On June 30th, I visited LSSI’s Sterling Addiction Center, Sterling Group Home, and the Nachusa Lutheran Home campus, and I could not be more grateful to have the day trip that brought a lot of perspective to what I have been writing about. It would be no surprise to anyone that non-profit organizations can struggle, even in the simplest ways. But when you start to see these struggles in application, it really changes what you thought you knew. On July 14th, I visited Bethel Christian Church in south Chicago, delivering new and exciting books for LSSI’s Visits to Mom program where families of incarcerated women are taken on a 3 hour drive to their moms, friends, and daughters. I talked to the main coordinator and he opened up about his passion for the job, staying connected with the community, and being excited to push his innovative ideas further. Something that […]

I was given a tour of a normal looking office building, with tall grey cubicles and sounds of fingers steadily typing in the distance. With the pandemic, only a handful of employees are actually in the office. My lovely supervisor brings me around, introducing me, and I try not to show my nervousness. Amongst the chaos of this year, this is the most new people I have met in a really long time. At one point, I say thank you to someone after introducing myself, and I think about it for the next few days hoping she doesn’t remember how awkward I was. I have to remind myself this is part of the process, and it is okay.  At this point in my experience, I have been with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) for three-ish full weeks, but it feels so much longer. I have the mission statement stuck […]