Chicago non-profit

When I was in fourth grade, my teachers’ favorite thing to talk about was “that spark” inside all of us.  “Never lose that spark,” she would say, “because once you do it’s hard to get it back.”    But it wasn’t until I met someone whose spark seemed to burn so brightly that I felt pale by comparison that I finally knew what she meant.  Every once in a while I meet another person like that, and appreciate them.  In speaking with June Podagrosi, who co-founded Child’s Play Touring Theatre in 1978 with her late husband, there was ample opportunity to appreciate an undiminished spark.  Child’s Play is the vehicle through which she shares it.

The idea behind Child’s Play is to help children discover and nurture their spark.  In order to do this, they combine “the important, imaginative writings of children with the craftsmanship of professional theatre artists and educators.”  A staggering four million people have been impacted through the various Child’s Play educational programs and productions, and more than 16,000 young writers have had their works performed.

Currently, Child’s Play’s is working on pulling together their annual gala for 2013.  On June 13^th, beginning at 5:30 with hors d’oeuvres and drinks, the night promises to be a thoroughly entertaining and educational one.  There will be a silent auction and special performance catered for maximum audience participation.

Child’s Play prestigious Victor award will also be given out.  Past recipients include actor/composer/producer Jeff Richmond of 30 Rock, and Marj Halperin.  This year’s recipients will be the award winning composer/lyricist/cabaret artist George Howe, and the Cook County State’s Attorney, Anita Alvarez.  They were chosen for their past year’s work which is in conjunction with the gala’s theme this year: “Think. Write. Act. PEACE.”

The event is always good for the organization, according to June, but more importantly, she emphasized, “It’s just a really fun time.”  Tickets are on sale, or you can go and volunteer for part of the event, and enjoy the rest of the night at your leisure.  Tuesday nights leading up to the 13^th, are when volunteers are getting together to organize.

Whether to get involved or just enjoy a night out, be sure to mark Child’s Play Touring Theatre’s annual Gala on the calendar for June 13^th, and share in spreading the spark.

We’ve all heard it a hundred times before, especially of late here in Chicago: “Further funding cuts to the arts in public schools,” or “Due to lack of funding, instead of five times a week, so-and-so junior high will now have two required art or arts related classes per week.”  And always, math, science and reading retain their positions as the most important aspects of education today.  Let’s face it, in terms of concrete skills for future use in industry and business, math and science represent the requisites.  But without creative thinkers, concrete skills are limited by those that wield them; without individuals who can see beauty in their surroundings, find happiness, and glean confidence from it, those skills do not make the world a better place.  One of Chicago’s most stalwart advocates for education in the arts is, and has been for more than fifty years, is Urban Gateways: Center for Arts Education.

Their approach is simple: “Art for all.”  To them that means, as Brian Foster , Director Of Marketing for Urban Gateways said, “The three E’s: Every Art, Every Child, Every Day.”  By deploying their talent in a variety of ways, Urban Gateways hopes to awaken the creative impulse within as many students as possible, and compel them to follow it toward productive ends.

One way artists connect with students is through residencies.  Residencies can last anywhere from six weeks to a year.  During a residency, an artist of almost any variety imaginable visits a school, and conducts hands-on activities within their realm of expertise.  All of the artists are also trained and experienced educators whose curricula are in accordance with Illinois state regulations.  Plus kids love an exciting change in their routine.

Other avenues Urban Gateways employ include Touring Performances, Workshops, and Professional development.

Touring Performances can include dance or theatre troupes, and musical ensembles from an incredible number of different backgrounds and disciplines.  The wide variety and high level of artistic expertise offers a fascination experience for virtually any audience.

Another intriguing way that Urban Gateways engages the arts is through Workshops.  There are two kinds: Family and Community; and Student Immersion.  Family and Community workshops enable children to learn through the arts alongside their adults.  Programs cater specifically to that kind of pairing.  Student Immersion workshops are what they sound like; students spend the entirety of the workshop with artists, exploring their craft and the world around them.  Workshops are between one and four sessions, for Family and Community, and one to three days for Student Immersion.

