Outreach Community Ministries (OCM) is a faith-based, Christian, community service organization serving DuPage County. Started and sponsored by area churches in 1973, OCM provides innovative, community-based, holistic services to children, teens, and families who are in harm’s way and vulnerable.
OCM’s Mission: to restore hope and provide opportunities for people to become all that God intends them to be; to partner with the local church to put Christian faith into action through service to the community.
OCM and its partner churches are dedicated to putting this mission into action by providing a full range of charitable, educational, religious and community development activities. These activities help people and the communities they live in realize their God-given potential as uniquely gifted individuals, in their family and community relationships, and in the relationship that they can have with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
History
OCM has given more than 35 years of continuous service to the people of greater Wheaton and central DuPage County. The original organization, Wheaton Youth Outreach (WYO), was formed in 1971 by a coalition of local clergy concerned about teenagers and families in distress. Since then, the organization has grown from a few foster care homes for teenage boys into the myriad programs we now offer from sites in Wheaton, Warrenville, and Carol Stream. Since our Chief Executive Officer, Chris Ellerman, signed on as the agency’s only employee in 1977, we have grown to a staff of more than 80 full- and part-time employees and more than 600 active volunteers. Our philosophy of ministry includes a commitment to neighborhood and community-based services, and we intend to develop and provide services within these communities as long as there are unmet needs requiring creative responses.
Services
The activities and services of OCM are available to all residents of the communities in which it serves without regard for income, race, color, national origin, religion or handicap of the participants. Some activities, because of their specific purpose and goals, are limited by age or gender.
Please take a few moments at the OCM website to read more about our mission and the ministries offered at our current community service sites.