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Celena Roldán served as social worker and director of child care before being named executive director. Erie House opens its community technology center, opening new opportunities for education and professional development for participants in a changing world. Erie House collaborates with the Northern Trust Company to launch Tutoring to Educate for Aims and Motivation (TEAM), a groundbreaking mentoring program that supports the growth and development of neighborhood youth. In the last 150-plus years, we’ve expanded our footprint to a second site in West Town and later into Little Village to reach more of our predominantly Latinx immigrant participant population. We also offer programming from satellite locations in Humboldt Park and Logan Square, and home visiting in Back of the Yards. Erie Neighborhood House opened its doors to Chicago’s West Town community on December 4, 1870.
Community Resources & Empowerment
We are a human services agency rooted in the settlement house tradition, strengthening Chicago’s immigrant communities since 1870. Other Erie House programs that had been traditionally held in-person — legal consultations for citizenship and immigration clients, youth mentoring, mental health counseling and more — have been conducted remotely since March. Kirstin Chernawsky became executive director after serving as senior director of development and communications.
Ross Lyman becomes executive director
New development corp. hoping to give east Erie neighborhood the boost they need - YourErie
New development corp. hoping to give east Erie neighborhood the boost they need.
Posted: Wed, 03 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Before joining Erie House in 2019, she worked as mission funding director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s $198 Million comprehensive campaign. Kirstin Chernawsky is the executive director of Erie Neighborhood House and is the ninth individualto serve in this capacity since the agency's incorporation in 1915. She came to Erie House in 2013 and served as senior director of development and communications before entering her current role in 2016. Puerto Rican immigrants started arriving in the 1950s, at first settling at the south end of Lincoln Park. This is the neighborhood where former Congressman, Luis Gutierrez, who became a nationally recognized leader in the fight for immigration reform, lived until his parents decided to move back to Puerto Rico when he was about 15.
We've provided assistance to over 10,000 Legal Permanent Residents applying for naturalization.
We’ve also heavily invested in mental health, community wellness and safety through our Proyecto Cuídate program, our fastest-growing department based in Little Village. Erie St. with the words TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND SERVICE TO HIS CHILDREN etched into the cornerstone. It was then that the settlement house adopted Erie Neighborhood House as its name, supporting a staff of 12 and upwards of 50 Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers. Over the next two decades, Erie House expanded its initiatives to include dental care, a health clinic, a clean neighborhood program, child care to accommodate a shifting workforce in the wake of U.S. engagement in World War II, and one of the nation's first Meals on Wheels programs. Erie Neighborhood House traces its history back to the founding of Holland Presbyterian Church, a small congregation planted at the corner of N.
Mexicans were already in the neighborhood and connecting to Erie House by the 1970s. But Mexican immigration increased precipitously following the Immigration Reform & Control Act of 1986, which opened a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. By 2000, there were an estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants in the US, mostly from Mexico. Mexican immigration to Chicago eventually surpassed the previous record-breaking Polish immigration already mentioned.
Erie Neighborhood House opened in 1870 in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. As the city and community changed over a century and a half, so did we; from a church serving our neighbors to a settlement house delivering wraparound services to immigrants and individuals from all backgrounds to help them thrive and build proud, powerful communities across the city. Since 1870, Erie Neighborhood House has been a classroom, a second home, and a community center for thousands of low-income and recent immigrant families in Chicago. Your investment in Erie House supports a legacy of award-winning educational programming, legal services and mental health programs for the whole family, from early childhood to adulthood.
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Prior to joining Erie House in 2019, Michelle worked in regional human resources for retail stores at O'Hare Airport, Midway Airport, Ogilvie Station, and 2 warehouses. She also has experience with workforce development through Skills for Chicagoland and the CARA Foundation. He joined Erie House in 2007 and has served as education programs coordinator, assistant director of YOU and director of YOU. We are the oldest settlement house still operating in Chicago, having worked alongside folks across the city for a century and a half. From those early days as “the little Dutch church” in West Town to the widespread impact we make today, our history is shaped by the immigrant experience—marked by struggle, resilience, and hope—that is such an inseparable part of Chicago's identity. Our in-house team of attorneys and legal representatives help their clients navigate the US citizenship and immigration system, keeping families together, and allowing them to achieve a greater sense of security.