The final avenue that Urban Gateways employs to foster arts education and education through arts is through Professional Development.  An Illinois State Board of Education Approved provider of professional development, Urban Gateways offers teachers a change of pace in acquiring some of their required Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDU’s), and a worthwhile way to improve their outlook on educating their students.

Urban Gateways believes in the continued exploration of art and that there is no end to what we can learn from it.  Join Urban Gateways in fostering that notion, and help make the world a better place.

North Park University has been a mainstay for education in management for more than 100 years in the Midwest, and has been duly recognized by publications such as U.S. News and World Report.  One reason the school is so successful is its breakdown of appropriate management practices under specific circumstances.

For example, the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management, within North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, focuses solely on educating nonprofit leaders.  It “offers a variety of programs for professionals who work, volunteer or are transitioning into the nonprofit sector.”  The Axelson Center’s leaders understand that nonprofit staff and volunteers need skills that are different from those who serve in for-profit organizations.  One of its most accessible programs—an excellent resource for anyone working in a nonprofit—is the Axelson Center Symposium for Nonprofit Professionals and Volunteers.  The theme of the 14^th Annual Symposium is “The Engagement Effect.”

The symposium begins Monday, June 3, 2013, at 9 a.m. with preconference keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Trocolli Boris, director, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.. The title of her talk is “Trends in Nonprofit Finance: Changing Revenue Streams.”  Troccolli will discuss how changes in revenue streams of nonprofits are impacting the future of the sector.  Three talks to follow will address other important aspects of nonprofit revenue.  The day concludes at a 4:15 p.m. networking event, where participants will have the opportunity to meet speakers and each other.

The second day begins at 8 a.m., with a networking breakfast. After that, founders of six successful Chicago-area nonprofits tell the stories of their organizations in a fast-paced 75-minute session, “Founders Fired-Up.”  The rest of the day is structured around a series of breakout sessions.  Each attendee will have the opportunity to participate in three 60-minute sessions.

During the registration process, participants can choose from one of seven specially tailored tracks, each of which focuses on different aspects of nonprofit engagement.  A luncheon will be served at noon, with awards and recognition given to nonprofits that have demonstrated outstanding managerial excellence.  To close the day, the final keynote speaker, Shirley Sagawa, J.D., co-founder of Sagawa/Jospin Consulting Firm, Chevy Chase, Md., will speak on “The Charismatic Organization.”  A copy of this year’s conference brochure, with a schedule of events, and descriptions of breakout sessions is on the Axelson Center website.

Nowhere else in the Midwest is there an opportunity like the Symposium.  The combination of expertise and camaraderie among the more than 500 fellow attendees is something that you won’t want to miss!

Psychopath.  Now there’s a word that gets tossed out pretty often.  As in, “Hey! Gimme’ back my frisbee, you psychopath!” or “Yeah, I was lucky to get dumped when I did; my ex was such a psychopath,” or, in passing, as a generically cruel remark, “Ugh, what a psycho!”  As it turns out, the usage of the word that’s vaguely synonymous with “crazy” is, well, wrong.  The Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy Foundation (Aftermath) is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing people like most  of us (who know basically nothing about social disorders) about what it actually means, but the scope of their purpose, mission and goals are, necessarily, much broader than that.

On their homepage they say that their “ultimate goal is to reduce the negative impact of psychopathy on the families and victims of psychopathic individuals.”  To the lay person, that statement raises a lot of difficult questions.  Understanding what psychopathy is, and knowing some of how it affects people, it’s much easier to understand why it’s so important for an organization like Aftermath to exist.

Between perusing their website and the compelling conversation we had with Aftermath’s president, Dr. David Kosson, Chicago Non-Profit got a fascinating crash-course on what psychopathy is, the impact it has on individuals and society, and how the “Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy Foundation” works toward achieving its whole mission.

What is it?

On their website, the experts at Aftermath give a brief synopsis that I won’t try to improve upon.  Its brevity is relative, though, and the language is dense, which clues readers in on the complexity of the disorder.  It’s under the right-hand column on their homepage where it asks “What is Psychopathy?”

Now I’m not a genius, but I’m no dummy either, and I have no problem admitting that this definition caused me to sit back and scratch my chin.  When I spoke with Dr. Kosson, I told him that some of this just doesn’t make sense to me.  How could someone lie, be promiscuous, arrogant, have no self control etc, be that way to a long string of people, feel no remorse for it, and do it in a way so that nobody catches on?  “That’s the scary part,” he said.   They’ve had a lifetime to practice deceiving people; they’re usually very good at it.

