Concordia Place

Programs: Childrens programsconcordia place changes lives by focusing on growth and opportunity to ensure the communities that we serve are a place for all. We provide economically inclusive early childhood, school-age 365, teen leadership, adult enrichment and senior wellness programs. Concordia place operates two centers. Concordia on whipple, at 3300 n. Whipple, in chicago's avondale community, opened in 2006. Concordia on seeley, at 3855 n. Seeley, in chicago's north center community, is concordia's original center that opened in 1981. In total, concordia place served 805 individuals in fy2017. During fy17, concordia place launched its social enterprise, concordia day, as part of our long-term plan to ensure child care for low-income children and leadership development for at-risk teens. Concordia day early learning centers operate as a social enterprise with the proceeds going to the mission of concordia place. Concordia day on ravenswood opened august 8, 2017, and served 60 additional children birth through 3 years old. Early childhood:concordia place early childhood provides licensed early learning for children 6 weeks - 36 months and preschool for children 3-5 years. Both centers are accredited by the national association for the education of young children (naeyc), a rigorous, voluntary process that has become the benchmark of quality. More than half of our children are in homes earning less than $47,831 a year and more than 70% of those children are from homes earning less than $26,000 a year. While public subsidies help 30% of our families, another 40% need our sliding tuition scale so they have access to quality learning for their children. Our programs emphasize each child's overall development. Our teachers have degrees in education, early childhood education, or child development. We meet or exceed state required staff-child ratios; use teacher-directed and child-initiated activities that build both mental and motor abilities, teach social skills, encourage positive self-images, and develop self-discipline; and use a developmentally approved curriculum and follow the illinois early learning standards. Learning through play, along with parent involvement activities, are keystones of our children's programs. Teachers carefully monitor and document each child's progress using teaching strategies gold. As a result, children who might have been at risk of academic failure arrive at kindergarten prepared for future academic success. Early childhood operates 11 hours a day, year round so that parents have the freedom to work and pursue opportunity for their families. We use a sliding scale tuition scale, leverage child care assistance program (ccap) funds for eligible low-income families, and allow weekly payments so that we serve families from a wide array of economic levels. In fy17, our two centers served 356 children; 34% of which came from single family households. School age 365:school-age 365 provides after school and summer camp activities that enrich the lives of children ages 6-12 all year. Learning for these children is uninterrupted. We carefully mix learning and development with social and recreational activities. In addition to homework help, children engage in activities and projects with reading and writing, science, math, social studies and art components that align with the illinois learning standards. The children also benefit from physical fitness and healthy, nutritional snacks and meals. In fy17, we served 92 children, nearly 50% of which are from low-income families. More than 82% of the children are minority and almost 60% are being raised in single-parent householdsacross both early childhood and school-age 365, 65% of families are subsidized through our sliding scale tuition and/or ccap subsidies, and 40% of the families earn less than $26,000 a year. Sixty-seven percent of the children are minorities. We are licensed for 104 children in early learning, 137 in preschool, and 50 in school age 365 (50 each in summer camp and after school).

community programs -teen leadership:concordia place teen leadership helps teens ages 13-18 from low-income and working poor families transition into adulthood while keeping them off the streets and safe from risky activity. Almost 85% of our teens are from extremely-low to low-income homes; yet ruckus entrepreneurs provides them paid work experience. The program engages teens in developing leadership skills that build self-confidence to help them deal with life choices and challenges. Teens have opportunities for self-discovery and personal achievement, developing teamwork and leadership skills, and stimulate a commitment to community service. Teen leadership has grown from serving 45 teens from 12 schools in fy2010 to more than 200 teens from 40 middle and high schools across chicago in fy2017. Concordia place teen leadership includes three programs: emerging leaders at concordia, emerging leaders in school, and ruckus entrepreneurs. Emerging leaders at concordia is five days a week for six hours during the summer, and during the school year, it is four days a week for three hours a day. Through the afterschool and summer program, teens are empowered to become agents of change in their community through service-learning projects. For example, each week during the summer, teens visit seniors living in a nearby senior resident home; they play board games, tend the wheel chair garden, talk and listen. Ecology, nutrition, and culinary skills intersect as teens plant maintain, and harvest product from their own garden; plan and cook nutritious meals; and eat family-style meals together. Emerging leaders in school is an outreach program that provides middle school students with weekly emerging leaders sessions during a class right in their school. Concordia place instructors teach leadership fundamentals through a variety of service-learning activities. Concordia place uses private funding to bring this program to carl von linne school, a nearby chicago public school. With ruckus entrepreneurs (formerly sprouting out), teens learn to run a socially responsible business. In addition to hand crafting all-natural body care products, they define the target markets, plan the product line, determine price points, create the budget, and market, sell and distribute the products. The products, including facial soaps, shea balms, and lip balms, are sold on concordia place's website and during events. This year, through the buy one, give one initiative, the teens donated more than 500 of their body care products to homeless teens. Adult enrichment- english as a second language:concordia place partners with truman college to provide adult english as a second language (esl) classes to help adults bridge linguistic barriers. We held four 16-week sessions this year with classes that meet two times weekly. In fy17, 480 hours of instruction was provided to 65 individuals through the esl classes. Senior wellness- senior fitness and senior lift:concordia place wellness builds vitality and connection for the elderly. Concordia place senior fitness addresses the physical, spiritual, educational and social well-being of the aging in chicago's avondale and surrounding communities. A focus is to help seniors remain independent and healthy enough to stay in their homes. Gentle strengthening, light cardio, yoga, and tai chi from the arthritis foundation focus on the unique fitness needs of aging bodies. After exercising, seniors enjoy a healthy, nutritious lunch, which is the only home-cooked meal some seniors have each week. The social interaction helps reduces social isolation, which can lead to depression and other health issues. Because many of the participants are unable to pay, we offer this program at no charge. Senior lift: through senior lift, trained volunteers help home-bound seniors with simple errands such as shopping, transportation to medical appointments and senior fitness, as well as phone and mail support. In fy17, our core of 10 committed volunteers provided 895 individual services to seniors that would have been physically and socially isolated. Both the seniors and their friendly visitors benefit from the social bonding and friendship. In fy17, senior wellness served 68 seniors through senior fitness and senior lift.