She also serves on the board of directors for numerous organizations, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR; board treasurer), Susan G. Komen Chicago, Chicago Women in Philanthropy (CWIP), and the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force. Erie St. began as the “little Dutch church” in West Town, focusing its efforts on helping the area’s immigrants. Typically held after school, the program transitioned to a full-day schedule to give students a safe place to attend Chicago Public Schools virtual classes. Rafael "Rafa" Ravelo is the first Latino individual to become executive director.
Erie House is a social services nonprofit organization providing the most comprehensive support immigrant and low-income families in Chicago need to thrive. The organization also launched its TEAM mentoring initiative for high school students in the 1980s in collaboration with The Northern Trust Company. A decade later, in 1995, Erie House expanded to a second West Town location a half mile away at 1701 W.
They built and worshipped at Holy Innocents Church, just two blocks from Erie House where they learned English. The organization also has locations in Little Village and Humboldt Park. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Erie House begins delivering "Know Your Rights" training to the community.
Rev. Douglas Cedarleaf marches with Erie House participants in solidarity with an African American family who had been harassed upon moving to West Town. Florence Towne begins her 37-year tenure at Erie House, serving as teacher, girls' group leader, and head resident. Erie Kindergarten is one of twenty flagship programs in Chicago's Free Kindergarten Association.
From the late 1880s to 1920, the Dutch and Norwegians were replaced by Poles and Italians. “Mom Savino,” came to Erie House when it was still the Erie Chapel Institute in the 1920s. She and her husband both got jobs at Erie, but also volunteered for many hours beyond their work time. She was an Erie institution by then, by far Erie’s most famous Italian participant. For the most part these Italians were Catholics, as were the Poles who also came to Erie.
Erie House partnered with the Little Village Development Corporation (now Enlace Chicago) in 2004 to begin offering services to residents of Chicago's Little Village community. The 1950s witnessed an increase in families migrating from Puerto Rico, drawn from the island to the mainland in part by a new San Juan-to-Chicago fare promotion offered by Pan Am Airways. Many of these families settled in parts of West Town and Humboldt Park and became connected with Erie House, thus initiating the agency's demographic shift toward Chicago's growing Latino community. Browse photos from our archives and explore the timeline below to journey through our history over the past century and a half.
It first embraced the children of the neighborhood in what was described as the largest Sunday School in Chicago at that time. In partnership with The Collective Academy, we formed a strategic plan committee made up of staff, volunteers, board members and participants past and present. Their task was to reframe our vision, mission and values and develop goals (and tactics to achieve those goals) that would strengthen our impact in the community over the next 3 years—and beyond. Erie House has historically served low-income immigrant communities.
WEST TOWN — Chicago’s oldest settlement house celebrated its 150th anniversary this month after experiencing a year like no other. We equip our community with the tools and information needed to thrive in the face of adversity, including “Know Your Rights” trainings and direct outreach. We make a healthy lifestyle more accessible with workshops, support groups, and counseling, all through a trauma-informed and culturally-sensitive lens. Rev. Ross Lyman served dual roles as minister of Erie Chapel and executive director of Erie House. Erie House expands to begin serving families in Little Village, a community with a rich Mexican American identity.
Our wraparound services ensure lifelong success, keep families together, and help communities thrive. The agency's TEAM mentoring program boasts extremely high graduation and college placement rates for its participants and has placed significant emphasis on preparing students for careers in STEM fields. Today, Erie House is a modern social services nonprofit with programming and resources for children & youth, mental health & community wellness, adult education & training, legal services, and more. Erie House was originally founded as a “little Dutch Church” in West Town with a focus on serving the area’s immigrant population.
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