About Us - Mission & Overview

Our Mission

Vital Bridges’ mission is to help people throughout metropolitan Chicago impacted by HIV and AIDS to improve their health and build self-sufficiency by providing food, nutrition, housing, case management and prevention services.

Agency Overview

Twenty years ago, volunteers mobilized across metropolitan Chicago to help their friends, family members and colleagues who were battling HIV/AIDS. Their efforts and dedication to provide food, shelter, care and education about HIV grew and expanded, becoming Vital Bridges. Today, the organization serves nearly 2,000 people impacted by the epidemic annually. Since our founding in 1988, Vital Bridges has provided more than 10 million meals, 600,000 nights of shelter and 250,000 hours of counseling to over 10,000 clients.

Vital Bridges provides high quality basic services through five program sites located on the North, West and South sides of Chicago as well as in the suburbs of Elk Grove Village and Oak Park. We begin by providing the most basic needs – nutritious food and safe housing. We then work to stabilize our clients’ lives and guide them on a path to improve their health. Our clients receive assistance toward greater independence through case management, counseling, prevention services and education.

Over 21,000 people live with HIV and AIDS in Chicago – that’s nearly 28 people per 100,000 and three-times that of the rest of Illinois. Chicago's and Illinois’ rates of HIV and AIDS prevalence are among the highest in the US.

The vast majority of people living with HIV and AIDS live at or below the poverty line, struggling to meet their daily needs while dealing with a complex, debilitating and incurable disease. Since 1981, 11,000 men, women and children in metropolitan Chicago have died from AIDS.

Vital Bridges strives to serve every man, woman and child impacted by HIV who needs our services.