News—Parent organizing efforts at Marquette Elementary are starting to pay off. On September 17, more than 100 parents showed up for open house. Though a hundred-some parents in a school with nearly 1700 students may seem like a drop in the bucket, in previous years "we only got a quarter this many," said Principal Paul O' Toole. At least 20 of them expressed interest in joining the school's Parents as Mentors program, in which parents work in classrooms for two hours, four days a week, while furthering their own knowledge and skills. Continue…
News—With national attention focused on the impending foreclosure crisis, local community organizations have decided to take action. The most recent statistics tell us that in the first four months of 2008 nearly 600 foreclosures have been initiated in the 60629 zip code alone.
On Sunday, June 15, Fr. Stan Rataj, Pastor of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish dedicated his homily to the crisis hitting families in the neighborhood, as part of a larger SWOP effort to tackle this issue.
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