Lasallian Volunteers serve as teachers, coordinators of after-school and evening activities, and coordinators of support programs for graduates Alex Downes-Borowski, 2nd year LV, (7th grade teacher’s assistant, after-school coordinator), Kate Coulouras (6th grade teacher’s assistant and after school staff)
The San Miguel School is a community of compassion that provides an innovative, Lasallian middle school for low income, at-risk students in one of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The school seeks to provide an education that liberates and empowers children and families emotionally, psychologically, socially, academically, and spirituality, so that they are able to break out of the cycle of poverty, gangs, and violence.
The primarily Hispanic neighborhood faces many challenges: 80% of adults over age 25 do not have a high school diploma or equivalency; 44% do not have a ninth grade education; the median household income is nearly half the national average; 85% of the children come from low-income families, qualifying for free or reduced lunch; most children entering San Miguel in sixth grade read at a second or third grade level; children walk with fear on the streets and cannot cross certain blocks because of gang boundaries.
Lasallian Volunteers serve San Miguel as co-teachers and teachers’ aides, coordinators of after-school and evening activities, and providers of other supplemental services Kiera Maguire, 2nd year LV, (8th grade language arts teacher, girls basketball coach), Amelia Lewis (5th-8th grades for reading and math
teachers’ assistant) and Jenn Hart, 2nd year LV, (graduate support program staff)
San Miguel, Comer Campus is located on the West Side of Chicago in the Austin neighborhood, which is one of the poorest in the city. The local public schools have some of the worst academic records in the city. San Miguel deliberately serves educationally and economically disadvantaged children who live in Austin. 95% of the students come from low-income families. African Americans make up 90% of the school community, with the remainder being Anglo and Latino families. The average parent in the area has less than a ninth grade education. Most of the children entering San Miguel in the fifth grade read at a second grade level.
There are no volunteers currently serving at Su Casa.
Taking up residence in a century old house in the Back of Yards neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, the Su Casa Catholic Worker began as a shelter for refugees of Central-American civil war. Today, they take in Spanish-speaking homeless families of Chicago, many of whom are women and children escaping domestic violence. Su Casa accommodates an average of five families at a time, each one able to stay for up to a year from their move-in. The workers in the house commit to various kinds of volunteerism for various amounts of time, bringing new energy and ideas to the house. Currently the Community has nine workers living in the house (six full-time live-ins and three resident volunteers) and five guest-families (three moms and six children). Su Casa works to restore and liberate the humanity of the whole Community.
The Su Casa ministry is three fold. We provide hospitality and a healing environment for displaced Hispanic people who are poor, homeless, and oppressed. We partner with our neighbors to make our community a better place to live. We engage in educational and social action activities concerning social justice issues related to our ministry. Volunteers coordinate house duties in the following areas: house management and hospitality, newsletter, social justice, volunteer coordinator, house activities, food service, and maintenance work.
