Empowering Youth, Developing Futures

The Harbour is being spotlighted on the Community Art Wall located in the lobby of First Bank Chicago. The new exhibit highlights their mission to offers immediate, stable, and safe housing to youth and young mothers experiencing homelessness.

The Harbour strives to promote safety, stability, and personal growth by providing services and support for long term housing stability, continued education and employment, and individual counseling to help break the cycle of homelessness. The Harbour is part of a larger community of organizations dedicated to the safety, health, and well-being of young women in Chicago’s northern suburbs. They team up with other agencies, local government and public services to ensure those at highest risk in our neighborhoods receive the help they need. They are even able to refer individuals to other programs when one of their six facilities in north and northwest Cook County isn’t a good fit.

“For over 50 years, The Harbour has been a pillar for youth housing across the northern suburbs and Chicagoland, providing critical trauma-informed, supportive services to young people ages 12-23. Youth homelessness and housing insecurity are community-wide challenges, requiring community-wide solutions. We are deeply grateful to work with partners like FBC to both promote awareness of this urgent need and create access to resources,” said Melody Rose, Executive Director.

Traditionally, The Harbour has heavily relied on government funding (~75% of our fiscal budget) to support their direct services as well as fundamental operations day-to-day. Unfortunately, this means delays in payments from government funders disrupt their ability to most effectively provide services. To ensure continuous high-quality services, The Harbour launched their Make a House a Home Campaign to expand and deepen donor engagement and establish a reserve to weather the delays, disruptions and even missed payments from state and federal funders.

Thousands of youths have benefited from the shelter and support available at The Harbour. The organization continually strives to serve as many young people as possible. The program service expense ratio for the 2022 fiscal year is 77%. This ratio exceeds the standards set by the Better Business Bureau.

The Harbour exhibit is located in the bank lobby and will be open to the public during regular business hours throughout the month of January. For more information about The Harbour or to sign-up for their newsletter, visit https://theharbour.org/ or on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

ABOUT FIRST BANK CHICAGO NORTHBROOK COMMUNITY ART WALL

The Community Art Wall was created in 2021 to showcase novice artwork from local non-profit organizations and provide visibility to the various resources and services offered throughout the community. For more information call 847-432-7800 or visit www.firstbankchicago.com.

ABOUT FIRST BANK CHICAGO

The Bank Chicago provides full-service banking solutions for commercial and consumer clients throughout Chicagoland. With over 65 years of banking history, First Bank ranks as one of the five largest privately held banks in Chicago. Our experienced bankers utilize our personal service model to provide customized banking solutions without the bureaucracy of the megabanks. First Bank’s deep culture of caring includes giving time, talent, and resources to all corners of our community. Our bank has been named as one of the “Best Places to Work” by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. To learn more about the First Bank Chicago, visit www.firstbankchicago.com