapt them to the unique demands of military vehicles. To meet increasing and evolving domestic and international emissions standards and regulations, commercial engine manufacturers are not focused on or investing R&D funds into developing a new supply of commercial available engines that can meet military requirements. Federal funding will develop modified COTS Diesel Engines for Ground Vehicles with increased power density and improved fuel economy. This effort will ensure the availability of domestically produced, efficient, lightweight diesel engines for future military use.

North Lake Shore Drive Rehabilitation

North Lake Shore Drive is a major component in the region’s transportation system set entirely within Chicago’s lakefront park system. Aging pavement and bridge structures are in need of replacement. Pedestrian access and storm water management need rehabilitation. In addition overall parkland impact needs reevaluation. This project would consist of preliminary design and engineering for Lake Shore Drive reconstruction. The City of Chicago proposes to undertake a preliminary engineering and design study to identify the overall improvement strategies, environmental impacts and expected construction costs. It will also consider opportunities for improved bike and pedestrian access to the lakefront, sustainable storm water management techniques to enhance water quality and reduced impacts on parklands.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the countrys leading teaching schools. Federal funding would establish Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) as a Hazardous Material Emergency Response Center. NMH intends to install a special ventilation system in its Emergency Department to prevent the spread of contaminants throughout the facility after a hazardous material event. NMH will improve the existing First Responder/Decontamination Team Training Course through the expansion of a simulation center. NMH will also provide training equipment, supplies and trainers to offer the training course to hospitals throughout the country.

Northwestern University Great Lakes Restoration

As one of the top research universities in the country, Northwestern University seeks to establish a research program focused on the challenge of Great Lakes Restoration and creation of an ecological forecasting tool to predict how the Lakes change biologically, chemically and physically in response to new species invasions, pollutant discharges and climate change. As importantly, this tool would allow us to direct policies and efforts to enhance the economic and ecological value associated with the multiple uses of the Lakes’ ecosystems. It will also provide the cornerstone for the development of policies and strategies that will restore full use of the goods and services of the Great Lakes for human, economic and ecological benefit. In addition, this project is a collaborative endeavor with ecologists at Loyola University-Chicago and involves unique educational outreach activities that have the potential to reach extremely large audiences.

Old Town School of Folk Music

Old Town School of Folk Music is a nationally accredited arts institution that provides a wide range of music and dance instruction to 20,000 people every year. The School is also a vital economic engine to the communities it serves by revitalizing neighborhoods, attracting new businesses, generating tourism, and expanding opportunities for working artists. The School now exceeds capacity within its current facilities to meet public demand for high quality arts experiences. Responding to this need for expanded space, the School purchased new property situated in the heart of the most ethnically diverse area in Chicago. The funds requested will be used to complete the design and planning of a LEED-certified, state-of-the-art education facility. This facility will support the most comprehensive community arts curriculum for adults and children in the nation, to be opened in 2011. Expansion will allow the School to serve 8,000 to 10,000 additional students. The new facility will continue the Schools long track record of bringing superlative arts education to generations of Chicago citizens.

Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center

Located in the 5th Congressional District of Illinois, Our Lady of the Resurrection is a community hospital serving some of northwest Chicagos most socio-economically distressed communities. Funding will support creation of a new Pediatric Primary Care Clinic Practice within the existing community clinic program operated by Our Lady. The clinic would improve healthcare quality and reduce costs through earlier interventions, preventive services, and decreased use of emergency rooms for non-emergent needs.

Shedd Aquarium Great Lakes Conservation Program

The mission of Shedd Aquariums Great Lakes conservation program is to raise public awareness of Great Lakes issues while also providing inspiration and opportunity for action. The programs vision is a Great Lakes watershed that is healthy, well understood and internationally cherished. Specifically, the conservation program plans to raise awareness of invasive species and find solutions to prevent new invasions in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio.

Uhlich Childrens Advantage Networks (UCAN) Alumni Services Department

UCANs Alumni Services Department program builds on UCANs more than 130-year history providing comprehensive care and treatment for challenged youth so that they grow into healthy, productive adults. In its first year of operation, the ASD program enrolled twenty-five individuals into job training programs, opening new doors to opportunity. These youth that are aging out of foster care are faced with overcoming the natural challenges resulting from the abuse and neglect that brought them into the system; the instability inherent in growing up in the system; and a lack of healthy extended family and supports as emancipated young adults. Carrying this traumatic history and facing deficits in support networks compared with youth in more conventional families, these young adults are at a disadvantage. Funding will support efforts to secure gainful employment and become economically self-sufficient adults.

Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN)

Informed by their trauma-based Clinical Philosophy, UCANs continuum of school-based services offers a series of trainings and workshops for teachers and school administrators to learn new skills and approaches to work successfully with youth experiencing trauma. Federal funding will go to Uhlich Childrens Advantage Network school-based violence prevention program across Cook County. This youth-directed public health and education campaign informs and involves young people in an effort to increase public awareness, influence peer behavior, inform public opinion, and engage adults to address violence in Illinois. Informed by trauma-based Clinical Philosophy, UCAN’s continuum of school based services offers a series of trainings and workshops for teachers and school administrators to learn new skills and approaches to work successfully with youth experiencing trauma. The continuum includes classroom-, home-, and community-based supports to individual students and/or their families, including specialized clinical interventions.

Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN) Violence Prevention Program

Federal funding will support UCANs school and community-based violence prevention program across Cook County. This youth directed public health and education campaign informs and involves young people in an effort to increase public awareness, influence peer behavior, inform public opinion, and engage adults to address violence in Illinois. Peer mentoring and adult guidance empower young people to choose alternatives to violence, and to take the lead in publicly advocating for violence prevention solutions. Over the past three years, UCAN’s violence prevention program has guided over 3,000 young people, in more than forty schools and community groups, to effect change in their schools, in their homes, and in their communities.

Village of Franklin Park Franklin Avenue Rehabilitation

Funding would complete rebuilding of the Franklin Avenue roadway from Mannheim Road to the west Franklin Park limits. The current roadway pavement is nearly 40 years old and beyond the end of its useful life. The condition of the roadway poses grave safety concerns due to the high volume of truck traffic, general vehicular traffic, and the lack of turning lanes or turning bays at roadway intersections and driveway entrances. Franklin Avenue operates at or in excess of the original design capacity of the existing roadway. In addition to the high traffic counts, especially heavy trucks, the condition of the road itself poses a severe threat to drivers. Potholes, both large and numerous, in addition to buckling of pavement have led to hazardous driving conditions. Traffic congestion is a concern as the area has a very high heavy truck count. Franklin Avenue services a large industrial area of town and is home to many companies that generate high volumes of truck traffic. Additionally, the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railroad operates an intermodal facility which uses Franklin Avenue for access, and does not generate any tax revenue to help maintain the roadway and is a very heavy user of the local road system.

Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS)

Funding would be used toward the acquisition and renovation of a building in Chicagos northwest Albany Park Neighborhood for Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS). WINGS will provide transitional housing apartments for victims of domestic violence who have become homeless with retail space below that would be utilized for resale operations to generate ongoing revenue for the project. New transitional housing and retail space in Albany Park would bring economic benefit to the surrounding community, while giving women and their children a safe haven and an opportunity for a new beginning. The units would house women and their children who have left their homes to escape abuse and violence. WINGS would partner with a similar organization, Sarah’s Circle, to provide essential supportive services to the families living in the apartments. Sarah’s Circle would screen and refer appropriate families to the transitional housing insuring responsible utilization of the housing that would result in homeless women and children moving from abuse and poverty to economic self-sufficiency.

–END–