Why I Work at Chicago Cares

This post comes to us from Emily Collins, a Program Coordinator for our Children’s Education & Development Department. She manages a diverse set of children’s programming at multiple sites, one of which is Ella Flagg Young School. 

Working for a nonprofit is work...a lot of work. Most people who ask what I do think it’s endless games, projects, and activities that make you feel good – and sometimes, that’s true. I also know that working for a nonprofit is long hours, endless dedication, and constant adaptability and creativity. Sometimes the job is overwhelming, sometimes it feels thankless, and sometimes it feels like I can do nothing right....and then sometimes it’s exactly what I am looking for.

Being in the office every day is hard work and I sometimes find myself forgetting why I am there. This past Saturday, however, I was once again reminded why I spend so many hours each week working in the office: to touch someone else’s life. I was the leader for Healthy Start at Young, one of six Chicago Cares programs that I coordinate at the school. I admit that I lacked motivation to get out of bed and head to a project early Saturday morning, but my love for working with children, as well as cooking, gave me push I needed to get up and drive to Young School. 

 

One foot in the door, my whole outlook changed. I was first welcomed by Selena and Ashley, excited and inspired middle-school students ready to participate in Students on Stage with Andrew. Ms. Wilson brought Danaya and Darrell to build their reading skills at Read-with-Me while she volunteered at Healthy Start. Michelle and Samantha were ready to start experimenting with Abbey at Math + Science Club, and one of our most dedicated students, Rashae, arrived at Young with a big smile, ready to once again bet me about his like or dislike of our Healthy Start recipe. Rashae was here, ready to learn as always, and excited to make healthier decisions about his young life. I instantly felt like the Grinch and my small heart grew three sizes that instant.

I must admit that I have a slight bias: I love to cook and I studied nutrition and health education in college. Anyone interested in participating in Healthy Start excites me and instantly finds a place in my heart. Rashae, however, holds a particularly special place. I once won a bet against him that he would actually enjoy a burrito made with black beans and whole wheat tortillas. By making a fresh salsa, Rashae learned that grocery store items can be made healthier and tastier. This week, I showed him that squash (ew!) isn’t something scary and foreign but tasty and tricky; case in point: spaghetti squash. Rashae returns each time to Healthy Start resistant to eating healthy, yet each week beams with pride as he carefully packs up some of his food to bring home to his Grandma. (I also know, although he won’t always admit it, that he really likes the food.) Five minutes with him makes me remember why I work at Chicago Cares every day: I love working with kids and inspiring them to be their best selves.

I will not solve world peace. I will not end poverty or inequality. I cannot house all those who are homeless. But I can inspire a student to live a healthier lifestyle and make better choices. I can be a stable, positive presence in one child’s life. I can encourage others to volunteer. I can make a difference.

Mastering Multiplication at Marillac Social Center

This post comes to us from Martha Renken, one of our Education & Development Program Coordinators, managing programs as varied as Read-With-Me, Students on Stage, Healthy Start, Eco-Art, School News and Math + Science Club.

 Most of us can probably recall the grueling chore of learning our times tables in elementary school. No matter how much teachers tried to make math fun—Around the World and Mad Minute games, prizes, you name it—the task of memorizing the entire multiplication table felt exhausting. We can probably also recall, however, how much finally memorizing these tables helped us move forward in math; from multiplying double digits and fractions to studying algebra, we never could have learned the lessons to come without knowing that 5 times 5 is 25.

Students at Marillac Social Center in East Garfield Park receive after school tutoring, but the tutoring program’s director notices that they struggle to move ahead in the subject of math because they have not yet mastered multiplication tables. Through Chicago Cares’ new Math + Science Club program at Marillac Social Center, students and volunteers will engage in hand-on experiments and activities, as well as incorporate the use of flashcards and games to encourage retention of vocabulary and times tables.

Alternating weeks with Math + Science Club is Read-with-Me, where students will have the opportunity to read with a volunteer before completing a creative craft activity that relates to that week’s book. Students will be exposed to a variety of authors and themes, and they will be encouraged to connect to the text and brainstorm during the creative process as they participate in the art activity.

Marillac Social Center is a non-profit organization providing early childhood education, teen mentoring, family support services, and companionship and assistance to the elderly. Mark your calendar for October 13 when Math + Science Club at Marillac will launch, followed by the launch of Read-with-Me on October 20. Marillac House is accessible by the Green Line just a few miles outside the Loop. Join Chicago Cares on Wednesday evenings and enhance a child’s education at Marillac Social Center.

Crowe Horwath & Chicago Cares: Making a Difference for CPS

Crowe Horwath LLP has been a Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon sponsor since 2006, helping make many school renovations a reality. Chris Wagner was one of sixty-six Crowe Horwath LLP employees to join us this June at the 17th Annual Serve-a-thon, painting and building at R.H. Lawrence Jr School for Mathematics and Science. His recap of his volunteer experience can be found here, on the Crowe Horwath Blog. Many thanks to Chris and the Crowe Horwath team for allowing us to share it with you.
 

