Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
In today’s newsletter, we’re looking at a coffee roaster that offers part-time work to adults living with developmental disabilities — a program going strong for nearly 15 years.
We’ve also got reporting on living conditions inside Chicago shelters housing migrants, a story about a grandmother and her granddaughter getting matching tattoos to honor their bond and more community news you need to know before you start your weekend.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Coffee roaster’s partnership creates job opportunities for adults with disabilities
Reporting by David Struett
Brewing connections: Coffee roasting is big business for Metropolis Coffee Co., the largest speciality roaster in Illinois. The work is done mostly by hand — giving the Avondale-based company the chance to provide jobs to adults with developmental disabilities. For nearly 15 years, the Aspire CoffeeWorks program at Metropolis has offered part-time work to adults with disabilities through the Hillside-based nonprofit, Aspire.
A model for other businesses: The partnership isn’t just a great way to provide paid work for the program’s employees, managers say. It’s also a way to show businesses can succeed by employing people of all abilities, said Katie Filippini, director of Aspire CoffeeWorks. About 78% of adults with disabilities were unemployed last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The grind: Aspire CoffeeWorks provides jobs to five adults at the Metropolis roastery in an industrial area not far from the Chicago River. The Aspire workers weigh beans, apply labels and seal bags near where the beans are roasted by Metropolis’ full-time employees, who churn out more than a million pounds of coffee a year. When Aspire employees aren’t working at the roastery, they’re on sales calls as “brand ambassadors” or attending career training at Aspire’s headquarters in Hillside.
Key quote: “It’s not just about jobs for people with disabilities,” Filippini said, “it’s the whole workplace, the whole environment is really richer and better and stronger when everyone’s working together.”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Migrants allege mistreatment by shelter staff: Nearly 250 grievances have been lodged by migrants living in Chicago shelters, according to records obtained by WBEZ. Most complaints cite hostile treatment by the staff of the Kansas-based company the city hired to run the shelters, in addition to racism, bad food and a lack of cleanliness.
- Brookfield Zoo making changes: Ninety-year-old Brookfield Zoo is looking toward its next decade with a slew of new strategies, including a $66 million tropical exhibit, a renewed emphasis on conservation and a name change — Brookfield Zoo Chicago.
- DeJong’s fresh start: Shortstop Paul DeJong looked forward to a clean slate, a fresh environment and a new team when he signed with the White Sox for $1.75 million in November. Two weeks into spring training, he’s getting what he wanted.
- How do Hawks goalies stay focused? When the puck is in the offensive zone and they have nothing to do, Arvid Soderblom and Petr Mrazek have their own techniques to stay focused and prevent their thoughts from wandering. For Soderblom, that means having conversations with himself, Ben Pope writes.
- 4 stars for ‘Message in a Bottle’: Director-choreographer Kate Prince uses everything from break dancing to ballet to tell the story of a family forced into a perilous journey, writes Catey Sullivan in a review for the Sun-Times.
WEEKEND PLANS 🎉
🍽️ North Side Restaurant Week
Friday through March 15
📍Andersonville, Edgewater, Lincoln Square/Ravenswood, North Center, Rogers Park and Uptown
Explore the North Side through the several restaurants offering prix fixe menus.
Admission: Prices vary
👟 B-Series 10th Anniversary Festival
Friday, 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.
📍Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan Ave.
This multiday street dance celebration features workshops, cyphers, panels, screenings, battles and more.
Admission: Free with registration
🗳️ Judicial Guide Launch Party
Saturday, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
📍Haymarket House, 800 W. Buena Ave.
Celebrate the launch of Injustice Watch’s judicial election guide, stop by for a print copy, some brunch, judicial guide-themed cocktails and games.
Admission: Free
🛼 Skate Night
Saturday, 8 p.m.
📍Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St.
Roll with your friends at this event hosted by Chicago’s Myesha McCaskill and the Inspired By Favor crew.
Admission: $25
🐻❄️ Chicago Polar Plunge
Sunday, 10 a.m.
📍North Avenue Beach
The 24th annual event is set to welcome thousands of participants who will take the plunge in support of Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children’s Charities programs.
Admission: All plungers must fundraise a minimum of $200
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Grandmother-granddaughter tattoos, inked at Roscoe Village parlor, honor faith, family
Reporting by Mary Norkol
In 1965, during a college class at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Sherry Thomas sketched a drawing of hands praying — a testament to her steadfast Catholic faith.
She didn’t know it then, but the same drawing would end up framed on a wall in her home for the next 58 years, there to witness a happy marriage with her husband Bob and the upbringing of their three children.
After her husband’s death seven years ago, the praying hands were etched into a memorial stone for him.
Now, they are inked on Thomas’ arm in tattoo form, body art that matches her granddaughter’s.
Abby Johnson, 20, pitched the idea to her grandmother last fall, as the two are incredibly close. When Johnson suggested a tattoo in honor of their friendship, Thomas says she had “not a moment” of hesitation. She had gotten her first tattoo, a memorial for her husband, when she was 73, and she was ready for another as a nod to her granddaughter.
Johnson had researched tattoo artists and found Juliana Freschi at Family Tattoo in Roscoe Village. Grandmother and granddaughter drove there in January. At 80, Thomas was the oldest person for whom Freschi had done a tattoo.
The tattoo is “an honor to him, too,” Thomas says of her husband. “It’s an homage to his memory and all that he continues to mean to us.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Have you ever worked in a Chicago restaurant? What’s one lesson you learned?
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Editor: Satchel Price
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
Copy editor: Angie Myers
