Partners and Resources
We Share
Connections for the Homeless and Hilda’s Place Shelter
For three decades, our building has housed Connections for the Homeless and Hilda’s Place, the only overnight shelter for the homeless on the North Shore. Guests of Hilda’s Place gather for meals twice a day in the Dining Room. Groups from the wider community, churches, service organizations and Northwestern University come to our kitchen to prepare and serve meals twice a day, 365 days a year. This effort started in 1984 when First Baptist Church of Evanston (now Lake Street Church) formed a coalition of clergy and concerned residents to lobby city government for permission to establish a shelter, offering the lower level of the church house as an overnight prayer circle for the homeless. The “shelter” has grown into “Connections,” a broad-based social service agency with deep roots in the Evanston and North Shore communities.
Heartland Alliance
Heartland Alliance believes everyone in society benefits when people who experience disparities are able to exit poverty, heal from trauma, achieve stability, secure their rights, and shape policies that respond to their needs. Their 129 years of work in safety, health, housing, education, economic opportunity, and justice are foundational to achieving a more just global society. We join them in taking action. In fact, Lake Street Church has been partnering with them for several years including: Adopt a Family at Christmas, backpack/school supplies drive in the fall, and gathering cleaning supplies for folks moving into permanent housing. Join the Peace and Justice Committee activities sponsored through Heartland Alliance all year; no need to join the committee! Your volunteerism is welcome.
North Shore Alano Club
​Since 1982, North Shore Alano has been offering meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Alateen and Adult Children of Alcoholics. Currently, approximately 900 people attend 45 meetings each week, “up the stairs.”
Second Baptist Church of Evanston
The history of Lake Street Church is linked with another Baptist Church in Evanston. Initially, only First Baptist Church, an integrated house of worship, existed. That changed in 1882 when African American members left in reaction to the segregated nature of the church and formed Second Baptist Church of Evanston.
In 1991, members of First Baptist Church, later to become Lake Street Church of Evanston, passed a unanimous vote of reconciliation, A Resolution of Hope which concludes: …[members of First Baptist Church] …Affirm our desire to renew our historic relationship with the Second Baptist Church in the hope of continuing to work together for social justice in Evanston. …..
In 2018, Lake Street Church of Evanston and Second Baptist Church made a formal commitment to work together to destroy racism in our town as sister churches “Striving for Healing in a Painfully Divided World.”
Currently a joint committee of members from both churches meets regularly to explore how Lake Street and Second Baptist Churches can collaborate in the areas of worship, music, ministry, adult and youth programming. Lenten bible study as well as shared concerns related to racial cooperation and justice have been explored through joint efforts. The representatives from Lake Street Church who participate in this collaboration are referred to as the Second Baptist Church Collaboration Committee (SBC3).