Strong Families, Powered by YWCA Metropolitan Chicago

Hello Everyone! Thanksgiving is upon us....and I personally claim this as my favorite holiday! It is a time to celebrate and recognize the abundance we all have to share! Our YWCA team shared their abundance of commitment and expertise in high gear this week. The Strong Families team showed up with courage, focus, organization, compassion and exceptional communication and triage capacity to address the serious fire that effected the families we serve in Willowbrook. Per our intake strategy and efforts, we assessed 72 residents were displaced in the 32- unit building fire. (Please see the link below to read the news article.) We extend our deepest gratitude to Arcelia Garay, Strong Families Suburban Manager, for leading our efforts. She was supported by DeeDee Fekete, Marquitta Harris and Jamie Thompson of our Strong Families team and their servant hearts who supported the community at this crucial time. We want to extend our deepest gratitude to DuPage County Board Members, Lucy Chang Evans, Greg Schwarze, DuPage County Sheriff's office, DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency management, and DuPage County Community Services, Red Cross and Tri- State Fire Protection. We owe an abundance of gratitude to our Willowbrook Coalition partners who also stepped up and provided an extensive amount of support! Thank you, Youth 4 Excellence, Community House, Dr. Kyle; Superintendent and district CCSD 180, Principal Mr. Hernandez, property owner Avanath, Woodspring's Suites, School District #86, People's Resource Center, SCARCE, McKinney Vento, Mecca Center, Catholic Charities, HCS Family Services, WeGo Together for Kids, Tri-Town YMCA, B-5 Regional Council member, Valerie Varju, Sharing Connections, Repeat Boutique and I am sure many others that I wasn't able to capture and all the other community partners that have reached out to offer support. I am most thankful, in the wake of this crisis, to see the unity of service and love that exists for each other. I am deeply grateful for all of you! If you would like to support the families effected or any of our families in need at this time, please follow the link below. When you add an item to your cart from the link it will send you an option to ship it to Strong Families Suburban and it will automatically be shipped to our Addison Office. DeeDee, our coordinator, will take it from there and make sure it is distributed appropriately. We thank you in advance for considering to support! https://a.co/bBKlLtX?

Wishing Everyone a Happy & Safe Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone!! I hope we are all settling into the beautiful autumn weather and the excitement of the holidays upon us. We wanted to try something a little different for our families. We see so much tremendous need with the families we serve. Members of our Strong Families team have created an Amazon Wishlist to support our families with some cold weather needs. Below you can click on the link and see the items listed for basic cold weather needs for our families. We would love to ease some burdens during the holiday season. Please contact our coordinator, DeeDee at [email protected] or myself [email protected]. We will coordinate any drop off or pick up of items. Thank you for considering!! Amazon Wishlist Link: ? https://a.co/bBKlLtX ?

We are always so happy when we can connect a struggling family with concrete resources in times of need. Our Strong Families Support Specialist was able to help a family who recently divorced, was evicted, and Mom had just given birth. She's a mom of 6. Our Specialist was able to refer her to Sharing Connections to provide winter attire and diapers for the family and is supporting her with relocation, in partnership with other agencies. When basic needs and safety concerns are not being met, parents cannot lead their families. Supporting the removal of these barriers, is one of the most important things we can do to get a family to a place of strength and security.

Hello Everyone! Our Strong Families team and our mental health consultation team participated in the Mothers & Babies, two day training. The training is an evidence-based intervention program for pregnant people and new parents to help manage stress and prevent postpartum depression. We are eager to incorporate the skills and knowledge into our programs. It was a fun time of learning, bonding and strengthening our services for families!! Look at this beautiful group of servant leaders!!

What an inspirational Leader Luncheon. https://lnkd.in/eZfeuKAZ

Hello Everyone! Our team enjoyed our Donuts with Dads gathering in Willowbrook, in partnership with school district #180. We want to thank DuPage County Board Member, Lucy Chang Evans, John Roper of DuPage County Transportation, Rosemary Spann of DuPage County Housing, Principal Hernandez, Anne M Jean's Paraprofessional Mrs. Burr, and Nurse Ametchi, for their support!! It was a powerful morning with 27 participants of parents and children in attendance for our internet safety and screen time and its impact on mental health workshop. We also provided great take home tools for parents. The newer moms received diapers, wipes, and self-care cream . The children enjoyed family board games, and gift cards donated by Lucy Chang Evans that were also distributed! Parents learned about the Basics app that supports early childhood development, our Prevention Initiative program as well as our Birth-17 home visitation programs. We love our community outreach events. They create a sense of community and empowerment. These events also provide an opportunity to encourage enrollment in our birth to 5 home visiting programming as well as our birth to 17 years of age parent mentoring program!! Please contact me if you have anyone that would like more information on our home visiting and mentorship programs!

Hello Everyone! We love being out in the communities we serve, doing outreach to promote engagement with our programs as well as supporting our important partners! It takes a village is something we live everyday!!

Hello Everyone! We are thankful everyday for our partners, community collaborators, funders and friends!! The DuPage Foundation Bright and Early grant recipients and collaboration leaders met for an all-day workshop facilitated by Deborah du Vair. The group learned about community resources from Serenity House Counseling Services and received training from the DuPage Health Coalition on their Everyday Heroes program. Leaders learned basic life support practices of hands-only CPR, AED use, and Narcan/Overdose education. Leaders discussed areas of need or concern in the various communities served and got feedback from the group. We are thankful for these opportunities to collaborate with and learn from our peers. Just look at this fabulous group of game changers!!

Hello Everyone! We thought this post was well worth sharing again. Marquitta is doing amazing work. Building our Strong Families team, over the past few months, has been THE MOST exciting journey. It is incredible how we have been able to find the absolute best professionals to join us. We are so grateful for the support of the DuPage County Board! They have provided us the opportunity to serve our families with children birth to 17 years of age with intensive supports in our Willowbrook community. We will be able to support families with home visitation, parent education, increase parental resilience, secure concrete supports, and increase social engagement to our families in this community that face many challenges. Marquitta is modest in her introduction bio, below. She comes to us as an incredibly established and strong leader in this community. She was even part of the panel that assisted in hiring the new school Superintendent in this community. She is a gentle, wise, person that parents and community leaders gravitate to! Please join in our excitement as we welcome Marquitta to our Strong Families team! "Marquitta Harris, Strong Families Suburban - Family Support Specialist! I was born and raised on the Westside of Chicago (representing Westside for all my city folks) but I enjoy living my adult life in the suburbs (although I find myself on coyote watch when walking my furry baby - not on my watch Mr. Coyote). I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; completed my graduate studies through the University of Phoenix-Online Program which was a blessing because I was a single mother at the time. I've had the honor in applying my education and life experiences in positions where I supported adults' w/disabilities (intellectual, physical, and mental), in positions where I served older adults, and in positions where I managed consumer relations. My last position was at a Public Library. While there, I was able to do all three of the above, through organizing educational & entertainment type programs and through outreach programs (my favorite was visiting older adult communities, talking with them, and listening to their stories). Need to know more? Here you go: The child that I was raising while studying to get my masters, is NOW in her 1st year of college at Clark Atlanta University (Thank God for the tracking location feature on iPhones). Walking is a form of medicine for me. Favorite Quote: Be the Change you want to see in the World. - Gandhi If you have made it to this point. Thank you for reading my bio. I am so glad to be a part of the YWCA movement!"