Blog
At Metropolitan Southeast Chicago’s recent Holiday Luncheon, the Community Board gathered with staff and partners to celebrate the holidays and the contributions they have all made to make Metropolitan Southeast Chicago’s work possible.
Women Empowered for Civic Engagement honored Metropolitan Calumet Program Manager Jennifer McCraw at its recent Purple With A Passion Awards!
Congratulations to Lashyra, one of our Calumet Center’s Altgeld 10 youth leaders, who won the Shining Star Award at the Chicago Police Department’s first annual citywide youth ball!
For Giving Tuesday on November 27, we at Metropolitan gave thanks for the people who Mpower us. Supporters helped Mpower our Metropolitan family, giving more than $5,500 in honor of people and programs across the agency from staff to board members to Centers.
When asked the men in our Young Fathers program about their Halloween traditions with their kids, we heard a lot of “Halloween movies!” and “trick-or-treating!” but, given the work they’re doing to improve themselves and their relationships with their children, we also learned about some of the ways they’re being conscientious.
On October 31st, the Parents as Partners program had its bi-monthly Group Connection and made it a Halloween Party!
We’re pleased to hear from Yannely at our upcoming Equal Access to Justice Award Luncheon!
Our Calumet Center kicked off its Domestic Violence Awareness Week in Altgeld Gardens with a rally in support of domestic violence victims and survivors.
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.
This October – Domestic Violence Awareness Month – Metropolitan staff and friends from our North Center community joined the Chicago Police Department’s 25th District and its Domestic Violence Subcommittee for a walk and rally in honor of lives lost in the area to domestic violence.
Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Greater Chicago, an initiative of Woods Fund Chicago, is a comprehensive, national and community-based process to “unearth and jettison the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs created by racism”.
The Metropolitan Southwest Community Integrated Living Arrangement (CILA) clients and staff had some luck of the Irish as they attended the farewell Southwest NAMI Fall Banquet on Friday, September 21st at the Elks Lodge in Oak Lawn.
It was a joyful yet tearful occasion for 007th District Police Station on the retirement of their beloved Commander Kenneth A. Johnson hanging up his badge after dedicating over 31 years of service to the Chicago Police Department.
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.
Metropolitan Calumet’s Annual Meeting on Friday, September 14 celebrated the people who empower the Center, and by extension, the children and families we serve.
About 50 volunteers went door-to-door, speaking with people in more than 500 homes.
Rita Lopez Brosnan, Executive Director of Metropolitan DuPage, talks with Mayor Michael Gresk about our DuPage Center’s programs and community engagement on the City of Wheaton’s “Chat with the Mayor” series.
Our President and CEO Ric Estrada has been named by the Chicago Cubs as their 2018 Roberto Clemente Award winner!
Metropolitan’s Healthy Minds – Healthy Children – Healthy Chicago (H3) program, in coordination with other members of the Englewood Clinic Coalition, spearheaded a hugely successful 3rd annual Back to School Fair!
In a collaboration with the City of Chicago to build a Trauma Informed City, we at Metropolitan are facilitating several “Trauma Informed Care 101” workshops throughout September across our Chicago locations.
The outgoing chair, Marcie Peterson, and the incoming chair, Bill Jennrich, share their experiences working with Metropolitan DuPage.
Our Midway Learning & Wellness Center’s kids and families enjoyed a Mariachi concert as part of our Words to Grow On project!
Preschoolers at Metropolitan’s North Children’s Center and Midway Learning & Wellness Center recently welcomed a few new friends for the morning: members of Erikson Institute’s current cohort of McCormick Foundation Executive Fellows.
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.
Metropolitan’s softball team is in the playoffs of Chicago’s nonprofit softball league!
Recently our DuPage early childhood programs sent representatives to the “Elevate Social Emotional Learning: Start Strong with Conscious Discipline the First Six Weeks” conference in Orlando, Florida.
Decorations at Metropolitan Southeast’s 30th Anniversary celebration featured “I love my Community School because…” signs made by students in the center’s Community Schools program, showing guests what a difference they’re making in the lives of kids in the surrounding neighborhoods by supporting the program.
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.
Our DuPage Center’s recent Little YOUth free dental expo engaged children and families in our early learning programs with dental health!
Children at our Midway Learning & Wellness Center are growing in more ways than ever – by contributing to a new garden at the center!
“Were it not for the Community School programs at Bowen, some of our students wouldn’t be here and we know for a fact, some of our graduates, wouldn’t have graduated, were it not for the Community School Programs at Bowen.” – Bowen High School Principal Priscilla Horton
Vanessa Schwartz was born and raised in Southeast Chicago. “I love that community,” she says. “That community has been my home forever, it’s always been my heart and soul.” Learn more about Vanessa and the 30th Anniversary celebration she’s planning for Metropolitan Southeast.
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.
On Thursday June 14th, the Metropolitan Family Services Calumet Center celebrated its “Miracle on 103rd Street” Investment Appeal by hearing from Executive Director Audrena Spence, board members, and youth.
The graduates of Metropolitan’s Parenting Fundamentals program devoted two hours each week for 10 weeks to learning positive parenting skills. See the smiling faces of our most recent cohort of parent graduates.
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.
Our Parenting Fundamentals program hosted an appreciation event at the Midway Learning & Wellness Center to celebrate the conclusion of the most recent session of its Parent Leadership Program.
Our Message was loud and clear!
Our Motives were effective!
Our Mission was accomplished!
We are Metro!
Twenty-four of Chicago’s top street outreach experts – those specializing in diffusing street violence – were the first to graduate from the Metropolitan Peace Academy, June 27th at Soldier Field’s United Club.
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.
Happy end of the school year from Midway Children’s Center! Our staff organized a celebration with games galore for our littlest learners.
After a successful Day to Celebrate Moms, our Midway Learning & Wellness Center spread the love among the dads involved at the center!
Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) Director Vaughn Bryant and Institute for Nonviolence Chicago‘s Chris Patterson discuss our Metropolitan Peace Academy’s work in professionalizing street outreach for Crain’s Chicago Business’s series on approaches to reducing gun violence.
On Wednesday, June 20th ACT Now hosted a panel discussing the importance of STEM programming in the afterschool space. Attendees included representatives from the STEM industry, afterschool programming and much more.
Our Midway Learning & Wellness Center recently hosted Celebrate Mom Day!
At the 4th annual awards, Program Director Doug Brown and Case Managers Nathan Wright and Edgar Barba were joined by Metropolitan CEO Ric Estrada and Young Fathers program benefactor Gary Gerst to present awards for three standout fathers and two community partners.
Emily Hendricks, Resource Coordinator for Kennedy High School, shares a few photos of the students and families involved with our Kennedy Community School programs in action.
As the needs of our children and families we serve grow more complex, Metropolitan is evolving to meet those needs; we’re working with more community partners, opening more classrooms, and adding more home visiting services.
We explore Metropolitan’s Community Schools program at Hernandez Middle School through the eyes of Jose Gutierrez, Resource Coordinator at Hernandez.
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.