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Chicago Tribune
15-05-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Waukegan D60 Wraparound Center serving more students, adults; ‘People are responding to the services we're providing'
Open for less than a year, the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60's Wraparound Center continues to grow, with more than a 50% increase since November in helping students and community members with general mental health and other needs. Growing 30% from the time it opened in July until late November, LeBaron Moten, the district's deputy superintendent for operational supports and programs, said that since then, the number of referrals grew from 54 to 116. 'There has been an almost 50% increase in referrals for the Wraparound Center program,' he said. Moten presented an update on the Wraparound Center's operations to the District 60 Board of Education's Operational Services Committee on Tuesday at the Education Service Center in downtown Waukegan, keeping the board up to date on the efforts of the facility. Opening with two service providers in July — A Safe Pace focusing on sexual abuse and domestic violence, and Community Youth Network (CYN) offering mental health social support and social-emotional counseling — a third service, GRO Community, joined in February. GRO provides 'trauma-informed mental health services and behavioral support,' according to information on the district's website referenced by Moten. Bridget Dotson, the director of the center, said GRO focuses more on male students and men. 'Their specialty is developing boys into men,' Dotson said in February. 'They are already known in the community, and they will enable us to enlarge the scope of our work in the community and the scope of the Wraparound Center.' Dotson said after the meeting that approximately 70% of the people receiving services are students in the district's elementary and middle schools, as well as Waukegan High School, while the others are community members. The primary reason is general mental health. Tirzah Norwood-Jones, the Wraparound Center's manager, said she is pleased with the growth, particularly in the last few months, where it has continued to accelerate. 'We are extending our reach,' Norwood-Jones said. 'We're going to keep it up.' Board member Christine Lensing said at the meeting that she and her colleagues should tell all the people they can about the Wraparound Center since it serves residents of the city as well as students in the schools. 'We should be promoting this as much as we can in the community because it's not only for our students, but we have adults that use the services and, from my understanding, things are really going well,' Lensing said. 'People are responding to the services we're providing.' When visiting schools, Lensing said board members, as well as administrators, should talk to school leaders. Collaboration between the schools and the Wraparound Center is part of the overall process of helping students. 'We should make sure we're promoting this,' Lensing said. 'It is a big investment, but it is a big investment because our community needs it.' Operating by appointment only, Dotson said students can refer themselves or a counselor can help them with the process. They can do it online through the district's secure system. Adults can go to a different website and use the QR code, or they can make an appointment over the phone.
Chicago Tribune
24-03-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Waukegan D60 students compete in Future Chefs cookoff; ‘This teaches them life skills'
A favorite meal for Allison Calderon, a Little Fort Elementary School fourth grader in Waukegan, is a fried totra sandwich. She enjoys it to such an extent she asked her mother how to make it. Spending time in the kitchen with her mother, Allison said she learned how to blend the ham, lettuce, torta and more together until she was able to do it herself well enough to enter the 15th-annual Sodexo Future Chefs contest. 'I like them so much,' she said. 'She taught me to use a little salt, and how to put the ham and lettuce on the (torta) bread. We fry it until it's ready. It's so good.' Allison's family fried torta recipe took first place before a four-judge panel in the Future Chef contest for Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 elementary school students Saturday at the Brookside campus of Waukegan High School, sending the dish on to a regional event. Donna Kay, a Sodexo manager, said Allison's fried torta will now be judged based on its recipe and a video of her preparing it in a regional competition between schools in Illinois and Wisconsin. The top regional recipes will compete on the national level. 'I'm going to learn more from my mother and do more cooking,' Allison said, holding her trophy after the awards were presented. 'I'm going to learn to make enchiladas and tacos.' Ervey Sanchez, a John S. Clark Elementary School fourth grader, took second place earning a silver medal with his cheeseburger. Though many of the entries were family recipes passed along over several generations, his effort was personal and original. 'A burger is my favorite food of all time,' Ervey said. 'After eating them at restaurants, I decided to make them myself,' he added, as he pointed to the relishes on the plate. 'My mom and my dad got me interested in doing it myself.' Along with the traditional cheeseburger and relish, Ervey said he adds his homemade sauce. He declined to give the ingredients or explain how he makes it. 'It's my secret,' he said. Natalie Richter, the general manager for Sodexo — District 60's food provider — said though the Future Chefs program is 15 years old, this is the first time it is being done in Waukegan. Sodexo is in its second year of handling the local cafeteria program. Richter said participants this year prepared a main course. It was open to all third, fourth and fifth graders in the district's 15 elementary schools. Participants started by sending a recipe to the company — 20 were submitted — and 10 were selected for Saturday's cookoff. Seven chefs turned out. Preparing their dish with the help of a Sodexo chef in the school's kitchen, Richter said the meals were scored by a four-judge panel on a 33-point scale over seven categories, including originality, ease of preparation, healthy attributes, child-friendliness, taste, appearance and presentation. 'The kids loved it, and so did their families who watched,' Richter said. 'First-place gets gold, second-place silver and everyone else gets bronze.' One of the judges was Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor. She said she was not sure what to expect from the youngsters. Between family recipes originating in Latin America and Ervey's hamburger, she was impressed. 'I was blown away by the taste and the presentation,' she said. 'This teaches them life skills.' Kresteen Buritia learned from her parents how to make Hawaiian pizza with some flavoring from her native Colombia. 'This is tropical,' Kresteen said. 'We sweetened it with flavors from Colombia.' Three of the participants — Joanne Rodriguez-Bravo, Yamileta Diaz and Emanual Martinez — prepared dishes they learned from their grandmothers who came to Waukegan from Mexico. Evelyn Windham got her own ideas for a chicken dish from her mother. Nick Alatzakis, the district's communications and also a judge, said this was the first time such an event was done. It gave the students yet another opportunity to display skills in a family setting. 'It was a great way for students to show their talent and their family recipes,' Alatzakis said. 'We hope to see it grow in the future. It was nice to see the kids working with the Sodexo chefs.'
