On Friday, July 27, 2018 Gads Hill Center hosted its 5th Annual Golf Outing, Drive to Succeed. The event was held at the Village Greens of Woodridge in Woodridge, Illinois. Our Albatross Sponsor was Northern Trust, with Konica Minolta, Marsh Insurance, and Aeromexico at the Eagle and Birdie sponsors levels. For complete list of sponsors, see here.
|
On June 3, 2018 Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Alderman Raymond Lopez joined Gads Hill Center and media outlets to announce our new Brighton Park Early Education Center as part of the 2018 state budget. The location will serve more than 120 youths in surrounding neighborhoods, as well as adult education programming.
“I am proud to work alongside Mayor Emanuel to support and expand access to high quality educational opportunities for early learners across the city,” says Maricela Garcia, Chief Executive Officer of Gads Hill Center. “Expanding service in Brighton Park means more children and families will have the support they need to thrive.” Click here to read the City of Chicago's press release on the work Gads Hill Center supporters made possible. MORE COVERAGE WBBM Newsradio GMA Construction Group Details Brighton Park Early Learning Facility Curbed.com covers Brighton Park and Gads Hill Center Gads Hill Center kindly thanks this year's sponsors for supporting our annual spring gala. Click through to see the full list of sponsors.
The video below documents the check presentation, and includes words of thanks from Gads Hill Center's Chief Executive Officer, Maricela García. Gads Hill Center thanks The TJX Foundation for supporting our youth programs since 2004. In the past year, TJX and Marshalls volunteers have completely refurbished the space used by teens in our Building Leaders program, providing new furniture and art as well as a fresh coat of paint. Their staff also donated gifts and much needed cold-weather clothing for families during our Holiday Wishes Toy Drive, as well as Easter baskets for youth in Junior Building Leaders, and a shopping trip to Marshalls for youth in last summer's Emotional Intelligence Camp.
We are grateful to The TJX Foundation and Marshalls for their deep and continuing investment in the families we serve. When Miguel, age 17, first joined the Building Leaders program, he was very socially awkward. His grades were not very good, and he had been suspended from school. He spent most of his time in the program alone, not willingly engaging with his fellow peers or GHC staff. Overall, he did not seem to be motivated to succeed.
Miguel started to see a GHC mental health clinician to help him gain greater self-awareness, communication skills, confidence, conflict resolution, and coping skills. Through the mentoring component of the program, he also learned how to become more responsible, make better decisions, and become a better person. As a result, his behavior in school drastically improved. School counselors reported that Miguel was able to mitigate conflict with his peers and improve his relationships with his parents and teachers, using skills he had learned at GHC. Miguel also received academic assistance, and his grades improved from a C average to an A/B average. Instrumental to Miguel’s success was his decision to join the robotics team at GHC. Miguel’s high school also has a robotics team, but Miguel lacked the confidence to overcome his social isolation and join. At GHC, he was able to access clinical resources that not only allowed him the confidence to be part of a team, but that also spurred him to take on a leadership role on the team. On the robotics team he developed important social skills so that he went from always being alone at the start of the program, to being the stand out student who was always surrounded by a group of people, and greeting staff. He also learned invaluable skills in STEM fields that has invoked a newfound passion for learning. Now Miguel is very excited about the prospect of attending college, and is researching colleges and universities. He found and joined the summer program at Columbia College, Gear Up, which helps prospective students prepare for school. He participated in the Corporate Experience class, and volunteered to perform a mock interview in front of all of his peers. Miguel used all of the resources available to him in the Building Leaders program to improve in every aspect of himself. He says, “This program has helped me with my social skills and to be more responsible. The staff motivate me to do well in school and to be a better young adult.” Miguel is now confident, social, self-aware, and extremely motivated to succeed. |
Archives
November 2019
Categories |
RSS Feed
