NIU College of Law Health Advocacy Blog

What do Miley Cyrus and holistic medical care have in common? Foam fingers, bears, and twerking aside, both are at the center of a movement. Miley’s movement is more about shock and confusion than substance, but the same cannot be said for the movement to provide more effective healthcare that is sweeping the nation. Medical-Legal partnerships are not alone in this quest. Across the country, legislators, lawyers, healthcare practitioners, social workers, and advocates for America’s poorest are realizing that there is no single, easily identifiable cause of poor health or poverty and that simple, one-dimensional solutions are ineffective. “The Hot Spotters,” an article that appeared in The New Yorker on January 24, 2011, highlights several champions of effective healthcare. Jeff Brenner studied the patterns of patients entering hospitals in Camden, New Jersey and found that, of the 100,000 people using medical facilities in Camden, about 1,000 people accounted for 30% of the city’s med...

When most people think of homeless individuals they think of two groups: older people and single parents with dependent children. However, with the recession more young people are left jobless and homeless. Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 have the highest unemployment rate of adults. The young adult homeless population has recently grown over 9 percent. Some young adults can easily move back with their families but some do not have that form of family support to fall back on or don’t have families that can financially support them. With the young adult homeless population growing, homeless shelters need to start carving out a place for this group. For young adults to turn to a homeless shelter it needs to provide services that they require, such as employment, education and counseling programs. The programs that work best to help these young adults to move into a secure adulthood are ones that give them individual attention and the opportunity to develop marketable skills. T...

Our introduction to the clinic comprised an orientation to Hesed House by Ryan Dowd, Executive Director of Hesed House, and a walk-through of the Resource Center, including the space where the clinic for Aunt Martha’s Health Center and our legal clinic will be housed. Ryan began the orientation with an introduction to the issue of homelessness, which was eye-opening for me.  I was surprised to learn that only 8% of the homeless population is chronically homeless and essentially unemployable.  My image of a homeless person is that of an unwashed, poorly-dressed person walking around urban streets, pushing a shopping cart, picking through garbage cans and dumpsters, and mumbling to himself.  While I recognize this as a stereotype, I have not equipped myself with any tools to change my perceptions, perhaps because the problem of homelessness does not animate me in the way that other issues move me.  I saw homelessness as a problem that exists within our system of institutionalized inequal...

I was nervous, but it is a nervous feeling that I have felt before. A feeling of excitement because I am about to embark upon another journey with the purpose to create change. Although I have had a lot of interaction with people in poverty, every new interaction is a learning experience. I was impressed by how vast the Hesed House facilities were; it was the biggest homeless shelter I have seen. It pushed me toward both a feeling of gratitude and sorrow. I felt grateful that facilities like Hesed House exist so that people in poverty have the ability to have a roof over their head and access to food. On the other hand, I felt sorrow because it breaks my heart that poverty has such a strong hold on so many individuals in our society. It is an uneasy feeling for me that Hesed House is the only shelter in Aurora when there is an overwhelming need in the area. However, I am glad that it can accommodate as many people as it can and that it touches the lives of so many in more ways than jus...

I left the first meeting of our little group excited, inspired, and pleasantly terrified. A long-time resident and self-proclaimed advocate of Aurora, I am ashamed that this was my first visit to Hesed House. I had read about it, thought about it, and heard its praises sung countless times, but all of my ‘good’ excuses kept me from lending a hand or ever checking it out for myself. I wish I had, because I would have known sooner that Hesed House far exceeds its glowing reputation. As Mr. Dowd showed us around Hesed House and its Community Resource Center, I became more and more excited to be associated with this shelter. I was impressed by its leaders’ tireless efforts to serve the homeless population by pooling the efforts of multiple organizations, faiths, and disciplines. They do not limit themselves to supplying shelter and food, but helped to establish homeless children’s rights to attend school and set their guests up for success by providing access to job training, counseling, a...