To better understand the disorder, Doctor Kosson recommends a visit to the “Resources for Victims” page.  There readers can find professionally written papers meant to be understood by lay-people.  The most initially informative is the bottom one, “A Primer on Psychopathy.”

A more in depth knowledge of the disorder lends a lot of significance to what Aftermath is trying do, and the way they’re doing it.  Primarily, says Dr. Kosson, they educate the general public through the links afore mentioned on their website.  Professionals, though, they educate through workshops.  These workshops are populated by groups of professionals who, once educated, will be better able to protect potential victims from harm.  For instance, they held a workshop for court professionals whose responsibility it is to decide how parents in a divorced couple should split custody of their children—or not.  If that person is not trained to recognize psychopathic tendencies—and they’re usually not required to be—then a parent with psychopathic features will likely be able to take advantage of the situation and gain custody.  Other groups include clergy, leaders of addiction support groups, and employers at senior living facilities.

The ways that psychopaths negatively impact the people and world around them are legion.  Through education, prevention, and treatment, Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy Foundation will help to reduce and repair the effects of those negative impacts.

It’s that time of year again, year end for most.  Businesses and nonprofits are preparing everything needed. People are scrambling to file their returns, find their receipts, eek out one last deduction.  For the non-profit sector, tax season means all of that, plus more.

As if normal year-end processes weren’t confusing enough, nonprofits have a completely different way of functioning compared to businesses.  Also, whenever nonprofits receive grants or other large donations, it doesn’t just go into the coffers for at will use; there is an entire other section of reports that document exactly how grant money is spent called “reports to grantors.”  There is another report to record what was spent by specific programs.  The list goes on.

Moreover, it’s not as if most nonprofits have the extra cash lying around to pay professionals to keep up with their book keeping.   Because of the scarcity of both funding and expertise, nonprofits will only complete the bare minimum, take far longer than necessary to complete year-end processes, and miss potential deductions all along the way.

Of course there are tools out there to help like: Quicken, QuickBooks, Turbo-Tax, etc. But even then, without knowing all of the tricks and short-cuts, it’s difficult to do a good job; it’s like only knowing how to use the can-opener and the nail-file on a fourteen piece Swiss-army knife.

There are some seminars and online tutorials available to help nonprofits learn the correct way to set up their books, but almost none of them cater specifically to nonprofits, and some programs aren’t even equipped to accommodate all of the special requirements that non-profits have to fulfill.  It is, as usual, an uphill battle for nonprofits.

All of this is according to Gregg Bossen.  Apart from being a “normal” CPA for nonprofits, contractors, and general businesses for over twenty years, he is also the author of QuickBooks Made Easy, a comprehensive collection of industry specific training tutorials he developed in conjunction with Intuit, the creators of QuickBooks, to educate people with industry specificity, and virtually none of the overflow that comes from trying to teach all people all at once.

Currently, in conjunction with the industry specific tutorials, Gregg teaches seminars around the country.  Gregg has taught more than 1,000 seminars around the country since the year 2000  reaching out to more than 30,000 people, which suggests what we found out first hand in meeting Gregg: you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more engaging and charismatic, but especially when discussing what he knows best: nonprofits and QuickBooks.

Lately, with the understanding that the group with the toughest racket has the smallest amount of reference materials available, Gregg is focused on sharing his expertise with nonprofit professionals.  On April 17 of this year, he will be traveling to Chicago to give a seminar that outlines exactly what non-profits need to know on how to manage their book keeping with QuickBooks.  That night, he flies to Pittsburgh for a seminar on the 18^th.  In May, he’ll make a similar weekend tour in Texas, specifically San Antonio on the 14^th, and Houston on the 15^th.

