Blog
Congratulations to Metropolitan’s Employee Recognition Award winners! The five outstanding winners were selected through from a pool of employees nominated by their coworkers, in a process which included a record-high 114 nominations.
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.
Each year, Metropolitan board members travel to see firsthand one of the many programs Metropolitan offers. Led by Board Chair Mike Vardas and Vice Chair Ashley Joyce, this year’s board tour took us to Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage (FSS of MFSD).
Our Midway Center’s Learning & Wellness Center recently held its first Kindergarten Expo!
West Suburban Philanthropic Network honored Judie Caribeaux, Metropolitan’s Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation, with its Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award for her work as Executive Director of Family Shelter Service, now Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage (FSS of MFSD).
Our Southwest Center recently held wellness workshops for our staff and clients, sharing information and techniques to benefit children, adults and seniors physically, mentally and emotionally.
Metropolitan Family Services is proud to bring community involvement to the table. During our two On the Table events, which took place at our Calumet Center and our North Center, we brought together different perspectives in our communities for open dialogue on issues we all see as important.
Over the past year, Chicago Police Department’s 5th District experienced the loss of several officers from suicide and in the line of duty. As a proud partner of CPD’s 5th District, the staff at Metropolitan Family Services Calumet was honored to collaborate with Chicago CRED to support them with a Police Appreciation Day event at our Calumet Center.
Thanks to Metropolitan board member Diana Palomar, our youth attended WE Day and celebrated the communities youth activism has transformed, and the lives it has changed.
FSS of MFSD hosted two volunteer groups recently, and thanks to their efforts, our space is looking fresher than ever, inside and out.
Metropolitan’s Sea of Orange became a Sea of Green for Children’s Mental Health Day, as office decorations and staff wardrobes brought to life the color representing mental health awareness.
CP4P’s Shout Out Celebration was an opportunity for the partners in the collaboration to showcase and appreciate the achievements of standout staff and participants.
The Spring 2019 cohort of parents in our Parenting Fundamentals program is now empowered to help their children live fulfilling, productive lives!
Our Calumet Center and Altgeld Gardens site honored Child Abuse Prevention Month this April by hosting a variety of Child Abuse Prevention events and initiatives.
What does family engagement mean to me? CJ Pruitt, who works in Metropolitan’s Healthy Minds, Healthy Children, Healthy Chicago (H3) program, recently participated in a MENTOR Illinois webinar, where she provided information on Metropolitan’s family engagement programs and shared her own insights into family engagement.
The drama of the Golden Age of Hollywood enchanted 300 attendees at Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage’s (FSS of MFSD) Free to Fly Gala!
The second cohort of our Altgeld 10 – ten young leaders who visit New York City during their Spring Break, thanks to support from the Lyon Family Foundation – learned new things about new cultures in a week filled with new experiences.
Each year during Week of the Young Child – an annual celebration hosted by NAEYC to spotlight early learning, young children, their teachers, families, and communities – our Early Learning programs across Metropolitan create a week’s worth of fun and engaging activities.
Thank you to BMOA Chicagoland and Rainbow PUSH Coalition for making our trips possible!
A new member of M-LAB (Metropolitan & Legal Aid Associate Board), Esther joined from the board of Family Shelter Service, a DuPage-area domestic violence shelter, as part of its merger into Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage.
Week of the Young Child: Family Friday
Week of the Young Child: Artsy Thursday
The Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Family Services welcomes two new board members: Christopher Wilmes and Brenda McNamara.
The young ladies of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwestern Indiana’s Troop 50608 made a sweet delivery to our DuPage Center; they donated 1,200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies!
Week of the Young Child: Work Together Wednesday
In-house volunteers fill a valuable role in Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Program, supporting the work of LAS attorneys and expanding LAS’s capacity to serve clients in need. Dan Engel and Roxy Freel are outstanding examples of the dedication and high-quality work our in-house volunteers provide every day.
Week of the Young Child: Tasty Tuesday
Our North Children’s Center and Learning & Wellness Center are holding a Book Fair! Proceeds benefit Metropolitan’s Early Learning programs.
