This year, Metropolitan celebrates “community” – and here, community starts from within.
Community is built on people’s connections, including in the workplace. Our community continues to touch thousands of clients and families, and our thousand-member staff continues to go above and beyond to ensure our services reach clients where they are.
They’ve continued to innovate through in-person and online services. We are extremely grateful to the MFS team, both for this past year and throughout the pandemic, for their enduring commitment to keeping families and communities strong.
Much has happened in the last 12 months!
Highlights include the $3 million transfer of assets from MFS to leaders in Chicago’s West Englewood community through We Grow Chicago.
We Grow is a neighborhood-based coalition, led by:
- Imagine Englewood if…
- Metropolitan Family Services
and three local, Black-led organizations including:
- Growing Home
- Grow Greater Englewood
- Teamwork Englewood
We Grow owns 15 properties on the “Peace Campus,” which spans the 6400 block of South Honore Street.
We are excited to share that plans are in the works to transform one of the Peace Campus homes into a state-of-the-art digital technology center, operated by MFS and We Grow, where we will train youth for some of the most promising careers of the future!
We couldn’t be more enthused about local leaders being empowered to chart the future of their communities!
We’ve also been working diligently to improve our infrastructure for better service delivery.
Refining our behavioral health systems
Launching an
in-depth review of our careers platforms and processes
Developing a new Intake and Referral Program
This will make it much easier and quicker for us to connect clients with services, in ways that more efficiently equip clients to choose the services that best support their unique needs.
Board Chair Ashley Duchossois Joyce culminates her three-year term in October 2022.
She graciously extended her tenure for another year, providing the agency with additional stability through the pandemic.
MFS honors Ashley’s many contributions to our agency. Her Board service is the most recent example of a deep commitment that spans more than two decades.
Ashley played an instrumental role in increasing Board engagement, further diversifying our Board membership to better reflect those we serve, and changing Board committees to inspire new ideas and impact.
We also look forward to David Tropp assuming the Chairmanship in fall 2022.
Bringing close to three decades of experience with MFS as a Board member, David’s leadership shows how our Board is stronger than ever.
All of our growth and transition could not be possible without our community members, drivers and leaders, both internal and external.
We thank you so much for your continued faith in our mission to Mpower Chicagoland!
Ric Estrada
President & CEO,
Metropolitan Family Services
Ashley Duchossois Joyce
Chair,
Board of Directors