The MidSouth encompasses an area bounded by 22nd Street on the North, the Dan Ryan Expressway on the West, 63rd Street on the South, and Lake Michigan on the East. Over 1,200 sites were canvassed in developing the Directory, including social service centers, medical clinics, houses of worship, public libraries, schools, parks, and local associations. Information was gathered through meetings, telephone contacts, mailings, and e-mail exchanges, as well as through review of published information and material available on the Internet.

The Directory provides information for MidSouth service sites, including street addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, web sites, and executive and service contact details. Each site's services are itemized and briefly described. Indexes organized by service category, population served, Chicago community area, and zip code are provided. The PDF document is extensively linked so the reader can navigate immediately to specific site or service information from the Bookmarks pane and from the indexes. The Directory was made possible by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.