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Formerly St. Martin de Porres House of Hope - A Supportive Community for Women in Recovery Since 1983
Antoinette Gonzales Kern has been a longtime volunteer of Southside Center of Hope (SSCOH) formally known as Saint Martin De Porres House of Hope. “I will always know it as St. Martin” Antoinette said. How did you begin volunteering at SSCOH? I have been in the hospitality business for decades. I met the founders of […]
Jackie Edens has devoted her career to helping Chicago’s homeless and disadvantaged. She started working for the city as a Mobile Crisis Intervention Worker in 1975, when the city relied exclusively on nonprofit organizations to aid the homeless. The police department assigned her to work on social service-related cases. Jackie met Sr. Connie in her […]
Carol Cronin’s family foundation has been supporting St. Martin de Porres House of Hope for more than 20 years. “My sister Hannah first heard Sister Connie speak to a group of women in Northbrook about 1985. She made a contribution and still has the thank you note signed by Sister Therese. When our family started a […]
Gloria Gleave started her career as a computer programmer in the early 1970s and ended it as a certified Project Manager. In the late 1980s, she met Sister Connie Driscoll at a Women in Management event in Chicago. She was impressed with the work St Martin de Porres House of Hope was doing in Woodlawn. In 1995, […]
Father Tom grew up in the Marquette Park area on Chicago’s South Side, a graduate of St. Rita of Cascia High School. Ordained in the Augustinian Order, he returned to St. Rita, where he worked first as school chaplain, then as president, president/principal and finally as chairman of the board. “I couldn’t imagine 21 happier […]
Sandy and Brian Kraimer met while attending college in Wisconsin, got married and moved to Chicago for work. Sandy thought the move would be temporary. That was almost 30 years ago. The Kraimers remained in Chicagoland where Sandy, president of the board of Harmony Hope & Healing, works to make it a better place for […]
Walk into the doors of St. Martin de Porres House of Hope, and the first room you will come to has walls painted a vivid red. Sunlight streams through the windows. Comfortable chairs and couches, a piano, and bookcases adorn the room. To the side are desks full of computers. This is the Marin Room, […]
There I was, in my mid-20s, living in the attic of a homeless shelter with 60 women and about 70 of their children,” John Driscoll says with a smile. Today John is senior vice president in charge of recovery services with Hazelden Betty Ford, overseeing a staff of 900 and 17 treatment centers nationwide that […]
Douglas MacLeod was reading the obituary section in the Chicago Tribune when he came across the story of a woman who had recently passed away following a fascinating life. He was intrigued by the woman, who had been a sergeant in the Army, a businesswoman, earned a law degree, and served as a nun, founding […]
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Owens is the founder of Cara Chicago, a nonprofit workforce development agency and social enterprise that helps people affected by poverty get and keep quality jobs. Since its inception in 1991, Cara has helped more than 6,000 women and men find employment, hope and self-esteem for themselves and their families. Before […]