Over the summer, my fellow Crowe Horwath volunteers and I boarded a train bound for downtown Chicago to participate in the 17th Annual Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon.  Little did I know how gratifying this experience would be!  We were in for an adventure filled with a lot of hard work and a little bit of compassion.  The event began at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, with an inspiring kickoff emceed by my friend Gaynor Hall, a WGN/CLTV reporter, and words of wisdom from Governor Quinn and Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman.  From there, “Team Crowe” hopped on a bus and traveled to the far south side of Chicago to begin our assignment, R.H. Lawrence Jr. School for Mathematics and Science.  The school had seen better days: walls needed painting, furniture was ancient and time-worn (a bookshelf in the teacher’s lounge dated back to 1954), and landscaping was sparse on the school grounds.  We could see our sweat and TLC were needed and would go a long way in sprucing up the inner city school.  Fresh coats of paint in classrooms and hallways, hand painted murals in common areas, and hand crafted benches and planters on the school grounds gave the building a fresh look and a landscape for the imaginations of the students who attend the school.  Our mission was a huge success and the look of appreciation on the school principal’s face made it all the more worthwhile.  The day was such a rewarding experience that we’ve already committed to participating in next year’s event!


The opportunities for activities and events such as the Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon that are available to me while working at Crowe have given me great sense of accomplishment and pride in my firm. What experiences have you had that make you proud to work for your company?

To view more photos of this event, click here.

Daily Service

AmeriCorps VISTA member Elliott Dionisio has served as our Days of Service Specialist for the better part of a year, shepherding groups and teams of volunteers through registration and preparing them for our annual events, Celebration of Service and Serve-a-thon. Elliott leaves us to begin law school later this week, but first we asked him to share his takeaways from a year of dedicated service with you.

For the last seven years, I’ve dedicated a part of my life to service (the first five casually along with school and work, and the last two full-time through AmeriCorps). I’ve always made a space for service in my life due in part to the oft-repeated axiom that there exist folks much less fortunate and much more in need than myself. Community service has been a way for me to pay forward the blessings I’ve received over my life. To me, these are truisms—whether I think of service on these terms is another story.

The results I gain from service are much different. After any given service project, I don’t walk away with an air of satisfaction or vindication. I don’t even walk away and reflect on the quantifiables (how many bowls of soup served, goods packaged, dogs walked, etc). Perhaps I once did, but I can’t remember the me then; maybe for me service has lost the luster of fulfillment from the earlier days. I walk away (and return soon after) knowing service to be a good way to spend my time. My motives are actually somewhat momentary—I’m not looking to shape a future legacy, I just like to be sure that I’m living my life to its fullest potential. And part of me understands that to be helping other human beings.

This last point is not one I tread over lightly; in fact, if service has had one enduring impact on me, it is that my worldview is much more empathetic to other human beings. Our upbringing and experiences do much to determine the cast of characters in our lives, and if Sociology is any guide we usually spend our lives with people ‘like’ ourselves. But service has helped me transcend those barriers. I have come to believe (as I have witnessed) that no matter where one falls on the socioeconomic scale, he has the same thoughts, feelings, concerns, and hopes as the next man. We all become hungry. We all want to feel valued. We all want to be loved. As the saying goes, we all ‘put our pants on one leg at a time.’ Service has helped me to be cognizant of this constantly.

This isn’t difficult to understand, but living the actual life is more astounding. I find myself paying respect to people with no preconditions. Respect shines through in the ways you speak and act towards others, but I take it one step forward in the ways I think about others. I subconsciously attempt to meet another person on his or her level when conversing with them. And when I hear off-color jokes directed at strangers, I know my judgment isn’t sufficient enough to react to them. Being around so many people of so many different strata—as I am through volunteering—has had the effect of neutralizing my preconceptions. 

Service has taught me that as different as we all are, we’re also very much the same. I say ‘taught’ in a reflexive sense, because this transformation crept upon me unnoticed. At a service project or outside a service project, people matter and people make the difference—all day, every day. Service has not only changed my life, but my lifestyle. And as much as your serve too, you may realize the same.

Know a Coordinator

Kyle Mahoney recently joined our staff as our Human Service Program Coordinator for the North Region of Chicago, managing projects as varied as Drake Gardens, Lakeview Pantry West, Inspiration Cafe, and Library Maintenance.


Hello Chicago Cares volunteers! I’m honored to have recently joined the CCI staff as a member of the Human Service team. Me in a nutshell: 23-years-old, born and raised in Dallas, TX (yes, I have an accent, but I’ll only use it if you ask nicely). I moved to Grand Rapids, MI after graduating high school to attend Aquinas College. While there, I studied English, Philosophy, Sculpture, and Environmental Science.

I planned on applying to law school, but becoming a mentor through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program my junior year pretty much rocked my world, so I decided to serve for a year as an AmeriCorps member instead. I completed my term of service this June with City Year Chicago, where I planned large one-time service events for fellow AC members and Chicago residents alike. 

Working primarily on the North and Northwest sides of Chicago, I’m elated about the opportunity to benefit the neighborhoods in which I live and spend my leisure time. It’s a rare privilege to feel so intricately connected to a community (or multiple communities) on such a micro level – especially in Chicago, where there are serious needs everywhere one looks. Specifically, my goal is to form connections between our community partners – an organic garden and a food pantry, for instance – so they may become resources for each other.