Friday, December 12, 2008

The Bridge Youth and Family Services, Holiday Benefit Concert tonight!


I'm always happy when I read about other tutoring and mentoring programs in the news. Amongst talk of the Illinois governor's troubles with the law and the failure to come to an agreement on a bailout for the three main automobile manufacturers, I was absolutely delighted to see one of the programs that I have worked closely with featured in the Chicago Tribune today, The Bridge Youth and Family Services in Palantine. The article discusses their wonderful work with youth with mental illness - which is a very important and often forgotten issue. What it neglected to mention is their Youth Advocacy program, which matches youth ages 7 to 15 with a mentor for at least one year. Their Youth Advocacy program is one of the many ways that The Bridge helps family in need. I'm also happy to highlight a program out in the suburbs, since there are many great programs in the suburbs, such as The Bridge that act as wonderful examples for programs throughout the world.

I also would like to take this moment say thank you to The Bridge's Mentor Program Coordinator, Elizabeth Dobrzynski, and the Supervisor of the Prevention and Volunteer Services at The Bridge, Nancy Kukankos for taking time out of their busy schedules to present a workshop at our November 2008 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on Evaluation Strategies. Their workshop got rave reviews and I so appreciate all the time and effort they put in to help other programs become better. I've put up this photo before, but it's one of my favorites of the conference. Liz is in the center and Nancy is on the right. Katherine Moone, the Program Director of another fantastic program, East Village Youth Program is on the left.


Also, don't forget. Tonight is our Holiday Benefit Concert! It's at Schuba's, 3159 N. Southport (corner of Southport and Belmont) from 6-9 pm. The concert features Trakan, The Howling Poppies, and Black Collar. Admission is $30 and includes one drink. Come ready to have fun and listen to some great music!

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