Each seminar is available in two parts: Part 1: The Essentials, Part 2: Beyond the Essentials, or All Day Both Sessions.  The Essentials begin at 9:00 A.M. local time and last until 1:00.  There’s a half-hour lunch break (lunch is included), and then at 1:30 Beyond the Essentials begins, and goes until 4:30.  The all day cost for the first member from any organization is $99.00 (ninety-nine dollars).  For anyone from the organization after the first person, the cost is reduced to $69.00 (sixty-nine dollars).  For those nonprofits and individuals who are serious about improving their book keeping skills, and records as a whole, no better opportunity exists to learn from one of the industry’s foremost experts on the subject: Gregg Bossen, from QuickBooks Made Easy.

Growing up with Tony brought with it a ritual for Friday nights at his house. Whenever possible, I was spending the night over there for pizza and staying up as late as possible to play Nintendo. Of course, the sleep cycle was often broken for a quick raid of the kitchen or a few toilet paper parties from time to time.

Often times Tony’s aunts, uncles and cousins would stop by for a visit on these nights. It seemed that an atmosphere of love and family was always present. This was the environment that followed the family wherever they were together – to ballgames, parks, and the hospital where Tony & Leah stayed with Libby while she fought for her life.

Up until this point in our lives, there was no experience that Tony or I were not able to share together. Dating, driving, graduations and weddings – all of these experiences are things Tony and I have shared together and could compare notes as we checked off yet another rite of passage. This list is virtually endless and I’ve been blessed with a consistent friend through them all. However, the experience of holding onto your child while she fights for her life is something that I cannot share with Tony. I felt helpless as I could only sit and watch as Tony and Leah seemed to wade out into dark and uncertain waters on a starless night. I could only pray that when they returned – if they returned – I would still be able to recognize my friend.

Though they were confined to the hospital for a time, the influence and support Tony and Leah gained was tremendous as we rallied around Libby. What was so impressive to witness was the growth of their spirit throughout this period. At a time when you would think people would retreat – their spirit of giving and love enveloped those who became aware of the situation. Tony and Leah not only identified needs for families who were also spending long hours at the hospital – they took action. There was an apparent lack of comforts such as movies to watch or games to play so Tony and Leah raised money to purchase these items and donate them to the hospital (this continues to this day through a nonprofit they recently founded). One way they did this was dovetailing off the popularity of the yellow “Livestrong” bracelets by designing a white bracelet with the word “Libstrong” in yellow. In addition, Leah took to blogging through the hospital’s CarePages site to keep everyone informed of Libby’s progress. The spirit and attitude Tony and Leah displayed throughout this ordeal was truly amazing.

Eventually, Tony and Leah did emerge from those waters together. And after almost 3 years of treatment, countless prayers, and the loss of friends whose children did not survive their battles, Libby defied all odds and is alive and cancer-free today.

Friday night pizzas are still celebrated at my second home. While Tony and I don’t often find time to stay up and play Nintendo, we do manage to reminisce and laugh about the times we have had together. Watching our own children grow and sharing in their rites of passage reminds us how blessed we were to have had an environment that fostered love and provided laughter. It is this environment that sustained Libby’s life.

This environment is what I believe we as human beings are meant to experience. We have a fundamental desire to love and to laugh – to be able to share joy and sorrow openly. When this is not present, there are those of us who, like Tony and his family, take action to create that environment for others no matter what they personally may be experiencing. Truly, the perseverance they display is what makes this family so incredible.

This story is not over, however. Two things remain consistent in this family – love and a fighting for life. As I stated in my previous post, the genetics in Tony’s family have an affinity for attacking vision. This attack threatened the life of Tony and then his daughter – but theirs are not the only lives for which this family has fought.

The genetics in Tony’s family have an affinity for attacking vision. In 2005, Tony and his beautiful wife Leah gave birth to Elizabeth (Libby). Because of Tony’s history the doctors screened and discovered that Libby, too had her dad’s form of cancer. The doctors were very confident, however, that they would be able to treat and eliminate the cancer without sacrificing Libby’s sight. A treatment plan was put in place and Libby started her battle with cancer at less than 3 months of age. Her genetics may have brought on her cancer, but they also brought on a strength and will to beating cancer. Just like her dad, Libby was going to win this fight.

Heading into their first Christmas season together as a family that year, Libby was just over 8 months old. Leah had begun a blog to update all of us as to Libby’s progress and we all rejoiced as the tumors seemed to be shrinking with the treatment. If you were to ask a Magic 8 Ball the question, “Will Libby’s cancer soon be gone?” it would have responded, “All signs point to yes.” A new family, a new child, and great hope that she would beat this cancer gave the whole family plenty of reasons to celebrate that Christmas.

