Blog
“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.
Community partners, from board members to program partners, empower Metropolitan Southeast Chicago to serve more than 5,000 clients each year. At its annual Holiday Luncheon, Community Board Chair Shirley Carter joined Metropolitan Southeast Chicago Executive Director Vanessa Schwartz to honor a few of the outstanding partners who make our programming possible.
Our Campaign Cabinet co-chairs – Martha Melman, Tony Hunter, Richard Price, and John MacCarthy – recently hosted a celebration of the Campaign to Mpower Families at RPM on the Water.
Metropolitan staff across the agency has been participating in “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) and Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) Communities Foundations of Care” trainings, provided by Howard Brown Health.
BMO Harris Bank shared the light with Metropolitan Family Services as part of its Magnificent Mile Lights Festival! By donating for every social media post with the event hashtag #BMOLightsFest, BMO contributed to Mpowering lives across the greater Chicagoland area.
Metropolitan is part of BMO’s Magnificent Mile Holiday Lights Festival! From now until November 23, BMO Harris Bank will donate $5 to Metropolitan for every post with the hashtag #BMOLightsFest, up to $10,000.
The Midway Learning & Wellness Center is a pilot organization for the “Anytime is 3Ts Time” program, a collaboration between PNC Bank’s “Grow Up Great” initiative and the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health.
Our North Children’s Center preschoolers learned about different types of hats by reading the story “Hats for Sale,” and celebrated the learning by making hats together!
Staff, guests, and clients walked into our Midway Center to an Mpowering display during the month of October!
To help our community discover ways to overcome together, the Domestic Violence Program at Metropolitan Calumet held a candle ceremony to offer education and awareness around Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Legal Aid Society’s own Dana Harbaugh, Pro Bono Program Coordinator, joined a Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) panel on how post-graduates can strengthen their applications for public interest law organizations.
Metropolitan board members gathered at our Annual Meeting to hear from CEO Ric Estrada about our collective impact this year, see recent Board Chair Mike Vardas pass the gavel to incoming Board Chair Ashley Duchossois Joyce, and learn about the important work of our Altgeld Youth Leadership Program from Jylan, one of its participants.
“I was always intrigued and supportive of surrounding families with umbrella services because they have multiple needs.” Tony Hunter, long-standing Metropolitan board member and current Co-Chair of the Campaign to Mpower Families.
Our Midway Center staff and area police officers learned about the intersectionality of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking, in an info session facilitated by Metropolitan’s own Micaela Garrido, Outreach Coordinator with the Legal Aid Society’s Human Trafficking Initiative.
Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage opened its doors for an Open House, sharing our work in supporting domestic violence survivors across DuPage with board members, supporters, and community members.
Metropolitan Calumet is looking refreshed and repainted, thanks to a group of volunteers!