Community Partner Spotlight: The Night Ministry

Black woman with long hair, wearing a dark blue suit jacket and smiling into the camera

Carol J. Sharp

President & CEO
The Night Ministry

Mission

The Night Ministry is a Chicago-based organization whose mission is to provide human connection, housing support, and
health care to those who are unhoused or experiencing poverty. With an open heart, we compassionately accept each individual as they are and work alongside them to advocate for their immediate physical, emotional, and social needs while affirming our shared humanity.

President and CEO

Ms. Sharp has dedicated her career to enhancing the living, learning, and earning potential of under resourced and underrepresented individuals. Prior to joining The Night Ministry, she held influential leadership positions at Youth Guidance, Girls Inc. of Chi and Perspective Charter Schools. Ms. Sharp holds a Master of Public Administration & Nonprofit Mission-Driving Management, is a graduate of the Allstate Foundation Executive Leadership Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and is a member of the 2024 cohort of The Advanced Leadership Institute’s National Executive Leader Academy.

Services Offered

The Night Ministry helps unhoused or unstably housed Chicago residents meet their basic needs and transform their lives. We offer overnight, short-term, and transitional housing for youth experiencing homelessness or housing instability, along with supportive services to assist them in obtaining greater stability and independence. We bring free health care and other critical resources like food and clothing directly to unhoused and poor individuals across Chicago and assist our vulnerable neighbors in improving their housing and life circumstances.

Current Projects

Long-term Housing: We are expanding efforts to support unhoused youth through community-based housing, which offers young people independent living and supportive services.

Mental Health Care: With a psychiatric nurse practitioner on staff, we are helping clients address their mental health needs through psychiatric assessments, prescriptions, and more.

Client Voices: We are heading the formation of a state-wide Youth Action Board to empower youth with lived experience to lead efforts to end youth homelessness.

Organizational Impact to the Community

In our fiscal year 2024, we served 5,180 individuals, helped 260 people transition to or maintain more safe and stable housing, and prevented more than 910 visits to the emergency room, saving clients and the public health system an estimated $1.7 million.

Funding Sources

Seventy percent of The Night Ministry’s funding comes from the generosity of the private sector which includes individuals, private foundations, corporations, and congregations. We also receive grant support from the city, state, and national government agencies.

HCC logo: colorful HCC with text Healthy City Collaborative

This spotlight is part of the Healthy City Collaborative, a program within the UIC Office of Community Engagement And Neighborhood Health Partnerships.