ENGLEWOOD — Katrina Coleman had no clue she’d become a part of Olive Branch Mission’s storied history when she first visited 20 years ago.
Every Sunday, Coleman would travel to 6310 S. Claremont Ave. to visit her brother at the nonprofit’s drug rehab program, she said. He had been to rehab before, but at Olive Branch Mission, “there was an immediate change” in her brother, she said.
In the building’s crowded halls, “you could see the camaraderie. It was like a family between the residents and staff members,” Coleman said. “Everyone was treated with dignity and respect.”
Coleman hopes to continue creating that familial feeling as Olive Branch Mission’s new executive director. She is the first Black woman to lead the nonprofit, one of the oldest in the city and country, its leaders say.
Olive Branch Mission has provided services to unhoused people since its founding in 1867 by women members of the Free Methodist Church. Its headquarters have been in Englewood for 30 years, serving the community and predominantly Black Chicagoans, Coleman said.
The nonprofit operates a year-round, 24-hour shelter with 50 beds for single women and 60 beds for men in Englewood, Coleman said. A second location in West Pullman hosts 160 single men.
Coleman took on the director role after years of being asked by the nonprofit’s former executive director to join, ever since her first visit to see her brother.
In the time she’s been at Olive Branch, the Englewood shelter has grown to accommodate more unhoused men year-round and added care for single women and families, she said.
Olive Branch now offers comprehensive case management that provides people with on-site mental health and primary care and offers personal and professional development lessons, Coleman said.
The nonprofit also partners with private landlords co-signed by the city to offer furnished, rent-free apartments for a year while people work to get back on their feet without the fear of eviction, she said.
“We’re an organization that services people,” Coleman said. “We are moving people towards self-sufficiency and sustainability.”
The Englewood location was once the old St. Rita Monastery, Coleman said. The nonprofit transformed the monastery’s rooms with attached bathrooms into space for unhoused families. It has 178 beds.
“One hundred percent” of Olive Branch Mission’s residents come from the city, Coleman said. She places a call to the city three times a day to share the number of beds it has available, and the city shares a count of how many new arrivals to expect. The shelter currently does not accept walk-ins.
When people arrive at Olive Branch Mission, “they are served with dignity,” Coleman said.
They’re shown their rooms and given a toiletry bag with essentials. They meet with a case manager for intake and “to assess why they’re experiencing homelessness,” Coleman said.
If a person couldn’t see a doctor, they can meet with an on-site clinician for mental health care and receive medication, or take free bus cards to travel to a clinic minutes away, Coleman said.
Some men at the shelter have needed a remedial tutor, Coleman said. The nonprofit has on-site virtual tutoring. If someone needs a job, Olive Branch Mission works with them to assess which careers they’d enjoy.
The Englewood shelter also once housed migrants and invested in additional staff that spoke Spanish and computer programs that translated documents.
“We are a shelter that houses people for as long as they need us for as long as they’re working towards something,” Coleman said. “Whatever caused homelessness, we meet people where they’re at and service them there. We believe in working with everyone at their level.”
Coleman’s brother, once a resident at the shelter, later served on Olive Branch’s board, she said.
Coleman said more funding is the next step for the 157-year-old organization.
The Englewood building has four floors but doesn’t have a working elevator. The shelter could help more people if it were ADA-compliant, Coleman said.
Cooks prep hot meals daily for people, so a “state-of-the-art kitchen” would also help, she said.
“Our infrastructure is old. You can only operate in a space without doing major things for so long,” Coleman said. “I’m looking towards grant funding and funding programs to add more residents to the program. “
She also wants a software program designed that allows people to “tap” a card that’ll identify if they’re a prior guest barred from the shelter or if they’ve been missing, she said.
Whatever changes come their way, what’s most important is that Olive Branch Mission stays in Englewood, Coleman said.
“Englewood is our home,” she said. “If we move out of the building, I don’t want to move out of Englewood. We’re necessary here.”
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