Blog
Boy Scout Troop 1 Scouts and families, led by Eagle Scout candidate Kapil Chaudhari, worked together on a service project to beautify outdoor spaces at Metropolitan Family Services Calumet
Over the course of five weeks, from July 6 to August 5, 27 students joined us on Zoom for Gallistel Summer Camp 2021. Together we spent time on learning and activities in arts & crafts, drama, kitchen science, soccer and fitness, and games.
Congratulations and thank you to our recently retired #DuPage Community Board Members! We’re pleased to recognize these special supporters – Bill Jennrich, Mary Beth McLean, Cindy Rynning, Dennise Vaughn, Carol Dimas, and Carol White – for all they’ve contributed to empowering children and families.
Monique Harvey is a new Family Coach in our Calumet Center’s Family WORKS program, but her time with Metropolitan goes back further than that – she was previously an intern, but now that she’s graduated from college, she’s joined our team full time!
Meet Meghan Luse, a Senior Counselor in our DuPage Center’s Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (ASAP) program!
Thank you to Mesirow for creating a wonderful opportunity for youth in our Calumet Center’s Altgeld Teen Leadership Program to learn about applying for and attending college!
For parents, the school year allows for a much-needed break after summer. However, for many parents and children, this is not an easy transition. This year might be especially difficult after the many changes schools had to adjust to for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 30 cars participated in our Calumet Center’s driving graduation parade to celebrate over 100 graduates in Altgeld Gardens!
We’re pleased to celebrate Cohort Seven of outreach workers, Cohort Two of case managers, and Cohort One of our external cohort.
Thanks to a Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grant, the youth in our Altgeld Teen Leadership program distributed backpacks filled with food to 50 households in the Altgeld Gardens community as part of the Blessings in a Backpack project.
Our North Center’s Community Schools program was pleased to welcome 33 families to an outdoor movie night!
North Center and North Children’s Center once again hosted the Heart of Cabi event, and participants were treated to a wonderful and empowering afternoon — put together by staff and clothing stylists from Cabi, an the online clothing company.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) skills are necessary to achieve college and career goals – just one reason for an Earth Day-themed Family Fun S.T.E.A.M. Night for families at Gallistel Language Academy!
La Ria Cochran has been a part of our Southwest Center’s Adoption Support and Preservation program since March 2013.
While your child(ren) might be excited for summer break, as parents it might be a hectic time – and you might not be looking forward to the difficult break from school.
We are Mpowered to advocate for our services that strengthen families and communities!
Metropolitan Family Services stands in solidarity with the Asian American community against these most recent and visible manifestations of durable, damaging racism, injustice, and white supremacy.
Our Calumet Center, partnering with Amazon’s Black Employee Network and Monarch Awards Foundation, distributed 250 hot meals, generously donated by Amazon, in our Roseland community.
The Legal Aid Society (LAS) joins fellow advocates for immigrant communities in applauding the federal government’s dismissal of the Public Charge rule, which has caused the exclusion of immigrants from essential public programs.
It takes a village to raise a child, and thanks to the Chicago Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., 31 moms, soon-to-be moms, and dads in our Calumet Center’s Altgeld Gardens community are feeling a village’s worth of support!
Please join us in well wishes for longtime DuPage Community Board Member Paul Pyrcik, who is stepping down from the board after 23 years!
Our Blue Island site has moved; our new location at 11560 S. Kedzie Ave., Suite 200, in Merrionette Park expands our capacity to serve the needs of Southwest suburban families and individuals.
Metropolitan Calumet, and Calumet Community Board Member Derrick Taylor, of Black McDonald’s Operators Association (BMOA) of Chicagoland, made an appearance on ABC7 Chicago’s Black History Month special, “Our Chicago: Black Voices of Change”!
Welcome to Good News! In this space we feature positive stories of community impact and development, relevant to the areas Metropolitan serves or the programs we offer.
We call on Governor Pritzker to sign the legislation and prohibit lenders from charging more than 36% APR–extending the same protection in federal law for active-duty military to all Illinois families.
During “Take Flight: Staying the Course,” a virtual networking event for Chicago Housing Authority college students, representatives from corporations and organizations in Chicago – including Metropolitan – offered insight on achieving their goals; financial, educational, and beyond.