Our Metro Board and Associate Board of the Legal Aid Society (ABLAS) have combined forces! We’re pleased to introduce the Metropolitan & Legal Aid Associate Board, or M-LAB.
Week of the Young Child: Music Monday
The Legal Aid Society’s (LAS) Elder Justice Initiative and Metropolitan’s Adult Protective Services (APS) program have recently been working to further integrate their services, with the goal of providing more holistic, comprehensive support to the seniors Metropolitan serves.
The men in our Gerst Family Young Fathers Program work hard to improve their family and financial situations, overcoming their pasts to reach for their brightest futures. Two major obstacles face many of the dads: they have criminal backgrounds holding them back from moving forward or they are being denied access to their children, and they need legal advice.
Congratulations to Metropolitan’s own Kimberly Fay, one of the new elected members of the Mount Prospect District 57 School Board!
Family Shelter Service (FSS), DuPage County’s only comprehensive domestic violence services provider and emergency shelter, and Metropolitan Family Services DuPage (MFS), the County’s largest provider of community services, ranging from behavioral health to early childhood services, are pleased to announce that our organizations are merging, effective April 1, 2019.
Metropolitan participated in events related to the mayoral race; Metropolitan Peace Academy’s Vanessa Dereef asked a question at ABC 7 Chicago’s mayoral debate, and the we co-hosted a candidates’ forum presented by inVEST Chicago and 100 Black Men of Chicago.
In a sold-out City Club of Chicago panel, Metropolitan CEO Ric Estrada joined Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and leaders from Erikson Institute and the Irving Harris Foundation for a discussion on effectively leveraging data to make smarter investments in early learning.
An internal Domestic Violence Summit helped educate staff in Metropolitan’s domestic violence-related programs about barriers victims face in accessing services and supports that can help them obtain justice and rebuild their lives.
At this year’s Family Day of Play, our DuPage Center’s Wheaton/Warrenville Early Childhood Collaborative gathered more organizations than ever to share community resources and activities with children and their families.
The Legal Aid Society (LAS) is expanding into Metropolitan DuPage! Two newly created positions for LAS attorneys at DuPage Center will help build on the holistic nature of Metropolitan’s services throughout all 33 DuPage communities by providing legal services and offering comprehensive, trauma-informed advocacy for victims of human trafficking and immigrant victims of crime.
In his keynote remarks at the Metropolitan Peace Academy’s Cohort Two Graduation, Chico Tillmon, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago’s Executive Director of Youth Safety and Violence Prevention, emphasized his message of thanks above all else.
The “Austin” family lives in West Chicago. Both parents work full time to support their three active children, two elementary-aged boys and a baby sister, and the whole family participates in counseling through Metropolitan DuPage’s WeGo Together For Kids program.
“A lot of people do a lot of posturing,” says Sunni Powell, a barber who partners with Metropolitan’s Gerst Family Young Fathers Program. “[Young Fathers] is the only program that actually offers what these kids need.”
Metropolitan CEO, Ric Estrada, spoke about Communities Partnering 4 Peace and its efforts in violence prevention at Leadership Greater Chicago’s Cities Striving for Peace event.
A group of young artists from our DuPage Center’s Early Childhood Collaborative schools are now part of an art gallery, thanks to the DuPage Children’s Museum!
The Living Room, a safe, non-judgmental space at Metropolitan’s Southwest Chicago Center, provides a non-clinical alternative to the emergency room for guests experiencing a mental health crisis.
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’re refreshing the look of our North, Southeast Chicago, and Southwest Centers! First up: Metropolitan Family Services North.
Kyle Harvey, Broker Associate at Baird & Warner, currently serves as Chair of the Legal Aid Society (LAS) Board of Directors. Read about Kyle’s work with LAS, in her own words.
Hundreds of our families across Chicagoland received holiday meals this season, thanks to the generosity of MillerCoors. Volunteers from MillerCoors and its partner organizations packed the food into bags to donate to families at our North, Calumet, and DuPage Centers.
Recently North Children’s Center and Midway Children’s Center hosted a Male Superhero photo shoot … and the response was amazing!