Then came a silver BMW.

This is not the conclusion you might have jumped to – there was no car accident. This car was driven by the doctor that came to visit Tony and Leah at home. Just a few days prior, Libby had a new scan of her brain to check the size of the tumor behind her eye. Another routine scan to confirm that the tumor was shrinking. Tony and Leah were feeling confident that everything was going according to plan – the cancer was going away, Libby would soon be healthy. Life would soon go on without the trips to the hospital.

This time what the scan revealed, however, warranted a home visit.

Leah spotted the silver BMW as it approach their house. The car was a bit out-of-place in the modest middle-class neighborhood of Grandville, so it tended to stick out. When the man emerged Leah recognized the doctor. Her heart dropped into her stomach. This can’t be good.

As he entered their home, Leah and Tony held each other, waiting for the news. “We found a new tumor in Libby’s brain” said the doctor as soft yet as clear as possible. The news was delivered in the way that you knew he was trying to be as honest yet as compassionate as possible. This new discovery meant Libby had tri-lateral retinal blastoma, a diagnoses that is found in an average of only 6 children in the U.S. each year. Out of those 6, fewer than 1 survive. Libby was given about a 2% chance to be that 1.

Tony and Leah, their family (which, by now, included an extensive network of friends and supporters), were sent reeling with the news. We all had been experiencing a growing relief as Libby seemed to be responding well to the regiment of treatment thus far. This news had erased all of that. Instead of the game being nearly over, the opposing team just gained all of the momentum – and it wasn’t even halftime.

Instead of looking ahead, that Christmas was about celebrating the life we all had at present, for however much longer it would be. We all prayed it would not be our last with Libby.

As the context of the moment settled in, I began to recognize and experience true gratitude. Trips to ball games, dinner with family, laughter with people who love. This was the environment that I grew up in with Tony’s family. This landscape was now a field of battle upon which Libby’s cancer encroached. We were all anxious to fight.

As we all tend to do with age – most especially when we begin our own families – I spend a great deal of time reflecting on what has shaped my life and what values I want to pass on to my daughter. Being in the nonprofit industry, I often meet people who have aligned their passion with their profession. The drive these people have, the desire that inspires them to work tirelessly to eradicate the world of a problem or to lift a cause to a higher level of consciousness is as inspiring as it is selfless. These two traits define the industry – and they also define what I want to pass on to my daughter the most.

I do not have to look far to find examples of this in my own life. I grew up watching these two traits in action, most prominently through the family of my oldest and most beloved friend. The experience of this is something I’ve only begun to appreciate, however. This is the story of a family full of fighters, lovers, and survivors. Theirs is a family that inspires others to join the fight for a better way of life while celebrating this life every step of the way.

I hesitate to share this because of the depth of the love I have for this story – for this family. It has been my experience with them that has very much shaped my own life and is one of the contributors toward my passion for nonprofits. It is with their permission that I am sharing this story with you – the reader who choses to spend their time reading about and (hopefully) being inspired by the spirit within the human soul.

Tony is my oldest friend – by that I mean I’ve known him literally as long as I can remember. I spent almost as much time at his house as I did mine for the first 15 years of my life and lovingly refer to his mom (Carolyn) simply as “Mom 2.” An elementary teacher by day, her grace and patience transcended from the classroom to the home she provided for her own family. She always had a hug to give and made the best birthday cakes a kid could ask for. Point out any design you wanted and it would appear on your birthday.

Tony’s dad (Carson) is my all-time favorite coach and was the biggest inspiration behind my own passion for the game of baseball. He was a salesman by trade, but his spare time was spent teaching, coaching and umping the game. The only thing as infectious as his love for the game is his laugh. Carson is always armed with a joke and stands ready to laugh at a moment’s notice. He’s the guy you hear laughing across the room and are drawn to discover what is so funny.

Growing up, this was my second family. Countless pizzas, sleepovers, and endless love and laughter was shared at their home – something that I’ve come to appreciate more than I will ever be able to express.

