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What does your makeshift/home office look like? Where are your half-finished quarantine craft projects? Can you find holiday decor left up by mistake? During our Southeast Chicago Center’s team “Stay at Home”-themed scavenger hunt over Zoom, staff showed off their pets, their self-care spaces, and more!
Arely, a mother in our Parents as Partners program, is a full-time student. She works part-time and lives with her father to help her support both her child and her education.
Even in difficult times, staff show up with heart every day to support children and families from home!
Our Calumet Center’s clinical social workers are dedicated to working towards licensure! Not to be deterred by working remotely, this group recently moved their meetings to Zoom.
A generous donation from our partners at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital’s CATCH Early Childhood Program recently provided our DuPage Center’s Early Learning programs with enough food and critical safety supplies for 120 families!
We’re turning Giving Tuesday into Gratitude Tuesday, because today and every day we’re grateful for you. We’d like to take this moment to thank all our supporters who Mpower Metroplitan’s clients, staff, volunteers, and program partners on the front lines of COVID-19.
The “Bingo!” sounded a little different through a Zoom meeting, but the seniors participating in Metropolitan Calumet’s virtual Bingo felt the excitement all the same.
The answer is a fancy word called apportionment. Apportionment is how the country decides the number of representatives each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives based on state population numbers.
Alexandra Millikent, Program Supervisor of the Safe Children Program at Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage, shares a slimy story about her experiences in adapting her communications with her young clients.
Yoga is just one of the activities staff have been sharing with each other over weekly Zoom get-togethers. Executive Director Vanessa Schwartz asked her staff what talents or skills they’d like to share, and the group responded with ideas from visual art to music instruction and beyond.
“Metro Mom” Susana is helping Metropolitan’s front-line staff stay safe from COVID-19.
Thanks to a partnership between Jim and Tom’s, US Foods, and Kronos Foods, and St. Alexis Church twenty families in Metropolitan DuPage’s Bensenville Head Start program received hot meals.
Metropolitan’s Court Advocacy Program is finding creative ways to ensure their clients are still supported
A Domestic Violence Counseling client, whose job involves making products by hand, has been learning how to use a sewing machine on her path to gain financial stability.
We’re all staying inside, but Radio Flyer is helping our kids get moving! Longtime community partner Cradles 2 Crayons arranged for a generous donation of Radio flyer wagons, scooters and tricycles.
“Despite staff teleworking, it is still business as usual.” Program Director Carrie Pullie shares her team in the FamilyWorks program at Metropolitan Calumet is working hard to support clients remotely with regular remote client check-ins.
For our clients who received any of the 49,328 individual diapers, wipes, and hygiene kits donated by longtime Metropolitan community partner Cradles 2 Crayons, they saw the support as a ‘blessing’.
Our Southwest Center’s Blue Island Robbins Neighborhood Network staff and community partners have been going above and beyond to help ensure our families receive the support they need.
As our Southwest Chicago Center’s Blue Island Robbins Neighborhood Network works with the Blue Cap (Blue Island Citizens for Persons with Developmental Disabilities) Food Pantry, staff and volunteers have been going above and beyond to ensure our community residents receive the food they need.
As our Early Learning program’s staff and families shelter in place, our teachers are finding ways to stay engaged with parents and kids!
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 SmartCare (Electronic Health Records) team is spreading positivity and working to creatively adapt during COVID-19 in order to keep supporting Metropolitan’s staff!
Congratulations to the students in the Gallistel Language Academy Music Programs on a successful Spring Showcase!
Let’s get ready for the 2020 Census! We’re collecting information and resources to help ensure our communities get counted.
Metropolitan’s Older Caregivers Project helps older caregivers plan for children’s long term care. It aids families in establishing a stronger support system through case management and linkages to community resources, ensures the well-being and safety of the children and caregivers, and provides a recommendation regarding the living arrangements for the children.
Our Midway Learning and Wellness Center recently celebrated staff and showed appreciation to one another by hosting a “Share the L♥VE Week”!
One of Metropolitan’s finest is leaving Metropolitan after 37 years. Chief Financial Officer Denis Hurley has retired from the agency, effective March 1, 2020.
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.
Congratulations to the graduates of our Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA) Training Program’s Fall 2019 Cohort! The CMAA Training Program, an initiative of Metropolitan’s Financial Opportunity Center, serves clients who are interested in pursuing a career in the medical field.
February is national Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (TDVAM). Anisha Bhatia, Senior Prevention Educator at Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage (FSS of MFSD), shares information on this issue and its prevention.
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.
Did you know 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men have experienced stalking? During Stalking Awareness Month this January, Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage worked to educate our communities around the importance of staying informed about this issue.
James Monroe Elementary School is the newest addition to Metropolitan’s Community Schools program!
During Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January, the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services staff shared their perspectives and key resources throughout the month on the multifaceted work LAS does to combat trafficking, what people should know about it, and how we can all work together to eradicate it.
A new resource library at Metropolitan’s Southwest Center empowers program and clinical staff to access the resources useful to the work they are doing to serve many differing client populations.
Genesis first joined the Legal Aid Society as a summer intern in 2019. She worked with Andrea Belard in the Safety & Family Practice Group. After interning with a judge for a semester, Genesis returned to LAS to work with us again for the spring.
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.
The Metropolitan Peace Academy celebrates the graduation of its fourth cohort of street outreach workers
Together with our friends at NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston Cradle to Career, Family Focus, Evanston/Skokie School District 65, and Childcare Network of Evanston, Metropolitan Evanston/Skokie is pleased to welcome new babies to Evanston!
Rainbow PUSH Coalition honored Metropolitan Calumet Executive Director Audrena Spence with its PUSH Excel Visionary Service Award at the organization’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Breakfast.
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.
The last Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage (FSS of MFSD) Family Night of the year featured a Whoville-themed Santa’s Workshop!
Thanks to donations and volunteers from MillerCoors, 800 of our families received a holiday meal!
Metropolitan DuPage’s senior program is working with our partners toward a “Dementia-Friendly Naperville” to spread awareness in our community.
At this year’s Holiday Shoppe, Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage fulfilled holiday gift wishes for 612 people – including 397 children, 30 young adults and 185 families!
Our Calumet Center’s staff, Community Board members, and the Roseland Community are feeling the holiday spirit! Metropolitan Calumet’s Community Holiday Event featured caroling and wreath-making, as all enjoyed a holiday meal together.
The Metropolitan Family Services DuPage League, a group of community leaders whose volunteer support of our DuPage Center spans decades, hosted its annual “Joy to the World” Holiday Dinner & Auction to benefit Metropolitan DuPage recently at the Le Jardin Room at Cantigny Park.
Metropolitan’s Midway Center Mpowered nearly 18,000 lives this year, but we did not do it alone. At its Annual Holiday Luncheon, Midway Center Executive Director Laurie Sedio and her staff celebrated the Community Board members, program initiatives, and partner organizations that support our communities.
Clients and staff came together to support each other in performing during Open Mic Nite, held at the Southeast Chicago Center.
Our Midway Children’s Center recently took 59 children on a unique field trip – to a neighborhood Shoe Carnival, where, thanks to AT&T, they spent the morning with a personal shopper and got to choose their own pair of shoes.