Partnerships
Northern Illinois University
NIU has been in partnership with Altus Academy since our inception. NIU has provided Altus Academy founders (many of them NIU alumni) with help in constructing the Altus educational model, helped our educators with valuable teacher training preparation and ongoing professional development and curriculum support, and our students and families with ongoing opportunities for college trajectory project activities with various departments throughout the university, from the College of Education, to the Department of Engineering to the University Libraries. Lisa Freeman, president of NIU is a member of the Board of Directors of Altus Academy and Laurie Elish-Piper, Dean of the NIU College of Education is on the Altus Academy Board of Advisors.
University of Illinois Chicago, College of Applied Health Sciences
Altus and UIC have partnered together to create a health and wellness academy at Altus Academy. UIC staff and students visit Altus Academy once a week to facilitate a program that teaches both nutrition and physical wellness. Altus students are taught recipes that are healthy alternatives to meals and snacks they already enjoy. Altus and UIC students prepare meals for the entire school and engage in healthy physical activities. Once a month, we jointly host a family dinner at Altus where students present foods and recipes they have learned throughout the month. We are currently exploring ways to work together to address the broader health and wellness needs of our students, families and community.
University of Illinois Chicago, College of Nursing
In an effort to address the health and wellness barriers experienced by students attending Altus Academy and their families, Altus Academy and the University of Illinois at Chicago has teamed up on a new, on-site health clinic.
The clinic, which is collaboratively run by the department of physical therapy in College of Applied Health Sciences and College of Nursing, is located in recently renovated space at Altus, offers appointment access to a nurse practitioner for eight hours a week and wellness classes. The clinic also provides behavioral and mental health support.
United Stand
United Stand, a Catholic not-for-profit agency in Chicago, affiliated with the Felician Sisters of North America, was created in 1987 in response to a need for counseling services at the former St. Joseph High School in the Back of the Yards area. Felician Sister Kim Mis, who was pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology, was enrolled in a Community Counseling course that required the writing of a grant proposal. Never content with doing things that do not benefit someone, she and Mary Lou Cragg, St. Joseph High School’s development director, decided to use the course requirement to found an agency that would stand with Chicago youth, whose everyday journeys included unpredictable encounters with stress, conflict, and violence.The proposal was submitted to Reverend James Close, who was then the superintendent of Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, which helped support preventative outreach to youth in Chicago Communities. Father Close’s awarding of this grant for counseling at St. Joseph High School gave United Stand its beginning.