Looking back, what strikes me most is how close this all came to never happening for me. Tony was born with tumors behind his left eye – a cancer known as retinal blastoma. Today, this can often be treated by radiation and surgery, often saving both the eye and vision. In 1978, however, this was a much more life-threatening prognoses which, for Tony and his family, meant removal of the eye to get rid of the tumor and regular monitoring thereafter to confirm that the cancer was gone.

My only acknowledgment that this was even an issue, however, were the regular trips that I often took with Tony and Mom2 to Detroit to get his eye checked and the fact that Tony has a glass eye (which I actually thought was kinda cool – I actually practiced not just crossing my eyes but also holding one eye steady while moving the other so I could emulate Tony’s).

Tony’s mom almost always combined the trip with a ball game or a visit to the zoo. For two young friends this was not an anxious doctor’s appointment but rather and 3 1/2 hour ride to see a Tiger’s game. Being a child I had no concept of the anxiety and subsequent relief that Tony’s parents must have felt. Today, Tony remains cancer-free – though his family’s level of uncertainty persists.

I welcome you to join me over the next few weeks as I unfold the story of a family that has overcome odds and continues to step into a path of uncertainty marked by trials and triumph. This is the story that is lived by those who choose hope over fear; faith over abandonment; love over loss.

What happens when you try to get a couple of adoptive parents together to write a story for National Adoption Awareness

Month in November? The story gets finished in December. As any parent, adoptive or otherwise, knows: kids keep you busy. However, when it’s discovered your child has autism, if you’re like my friend Arnie Quast, you get busy. And by this I mean Arnie’s amazing work in helping to create the Northern Illinois Center for Autism (NICA).

Nine years ago, Arnie and his wife adopted their son Thomas from Korea when he was five months old. When the foster mother placed Thomas in his wife’s arms for the first time, Arnie says, “This is where reality hit me as I realized that I had just officially become a parent. It was an exciting feeling!”

When you adopt a child, just like birthing a child, it’s forever. There’s no going back. And of course this means you must be willing to accept and parent this kid no matter what obstacles get put in front of you. For Arnie and his wife the above-normal parenting challenges began when Thomas was around two. As Arnie describes it:

Between his second and third birthdays, we started realizing that Thomas was not talking or socializing as much as other children his age. He also developed some unusual mannerisms that concerned us. We had a developmental physician evaluate Thomas to shed more light on his condition and the doctor advised us Thomas was physically healthy, but some of the things we were seeing could be indicative of a condition called autism.

Our life soon took a rapid change.

We enrolled Thomas in our school district’s early childhood program and ramped up occupational and speech therapies. About a year later, Thomas was officially diagnosed with autism and we became involved with a parent support group near us called the McHenry County Autism Group. This group of parents helped provide support and information to each other and we learned we were not alone, that approximately 1 in 150 children born are diagnosed with autism.

After several months our support network started to grow, and as it did we achieved status as a 501 3c non profit. We formed a board and started to grow our network of parents. People from areas outside of McHenry County started to network with us, and about three years ago we decided to change the name of our group to Northern Illinois Center for Autism.

Annette Gallagher, the current President and CEO of NICA, says, “It’s kinda funny how fate takes a hand sometimes. All of us parents didn’t choose to have children with autism…for whatever reason, it chose us. But what we do with the autism…that’s where our choices lie.”

Annette started out working a variety of night jobs to help pay for the medical expenses involved with her two sons and their autism, while spending countless hours during the day attending therapy with them, and learning everything she possibly could to help them overcome their many challenges. After a few years of very little sleep, she decided to open an in-home day care to help create some social interaction for her sons, while earning an income to pay for their therapies and medical expenses. And it had the added benefit of allowing her to get some much needed extra sleep!

Annette describes how her role as a parent of two autistic children transformed into her current position at NICA.

While running my daycare, I happened to take on some children of employees that worked at the local special needs non-profits in our area. These “Moms” were frustrated in their work, as there was no support agency available to refer families living with autism. As a result, they started to refer them to me. I have always been happy to help a fellow family, and truly believe in the power of parent networking and education, but I became wayyyy outnumbered by parents in need. It was my hope that with the development of our organization, we could help many more families in a much more efficient way, which is exactly what we have done!

