ForestParkReview_080917

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GROWING COMMUNITY WEDNESDAY JOURNAL, INC.

Vol. 100, No. 32

$1.00

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS

F O R E S T PA R K

REVIEW AUGUST 9, 2017

Rec Center on track PAGE 8

D91 to open as planned PAGE 6

@FP_Review @ForestParkReview

Meet Cholonda Allen, emergency mom It takes ‘a lot of time and a lot of patience’ By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter

Forest Park resident Cholonda Allen has been a foster mom for 50 children since she began doing the work in 2006. Since June of last year, she has been in a special program called Emergency Homes in which she parents older children on what is supposed to be a short-term basis until permanent homes can be found for them. Allen’s niche in DCFS (Dept. of Children and Family Services) is working with kids with more needs than the average foster child. “Mine is a specialized foster home,” she explained. “The kids they place with me have behavioral issues and of of-

ten act out because that was the way of life in the home they were growing up in, and they have to be re-parented.” Allen teaches her foster kids that they do not have to be defined by the pain in their past. She tells them they have to “honor and respect” the pain but don’t get stuck in it because then they are doing it to themselves. “They can’t keep saying, ‘This happened, this happened, this happened,” she said. “A lot of what’s wrong now is that a lot of people are stuck in their pain, and they don’t know how to remove themselves from it and do something positive with it. I tell them that from this point on it’s up to them.” See FOSTER MOM on page 4

STEPPING UP: Forest Parker Cholonda Allen has fostered 50 children since 2006. WILLIAM CAMARGO/Contributing Photographer

D209 creates parent coordinator positions New hires will focus on “empowering” community, parents

By THOMAS VOGEL Staff Reporter

The Proviso District 209 Board of Education approved the hiring of two new “parent coordinator” positions, at its

June 13 meeting. Eva Kardaras and Delinda Hyde, each with a one-year contract for $46,000, started work July 15. The pair is tasked with running the district’s two new parent centers — information clearinghouses and community-resource hubs —

IN Big Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 THIS Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 ISSUE Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

meant to further the district’s goal of building relationships with outside partners and Proviso residents. The centers, one at Proviso East and West, will be open during regular See PROVISO on page 5

John Rice on Culture Park

Identity thefts hit home

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