About Us
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Gads Hill Center is an award winning, multi-service, family resource organization that has served the Pilsen community since 1898. Throughout the past century, Gads Hill Center has provided timely and critically needed programs to low-income families and individuals from all age groups, and has worked in close collaboration with many of our community's schools and social service organizations. Serving as a port of entry community, Pilsen has been the first home to successive immigrant groups; and for the last several decades, home to primarily low-income Latino immigrants, most of whom are of Mexican heritage.
Gads Hill Center maintains a mix of privately supported and government funded services which address the large number of social and economic obstacles that are being addressed by Gads Hill Center. The large Latino population has poor literacy and language skills, marginal employment capabilities for an urban technological environment, and high school dropout rates that approach 65 percent.
In the Pilsen community, Gads Hill Center focuses its programming in four priority areas:
- Children's Services (Early Head Start Enhanced Day Care Homes, Home-Based Head Start, school-age Day Care, and Club Learn).
- Teenage Services (Teen Connection-the community's first comprehensive college preparatory program for public high school students).
- Family Services (Adult Education programs, Family Support services).
The Center also offers an array of educational, athletic, social, arts and recreational activities for families and children. Gads Hill Center serves as a gathering place for community groups and others concerned with improving the quality of life in Pilsen.
Within the last two years, Gads Hill Center has accomplished much. KaBOOM! and Home Depot, with hundreds of volunteers, including those from 18 Home Depot stores, built a special playground for community children on the grounds of Gads Hill Center. We opened our new Teen Connection, a unique and comprehensive college-preparatory program for students of normal potential, supported by funds from the Pilsen-Little Village Empowerment Zone.
The Illinois Department of Human Services awarded Gads Hill a major grant to develop our unique philosophy of service; to adopt curricula in concert with the philosophy; and to begin the accreditation process for all of our children's programs as a community.
Gads Hill Center received significant media coverage for its programs and work during the recent past, including major articles in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and El Otro, a guest appearance on Fox 32's Esta Semana, and a feature story on Channel 66. Club Learn was featured on CBS-TV Channel 2's Different Drummer. Our Child Care Center was featured on Univisión's Carla, Ayudame, a special report on child care for Channel 66. Gads Hill Center's new anti-violence PSA's, written by and starring Gads Hill's own young people, will soon be aired nationwide on ABC.
Gads Hill Center received a Japanese Chamber of Commerce Chicago Award in 2000 for its Club Learn program. In 2001, Gads Hill Center won the prestigious BP Leader Award for its work in collaboration with the Chicago Department of Energy to provide a "green" environment for the Gads Hill Center and the surrounding community. Also in 2001, our Executive Director Barbara Castellan was named a Hometown Hero by CBS/WBBM, and noted as "A Person With Clout" by WTTW's CityTalk. This year, the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies presented Gads Hill with the 2002 Community Award for our work with Mexican women. Also this year, we received the TEAM Award for our leadership in United Way's Ambassadors Program. Gads Hill Center is currently completing a five-year strategic plan, and is in process of developing a new strategic plan for the years 2002-2006.
Gads Hill Center…Where a Vital Community Comes Together Vital communities have been coming together at Gads Hill Center (GHC) since 1898. Today, the Center has expanded its community to include residents of Pilsen, North Lawndale and Little Village. As it moves forward in the new millennium, GHC is forming strong partnerships and bringing together vibrant and vital communities.
The Gads Hill Childcare Center, open in spring 2002, is a collaborative effort that includes Sinai Health Systems, the Sinai Community Institute, and the North Lawndale Employment Network. This partnership is significantly supported by Polk Bros. Foundation, who contributed $150,000 in capital funds. The Center was the feature of anchor Carla Sanchez' special report on Univision, Channel 66, twice in early 2002.
Bank of America is a strong supporter of GHC. In September 2001, bank employees conducted a Back-to-School Supply Drive for GHC kids, who in turn visited one of the bank's downtown locations to personally thank Chicago Bank President Terry Perucca, Community Relations Manager Bonnie Ortin, among other bank representatives.
GHC is also partnering with Chicago's Department of the Environment, BP Amoco, and the Community Energy Cooperative. EcoFamilia, the result of this union of resources, will transform the Cullerton site into an example of the best practices for energy conservation, energy generation, and recycling, and a community-wide center for information, support and education regarding the environment. It will create knowledgeable and committed conservationists within our community.
The Illinois Facilities Fund's Center for Early Education Management and Finance chose GHC to be one of seven Chicago nonprofit childcare agencies to benefit from its comprehensive management assistance program. Funded by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, this program conducts a 15-month consultation leading to a strategic plan for service enhancement.