Blog
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!
A group of our Calumet Center’s Financial Opportunity Center participants are now in a much stronger position to find and secure employment, thanks to support they received in a personalized Personal Brand and Interviewing workshop run by Allstate volunteers.
Our Midway Center staff hosted a Pizza and Pop with a Cop event to promote domestic violence awareness.
Metropolitan Calumet, at its Annual Meeting, honored the staff, board members, and community partners whose support contributes to the Center’s reputation as the “Miracle on 103rd Street.”
Get Growing Foundation’s Plant Truck made a stop at Metropolitan Calumet to share plants and experience-based learning around horticulture with our community, thanks to Calumet Community Board Member LaToyia Huggins!
Our Midway Children’s Center had great participation in the Million Fathers March! Sixteen dads dropped their children off, and several stayed to read a story in their child’s classroom.
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.
Staff from Metropolitan’s Behavioral Health programs attended National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)’s NAMIWalk Chicago 2019 in Jackson Park on Saturday, September 14th.
The Chicago Football Classic and College Fair is more than a game! Our Calumet Center hosted their college-bound youth to meet with more than 40 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at the 22nd annual event.
As part of the ReCAST Center for Learning & Resilience, the Metropolitan Peace Academy is offering city-wide trainings on aspects of nonviolence, trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
Clinical Program Supervisor Haley Hansen and Program Manager Jennifer Jenks visited 10 elementary schools in Evanston School District 65 to provide information about Family Support and Prevention, a free counseling and case management program for Evanston families.
Melissa Coleman, Crisis Worker in our Southwest Center’s Screening Assessment and Supportive Services (SASS) program, participated once again in the Chicago Police Department and NAMI’s Advanced Crisis Intervention Youth Workshop.
The Legal Aid Society’s Outreach Coordinator, Micaela Garrido, recently presented at the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force’s 2019 Conference.
On a recent site visit to our DuPage Center, Metropolitan and DuPage Community Board members learned more about Adoption Preservation, Early Childhood, and Domestic Violence services, regional Legal Aid Society programs in DuPage, and integration work with Family Shelter Service of Metropolitan Family Services DuPage.
The “Grow Where You’re Planted” program, or Garden Group, began four years ago at Metropolitan Southeast Chicago, and has been expanding as gardening and food growing for health and wellbeing gain in popularity.
Led by Office Assistant Joyce Quezada, our North Center and North Children’s Center staff wrote (and colored, and put stickers on) nearly 1,000 inspiring messages to put inside a recent donation of backpacks from Cradles 2 Crayons.
We’re excited to announce a partnership with Rosin Eyecare, one of the largest eye care providers in the Chicago area: between September 1 and October 19, a portion of the proceeds from your Rosin eye exam will benefit Metropolitan!
Thousands of children in our Calumet, Southeast Chicago, and North communities will go back to school with the supplies they need to prepare mentally, emotionally, and physically for another year of learning! At the Cradles 2 Crayons Backpack-A-Thon, our staff picked up a total of 4,500 backpacks we’ll distribute to our communities.
Our DuPage Center’s Intensive Placement Stabilization (IPS) and Adoption Support and Preservation (APS) programs held their first Family Fun Day for foster and adoptive families!
Giving back – and inspiring her workforce to do the same – helps guide Christy Harris in her role as VP of Talent Acquisition and Inclusive Diversity for Allstate.
Our Community Schools program brought together Resource Coordinators from across the agency for a four-day Resource Coordinator Summer Boot Camp professional development series at our Midway Center.
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.
Asserting Achievement, Literacy & Resiliency (AALR) hosted its second annual College Preparedness and Readiness Trunk Party for our Calumet Center’s Upward Bound program.
Katharine and Parenting Fundamentals Educator (and parent alum of the program) Robert Augustin, alongside their Parenting Fundamentals team in San Juan, spent four days training 13 staff from Instituto Tercera Mision Universidad Carlos Albizu.
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.
CP4P’s Light In the Night kickoff event at Breakthrough Urban Ministries’s weekly Home Court basketball tournament welcomed a few special guests, including Sesame Street! Mayor Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker both shared remarks, and Cookie Monster himself made an appearance with CP4P Program Director Vaughn Bryant.
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’s recent graduation ceremony recognized the members of Cohort Three for their commitment to the 144-hour, 18-week violence prevention curriculum aimed at professionalizing the field of street outreach.
The Mpowered Leadership Academy at Metropolitan Calumet graduated its first cohort of leaders, thanks to the support of Metropolitan Family Services board member Kirk James.
The Living Room at Metropolitan Southwest has now survived and thrived for a full year! Staff celebrated a year of growth with an anniversary open house.
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.
At its recent Awards Banquet, the Gerst Family Young Fathers Program celebrated the achievements of all the dads in the program.
The first-ever program fundraiser for Metropolitan Southeast Chicago’s InSHAPE program brought together staff from across Metropolitan and supporters of Metropolitan’s community mental health services to celebrate the impact of InSHAPE.
What does being a father mean to you?
“To me, a good dad means to be a leader, a provider, someone that your child can speak with, and above all, be real with.” – Ivan, a Gerst Family Young Fathers Program participant and award recipient at this year’s annual banquet
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.
Leadership Greater Chicago announced Metropolitan’s own Miguel Keberlein, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society (LAS), as a 2020 LGC Fellow!
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.