Blog
For Community Schools Coordinator Appreciation Week, we’re celebrating the Resource Coordinators in our Community Schools programs across Metropolitan!
Congratulations to our young North Children’s Center graduates as they complete preschool and get ready for Kindergarten!
On a sunny Saturday recently, our Southwest Center’s Blue Island-Robbins Neighborhood Network, in collaboration with First Evangelical Lutheran Church and Metropolitan Family Services, held a PPE and Backpack giveaway.
The Legal Aid Society (LAS) is pleased to announce Sonny R. Thatch II will move into the role of Managing Attorney for CP4P Justice Corps, a new LAS program providing legal services for participants of CP4P (Communities Partnering 4 Peace), the Metropolitan Family Services-convened violence prevention initiative.
How do you teach construction skills remotely?
That’s the question Jesse Hinton, supervisor for our Calumet Center’s YouthBuild Program, responded to with a virtual version of the program’s curriculum, which offers education and occupational skills that prepare youth for jobs with good wages.
What does leadership mean to you? To the Youth Leadership cohort in our Calumet Center’s Summer Youth Employment Program, it means “your voice can change the world.”
In an exclusive online event for Metropolitan staff, several Board Members shared their insights on leadership and navigating challenging times.
The college-bound youth in our Calumet Center’s Upward Bound program aren’t able to see potential colleges in person this year, so our staff brought the college visit to them!
Read on for new store hours and donation procedures, as well as health and safety measures.
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.
Call your members of Congress today and ask them to pass legislation that gives the Census Bureau enough time to count everyone using its own proposed extended deadline of October 31.
Phil Finklestein began volunteering with the Legal Aid Society’s Elder Help Desk in 2019. Phil has been an outstanding volunteer for the Legal Aid Society, providing consistent and high-quality service to senior clients in need.
Isolation is an issue many of the older adults Metropolitan serves have dealt with even before the outbreak of Covid-19; as social distancing and shelter in place mandates deepen that isolation, the Older Caregivers Project at our Midway Center consistently finds ways to offer meaningful activity and engagement.
This week census takers have begun interviewing households that have yet to respond to the 2020 Census. Census takers are hired from the area they serve, and their goal is to help count everyone in the community.
The Adoption Support and Preservation Respite Program provides therapeutic support to former DCFS youth in care who have mental health issues and their families.
Samantha Brady, LCSW, a Senior Social Worker with Metropolitan’s Adoption Support and Preservation program, shares advice for parents on transitioning children back to their school routines amid the pandemic
Dale Zigulich has been providing therapy for Metropolitan’s Adoption Support and Preservation program out of our North Center for close to three years.
As the fourth cohort of our Calumet Center’s Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA) Training Program graduates, 20 newly trained medical assistants are ready to join Chicago’s healthcare field at a critical time.
Following the Gerst Family Young Fathers Program’s first-ever virtual training series in June, we were pleased to join together over Zoom for our first-ever Online Awards on July 17 to honor a few outstanding dads from the past year, and celebrate the achievements of all our 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.
Deborah Daley and Tanga Morris, both Family Coaches in the Family Works program at our Calumet Center’s Altgeld Gardens site, are champions of Metropolitan’s community outreach around the Census.
Metropolitan Board Member Sophia Ruffolo and Femmebought presented the virtual Empowered Purse Gala, with a portion of proceeds benefiting Metropolitan!
Patricia, a Home Visitor in our Parents as Partners program, shares her experience in connecting with families
Election day is November 3, 2020! Illinois’ General Assembly made several changes this year in the ways we can vote so that you can do so safely during the coronavirus pandemic. Our Government Affairs team is sharing resources on how to boost your power by choosing your elected leaders and voting in this year’s election.
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 Home-Based Early Learning programs are learning about planting! Carmen Toranzo, a Parent Child Educator in the program, has been working with her families on an experiment to observe the Life Cycle of the Bean Plant.
The fifth cohort of the Metropolitan Peace Academy, as well as the first cohort of Case Managers, graduated on June 17 after working hard to complete an 18-week, 144-hour curriculum designed to professionalize the field of street outreach.
When her company, Million Dollar Roundtable, encouraged its employees to think about how they can help those who are suffering during the Covid-19 pandemic, Heather took her support for FSS of MFSD a step further to support not only our shelter, but also local businesses.
“Sara” (name changed to protect identity), an undocumented survivor of domestic violence, already knew the Legal Aid Society when she reached out for help in the midst of a time-sensitive financial crisis.
At Metropolitan Family Services, we stand in agreement in calling for justice for George Floyd and the many others who have been killed like him.
Over the last few days, the Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) coalition members have grieved the loss of George Floyd.
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 Midway Connections program, located at Metropolitan’s Midway Center on Chicago’s Southwest Side, provides supervised visitation and safe exchange services for families that have experienced domestic violence.
Yomara and her team are committed to sharing the program’s goals and mission to as many people as possible. In this current climate, that means going above and beyond to make sure they’re available virtually for the parents they serve.
Our Evanston / Skokie Valley Center staff are all smiles and gratitude underneath their new masks, hand-crafted by longtime friend and supporter Donna Tropp!
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.