Mercy Home for Boys & Girls Continues to be a ‘Village’ for Chicago’s Most Troubled Youth

Guns, drugs and violence are just a few of the many issues currently plaguing children in Humboldt Park -- one of Chicago’s most poverty-stricken communities. Forced to deal with these issues on a daily basis (and at an early age), it comes as no surprise that 27% of young men, and 14% of young women, failed to graduate from Humboldt Park Public Schools in 2020. For many children, deciding to voluntarily move out and change their environment in pursuit of academic success is a major decision. Since the pandemic, it’s one that more and more children in the area have been willing to make on their own.

“All of our kids have reached a point in their lives where they are willing to try something new,” said Mark Schmeltzer, Director of Communications at Mercy Home for Boys & Girls, explaining why some children reach out and ultimately decide to live with them. “Many of our kids have experienced abuse in the household, a lot of our kids come to us from situations where they were not safe [from physical violence], we have a lot of kids who have experienced significant trauma because of what they’ve witnessed [in the streets] … so it's important for us to sort of rebuild that sense of safety for them.”

Located at 1140 W. Jackson Blvd, at its core, Mercy Home is a full-time home for young people who need a safe place to live. Offering therapeutic healing, structured guidance and important life skills that set children up for long-term success, Mercy Home has been a “port in the storm” for at-risk youth and their families for over a century now, serving children 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“You can imagine how difficult it is to do well in school if you are more concerned with mere survival,” said Schmeltzer, reflecting on some of the more prevalent issues in the community. “We have a lot of kids who just stopped going to school before they came to Mercy Home because ‘it’s just not worth [risking their lives to do so]’.

According to Schmeltzer, kids at Mercy Home tend to be around three years behind in most subjects. To help them catch up, Mercy Home places its children in more than 50 schools around the city (including suburbs and private schools) according to each child’s individual needs.

“I think one common misconception is sometimes people think that we are a school,” said Liz Kuhn Tomka, Vice President of Education and Career Resources at Mercy Home. “We’re not. In fact, we partner with schools all around the city, as well as with a lot of other community organizations, to do the work that we do.”

While Tomka is a strong advocate for having quality neighborhood schools in the community, she recognizes there are a lot of differences in neighborhood schools that make it difficult for everyone to be on an “equal playing field.” At Mercy Home, they do their best to make up for that discrepancy.

“All of our youth [no matter how they are doing] participate in structured study time,” said Tomka, explaining a typical school night at Mercy Home. “We have volunteer tutors, as well as paid teacher tutors, who work with our youth on [their] homework.”

In addition to academic tasks, children at Mercy Home are expected to do a wide variety of chores ranging from helping with dinner and taking the trash out, to cleaning their rooms and doing laundry.

“All that structure you might remember from when you were a kid is something a lot of these kids never had,” said Schmeltzer, explaining Mercy Home’s unique approach. “[From what I’ve seen], having that structure is comforting to a young person, even if they may not express it.”

“[In my opinion], the most important part is relationships,” said Emily Neal, Vice President of Organizational Development at Mercy Home. “We focus on relationships here, especially in our work with kids… because if you can't connect and build a trusting relationship with the kids, they'll never be able to trust you enough to let you support them.”

According to recent reports on their website, Schmeltzer, Tomka and Neal have done a tremendous job of establishing trust with their students. Last year, 100% of their high school seniors graduated, over 2,400 therapy sessions were provided to kids and their families and 95% of youth living with them advanced to the next grade – a significant improvement from scholastic reports issued by To & Through Community Milestones in 2020.

“We have youth who are looking to make positive changes, they are the ones doing the hard work,” said Tomka, reflecting on Mercy Home’s recent success. While Neal doesn’t know if children will ever be able to truly overcome what happened to them, she’s hopeful they will at least learn how to put their experiences into perspective.

“When you read some of the stories of the kids that come here, it can really be tough to see. You ask yourself ‘Where's the light at the end of the tunnel?’ But what we've learned over time is that humans harm each other, but they also heal each other. There's so much hope and possibility in just having one solid adult who thinks you're wonderful and is there to help you… at Mercy Home, we have a whole team of those people.”

While it’s difficult to involve parents at times (many of whom are still stuck in bad environments), as Neal pointed out, this is an intergenerational issue. For that reason, “It’s important we have empathy for parents and remain connected with them, because they often have a lot of answers… they just need help directing them.”

In all honesty, many of the issues affecting children in Humboldt Park (and Mercy Home’s ability to address them) suggest something we knew all along – academic success and environment are linked. As any of Mercy Home’s dedicated staff members would be more than willing to tell you, it truly takes a village to raise a child. Fortunately, for many children in the area, Mercy Home is that village.