Nicola Blair is a newer employee and has been providing Adoption Support and Preservation Services out of our Calumet Center for three months.
This year has been a challenge to all types of families. The pandemic has forced parents to adapt their children’s learning and socialization, while maintaining some sort of stability at home. But to families with Black children, this year has been particularly difficult.
Our Adoption Support and Preservation (ASAP) team was lucky enough to send 6 staff members to the Virtual TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) Practitioner Training through the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University, taking place over two weeks in November 2020.
Pria and Michele Colbert are two wonderful women who radiate resilience and strength. They became active participants of our Calumet Center’s Adoption Support and Preservation Program (ASAP) in September of 2020.
During our Midway Center’s Holiday Celebration, staff, board members, and community partners joined together to make the season bright and recognize everyone’s efforts to empower our communities.
Our Calumet Center, often called the “Miracle on 103rd Street,” finished the year strong with a virtual holiday celebration!
Because play is a critical part of how children learn, we want to ensure a quality play space for the 72 children we serve through full-day, high quality early learning on Chicago’s Southwest Side. We’re launching a GoFundMe to help pay for a new playground – and we need your help to make it a reality!
In this space, our Empowering Families Initiative and Parents as Partners program staff share their expertise around breastfeeding, as well as key information and resources for new moms.
Tuskegee NEXT Cadet Marcellus flew into our Southwest Center’s Palos Hills site with 2,500 masks and 100 hand sanitizers – generously donated by the Will Group – to help keep children and families in our southwest suburban communities safe.
Partnering with the Far South Chicago Coalition, we gathered at Gately Park Indoor Track and Field for this important event to raise awareness about domestic violence and breast cancer, and provide a forum to discuss these topics.
In a Staff Recognition Awards event, our Midway Center’s supervisors honored staff for their extraordinary work over the past year, presenting 169 awards to staff for their accomplishments throughout the year.
Recently Metropolitan Calumet held a virtual screening and discussion of Otis’ Dream, the powerful story of a Black sharecropper from Troupe County, Georgia, and his attempt to vote in 1946.
The Daichendts are a large family filled with love and resilience. Mr. and Mrs. Daichendt have been active participants of our North Center’s Adoption Support and Preservation Program (ASAP) for their two youngest children, Janna and Manny, for the past four and half years.
Brenda Love has been providing Adoption Support and Preservation Services out of our DuPage Center for just over a year.
The holidays are supposed to be a fun time for everyone, filled with family, friends, lots of food, presents and “joy.” A lot of families that were created through adoption experience something completely different.
The Hernandez-Contreras family has been actively working on providing support to their adopted daughter, Jazzie, since they were foster parents. When the adoption was finalized, they sought services with Adoption Support and Preservation Program at Metropolitan’s North Center.
On Saturday, October 10, 2020, Metropolitan Family Services Calumet was honored to chair a Day of Service at the headquarters of Rainbow PUSH, led by Calumet Community Board Member Derrick Taylor.
Voters still have the option to register to vote and vote at all early voting locations. You can even register on election day (November 3) in Illinois at your polling place.
Thank you to all who joined the Legal Aid Society (LAS) for the Equal Access to Justice Award Luncheon! Together, we’ve raised nearly $274,000 for the critical legal services LAS provides for more than 13,000 clients across Chicagoland – so far!
We’re pleased to share Miguel Keberlein, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society, will be honored with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s El Humanitario Award!
Contributions of time, talent, and treasure from Metropolitan Calumet staff, board members, and community partners empower our Calumet communities to thrive. At its recent Annual Meeting, our Calumet Center recognized the importance of these contributions.
The Nurse Family Partnership program at Metropolitan Southwest helps expectant mothers to address any questions they have, through their child’s second birthday as they prepare to enter preschool.
A new report on violence reduction issued by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, “Our City, Our Safety: A Comprehensive Plan to Reduce Violence in Chicago,” acknowledges the critical importance of domestic violence prevention in reducing overall violence citywide.
Midway Children’s Center Site Director Seth Rich and Family Support Worker Adriana Hernandez are champions of Metropolitan’s community outreach around the Census.