Home Sweet Home Ministries

The trust that Home Sweet Home Ministries has built with the Bloomington-Normal community did not happen overnight. Here's how the nonprofit has repeatedly embraced innovative ideas to meet its mission.

Dabrona Alzebdieh and her son Joshua opened South of Chicago Groceries across the street from Miller Park in Bloomington, after seeing the neighborhood lacked a place to get fresh food nearby.

Every Friday a group of unhoused people meets in a room at the Junction in Downtown Bloomington to write. They are part of a writing group, an effort to help the unhoused enrich their lives amid a stressful existence.

The McLean County Board on Thursday approved an audit of the county’s mental health and public safety sales tax fund. The resolution to the intergovernmental agreement [IGA] will require approval by the Town of Normal and City of Bloomington.

After several years of planning, two public forums, getting funding approval and securing the location, Home Sweet Home Ministries broke ground on its new shelter village, The Bridge.

Thomas Metcalf School sixth-graders designed and built a tiny house that Home Sweet Home Ministries will put in its shelter village.

Home Sweet Home Ministries has officially launched the Build the Bridge campaign, a new fundraising effort to help construct its planned shelter village. The campaign's goal is $750,000.

The purchase of a Connect Transit lot in Bloomington keeps shelter village construction on schedule and within budget.

The Connect Transit board has approved the sale of a vacant lot for a planned shelter village in Bloomington. The village, called The Bridge, is intended to be a low-barrier, non-congregate shelter for the unhoused population in Bloomington-Normal.

The McLean County Board on Thursday approved Home Sweet Home Ministries’ request for a $1.3 million grant from the McLean County behavioral health coordination.