Mission Statement

TLS Veterans’ mission is to provide the highest quality services available, rendered in a humane and compassionate manner that promotes dignity and personal choice to veterans who are homeless, disabled or disadvantaged.

To than end, TLS operates New Horizons, a transitional-living center that opens its doors to homeless veterans throughout northeast Illinois who are seeking transitional shelter as they address the challenges of:

• addiction
• alcoholism
• trauma
• mental illness
• unemployment
• underemployment
• chronic illness
• other misfortunes

Veterans who graduate New Horizons are not forgotten. They are encouraged to enroll in TLS-Aftercare, which offers case management services and crisis intervention as graduates live within the community. Aftercare programs are known to prevent relapse and a return to homelessness.

Since July 2009, the Department of Labor has funded TLS’ Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, which helps veterans in Chicago and throughout its northwest suburbs find sustainable employment. HVRP services include job placement, training, job development and resume preparation. Supportive services include provision or referral to temporary, transitional and permanent housing; referral to medical and substance abuse treatment; and limited transportation assistance.

TLS’ also operates a drop-in center in McHenry, Ill., that serves as a hub for a Lake-McHenry County initiative focusing on the well-being of veterans and military families. The initiative’s major goals are to reduce veteran homelessness, suicide prevention and reduction of psychiatric hospitalizations by transforming the way services are delivered.