Like many families, Shanelle and her five children, who range in age from 23 to 7, experience mixed emotions during the holiday season. It was around this time nearly two years ago that Shanelle lost her brother in a shooting at their residence that also cost the family their home in the North Lawndale community.
Due to the challenges of being displaced and managing temporary living arrangements, Shanelle’s then five-year-old son, Dorian, missed a lot of school. This was compounded by Shanelle’s own health issues. In the ensuing months, she had to have a major heart procedure, leaving her hospitalized for a brief time.
“I’m not one to usually ask for help,” says Shanelle, a single parent. “I’ve always been the one for my family to depend on.” With her older children also in school, there wasn’t another caregiver to step in and make sure Dorian’s routine and school attendance remained consistent.
Shanelle doesn’t remember how she first learned about Illinois Action for Children’s (IAFC’s) North Lawndale Community Connections program.
All she remembers is that when she did seek support, the team connected her with a lifeline of resources—from bus cards to help them get to and from school, to assistance purchasing uniforms for her children, to therapy.
Through the program’s case management and wraparound services, IAFC case workers even assisted Shanelle in securing new housing and furniture. In fact, she recently moved into an apartment of her own. She is grateful to be close enough to walk Dorian to school every day and maintain her work as a CNA in a nursing home. As she and her family continue to rebuild, Shanelle hopes to eventually go back to school and earn her nursing degree.
“Dorian is in first grade now,” Shanelle says proudly. “And he’s an honor roll student.”
North Lawndale Community Connections is one of a handful of community impact programs IAFC has developed, recognizing that in order to adequately care for children, we must care for families. This means understanding their goals and helping them achieve the stability they want and need. Likewise, creating a strong foundation for young learners means leveraging a variety of supports, based on each child and family’s situation—working together with schools, other families, and community partners.
Children who struggle to attend school due to instability at home not only miss out on valuable education, but they may also experience consequences that affect their ability to learn and overall well-being throughout life. In addition to addressing emerging needs like Shanelle’s, IAFC’s North Lawndale initiatives focus on combatting chronic absenteeism, bridging the literacy gap for students in the community by third grade, and equipping parents and caregivers with the knowledge and tools they need to support their children’s academic and social development.
When life is hard, every act of kindness becomes all the more meaningful. When you give a gift to IAFC, you help families build resilience in the face of adversity, so children like Dorian can achieve their full potential.
Give today and celebrate 55 years of championing children and changing lives!
