Project Details:
- Date completed: January 2021
- 235 sq. ft. addition
- 5,595 sq. ft. renovation
- New dedicated entrance and
vestibule addition, with roof overhang
and clear signage
- New inviting lobby with seating areas and generous space for individuals and larger families
- Larger meeting areas for staff and guests
- Administrative offices with plenty of storage
- Expanded food pantry
- Distribution center
Project Background:
Shepherd’s Heart Care Center, located in Chapelstreet Church’s South Street campus in Geneva, Illinois, serves individuals in the Tri-City area. When this ministry began in 1999, it was a simple food pantry closet with pre-packed bags, where families in need could get a helping hand. Through word of mouth, this ministry grew, but the small, tucked away space wasn’t sufficient to allow the team to actually do relationship with the people they served.
So they moved to a second, larger, more front-and-center location in the church. This new, more visible location, was able to serve more families, and grew in volunteers. But it wasn’t long before they were busting at the seams, so Chapelstreet started to plan for an even larger food pantry. They didn’t want to limit their help to food and supplies—they wanted to serve their neighbors and community in a more holistic way.
Project Results:
The approach in designing this new Shepherd’s Heart Care Center was to create a dignified space for anyone who enters. The warm and inviting lobby area offers generous, comfortable seating that can accommodate individuals, but also larger families. The renovation also includes larger meeting areas for staff and guests, a dedicated entrance with clear signage, administrative spaces, an expanded food pantry, more storage capacity, and a distribution center.
The Shepherd’s Heart Care Center expanded their ministries to support their guests more fully though a compassion action team that reaches out to families that are in financial crisis, a job search ministry, and a budgeting committee to help people form simple budgets. There’s also a legal clinic for those who can't afford a lawyer, an addiction ministry, and help for widows and single moms with simple home repair projects. Shepherd’s Heart also installed bookshelves that are filled with free Bibles, devotionals, and kids' books, with the intention of always leading with Jesus—offering physical food in the pantry, but also the spiritual food of Christ.
“Aspen did a great job understanding what the heart of Shepherd's Heart was. They nailed it—this is the most dignified, beautiful space that allows us to do ministry with these precious families every day.”
—Erin Wise, Director of Shepherd’s Heart
Today, Shepherd’s Heart serves over 1400 people and has 230 volunteers. Through this thriving ministry, staff and volunteers are building relationships with neighbors and the community, as well as sharing the gospel and modeling the love of Jesus—and they’re seeing the lives of their guests being transformed in the process.
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