These families are soooo worth our efforts. The parents are becoming educated, and many of their loved ones with autism are making great gains as a result. People with autism have incredible potential, as long as they receive the assistance that they require. Providing that assistance is our first priority. It’s what allows NICA to achieve their mission of “integrating community and loved ones.”

“As funding became available,” Arnie says, “our group decided to take a bold move. We leased a building in Lake in the Hills where we could provide further networking and build a platform to provide services to families with autism.”

Gallagher, who took a leadership role in creating the center, says, “Providing the specialized assistance that people with autism require, costs money…and our families living with autism are running out. The expenses involved in raising a loved one with autism are extreme. NICA is making a gallant effort to make this assistance available, in the most cost effective way possible, so that all children with autism can have the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential and live a full and productive life. As an organization, which is currently run 100% via volunteers, we are limited as to the

amount of assistance we can provide. Our organization has grown to the extent that we must raise funds to develop and sustain the operating income required to assist these families full-time. It is with this goal in mind that we ask the community to get involved in helping our many families in need, by helping us raise the funds we require to operate full time.”

You can make a much appreciated donation to NICA here.

In this difficult economy, it’s tough enough to find a job. Now imagine if you have “ex-convict” on your resume. Five years ago, the non-profit North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) founded Sweet Beginnings, a wholly owned (for profit) subsidiary designed to create jobs for formerly incarcerated individual and others with significant barriers to employment. Today, Sweet Beginnings, makers of Beeline products, employs seven to ten transitional employees and two semi-permanent Team Leaders at any given time.

This is no ordinary jobs program. You see, Sweet Beginnings runs apiaries. That’s right, beehives. And raising bees is not the only unusual thing about them. These beehives are located at the airport, the only airport apiaries in the country. So, does this make O’Hare the world’s Buzziest airport, too? (sorry) I hereby officially declare, Yes, it does.

Holly Blackwell, General Manager of Sweet Beginnings, says they have three apiary sites in Chicago. Their first was in North Lawndale. A second, for education and honey purposes, was built at Wright College. The apiary at O’Hare came about, she says, when they were approached by several parties from the Chicago Department of Aviation, who had an interest in “urban” beekeeping, sustainability and in NLEN’s social mission to create jobs. “We found the intersection of environmental consciousness, a way to expand our beekeeping capacities, strong partnerships with a world-class organization, and the potential for more jobs creation to be exceptionally compelling,” Blackwell says, adding that although O’Hare is the first US airport to host an apiary, Germany has led the way in the practice, using the bee colonies onsite to test for air quality.

At Sweet Beginnings, employees learn to take care of the bees and harvest the honey, which is then either sold as is, or used in its all-natural line of skincare products called Beeline. The Beeline products include body creams, lotions and balms and body washes. They’re all made at their North Lawndale location on the city’s west side and then packaged and shipped or delivered throughout Chicagoland and around the country. They’ve even placed orders as far away as Australia! (Could Beeline Honey eventually replace vegemite!?! Having tried vegemite, I personally think it should.)

Every potential Sweet Beginnings employees must first participate in the NLEN’s U-Turn Permitted program , where they learn and sharpen skills they’ll need to find, keep and perhaps even use to successfully leave a job. The U-Turn Permitted participants take a one-month workforce readiness class and prospective employees of Sweet Beginnings are taken from this pool for interviews.

One Sweet Beginnings employee said of the program, “I gained a lot of different experiences and gained knowledge of something I thought I would never be doing, but I know I will be able to take this experience and use (it) in other jobs and life. It’s a great start for me to get back on my feet and begin working again and take a positive step forward towards my future. My family is very proud of me for getting this job, so thank you.”

You can find Beeline products in fine shops, at the Peninsula Hotel, Whole Foods and, of course, at O’Hare airport. There’s some buzz (sorry) that Beeline is looking to possibly open another apiary at Midway Airport. I would even go so far as to suggest Northerly Island, so at least something would be flying at the site that was formerly Meigs Field.

The incidents of reoffending for ex-convicts is 65% nationally and 55% in Illinois, yet the rate of recidivism for employees of Sweet Beginnings is less than four percent. And as far as statistics for success go, that’s sweet.