2017 Annual Report: The O-School

Nurture/Engage/Inspire >

More than a school or treatment center, the O-School is an immersive community of care that embraces vulnerable students and their families. For over 100 years, it has provided a safe haven and a path to hope for bright children with profound social-emotional challenges or who are on the autism spectrum.

Dear Friends,

2017 marks an important year in the O-School’s history. While the O-School has long been a protected safe haven for vulnerable students, the O-School is, at the same time, a transitional program.

Even though the work is intensive and the changes do not occur overnight, the ultimate goal is to ensure that students transition successfully back home to their families or on to college and careers.

For this reason, since moving into our new building in 2014, the O-School has committed to increasing student and community engagement across every aspect of its program. It is now more common than ever to see O-School students engaged in communitybased educational and employment opportunities around Chicago, proudly working within a team and representing the School.

In this, our 2017 Annual Report, we highlight some of the ways in which we have begun to embed these community-based experiences within the therapeutic school culture to deepen connections with the outside world – helping our students stretch and grow into confident, empathic and engaged young adults.

Sincerely, Dr. Diana Kon and Dr. Pete Myers

Nurture/Engage/Inspire > talents

Sharing our Talents with the World

For many students, the Fine Arts Studio at the O-School is the first place they find, or reclaim, their voices and ultimately develop a sense of purpose and confidence. Visual media provides them with a rich language for expressing difficult emotions and experiences, and this language can serve as an important bridge that helps them engage with the world around them.

This spring and fall, the O-School Art Department partnered with our neighbors at the Robust Coffee Lounge to provide our students with the opportunity to exhibit and sell their art in a public space. Robust is a special place for O-School students since it is their favorite neighborhood hangout, making it even more meaningful to see their art exhibited there. The opportunity is open to all O-School students, and to date, over twenty O-School students have exhibited their work and shared their talents with their neighbors and friends in the Woodlawn community.

The New Stage

Through the generosity of a donor, the O-School built an outdoor performance stage this past year. The stage allows professional performers to come share their talents with students, allowing them to enjoy the arts and be inspired by them. For many O-School students, these performances were their first opportunity to enjoy live concerts. This past summer, the line-up included a singer/songwriter pianist, a jazz quartet, and a classical music trio—all of which entertained, educated and spent time with the students after their performances. The stage has also become the home to student/staff talent and open mic shows, allowing members of the O-School community to share their interests and talents with one another.

Nurture/Engage/Inspire > with the world

The Gender Sexuality Alliance

This year, the O-School established its Gender/Sexuality Alliance (GSA). The GSA meets monthly and is open to all students. It was founded based on a Student Council proposal and is meant to provide a safe space for people to learn more about self-expression and identity.

The students prioritized the creation of the GSA because it is their goal that all O-School students, regardless of gender or sexuality, feel safe and respected. The students (and staff) are proud to fight for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community members, and the GSA has become a representation and focal point of that support. Due to initiatives such as the GSA, the O-School has become nationally recognized among therapeutic schools and residential treatment centers as a leader in providing affirming education and care for LGBTQ+ young people.

Refugee One Fundraiser

This year, O-School students held a fundraiser to support Refugee One, a local nonprofit which provides support and case management to refugees as they re-settle in the Chicago area. O-School students have spent so much of their lives looking inward—through therapy and treatment—but it is important that they also look out and understand the power they have to help others and improve the world around them. The students’ interest in, and empathy for, refugees started after learning about the refugee crises in Syria and the Horn of Africa in their classes, and it inspired them to think globally while acting locally by helping those refugees who are re-settling here in Chicago and who are going through a difficult transition of their own.

The Shakespeare Slam

As Seen Through the Eyes of a Mentor

As our students stood, ready to walk up the steps to the stage and perform the first of two scenes in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Shakespeare Slam, the weight of the two and a half months of preparation hung in the air. They were there, in the auditorium of Senn High School, to perform alongside and compete against twelve other Chicago area high schools, and they were confident and excited.

They gave their two best performances on that stage, and the O-School staff members who had worked with them or had come to see their performance will never forget the way that they ran off stage, hugging and high-fiving after their second performance.

Michelle Pegram

The opportunity to participate in the program came from the O-School’s eleven year relationship with Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST). This past summer, an invitation to participate in the Slam came to my inbox, and we ended up with five performers and two peer coaches who spent countless hours preparing.

Throughout, the students ran the show. They had two pieces to prepare—one scene from any Shakespeare play and one original scene using the language from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Together, they wrote a scene that represented the emotional struggle and allure of suicide. During the program, the students demonstrated a strength and tenacity that we don’t always get to see in them. They openly gave and accepted feedback, worked through role auditions, and struggled to memorize lines and understand blocking. They became a team.

Even in their disappointment over not making the finals, they responded with a poise and maturity that was amazing and went, unprompted, to a member of the CST staff to thank them for the experience. This December, they will attend the finals at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and cheer on the teams that will perform, and next semester, they will get to meet and interact with the actors in the CST production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nurture/Engage/Inspire > big dreams

Transition Department 2017

It is not enough for the O-School to educate students or to help heal young people; the goal of the O-School is to prepare its students for happy, productive, and self-sufficient lives, regardless of the social and emotional challenges they face. To ensure that O-School students are provided a platform to learn key competencies that help them navigate life after the O-School, this year the School hired a Director of Transitional Services and Programs to develop a formal transition program. The Transition Department works in tandem with O-School staff and families to provide focused transition planning that is driven by students’ interests, preferences and needs in conjunction with their skills and abilities.

Meet Our New Director:

Carmen Roberts, Ed.D.

Carmen brings more than 20 years of experience working with youth in both the public and charter school sectors. She began her career as a case manager before becoming a high school guidance counselor. Most recently, Carmen was a public school administrator overseeing the Special Education, Guidance Counseling, Social Work, Truancy, and Student Engagement departments.

Carmen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Guidance & Counseling from Tennessee State University.

In 2010, she earned her Doctorate in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

The O-School recognized that these services should begin as early as possible and gradually increase over time as students progress through the program.

To this end, the O-School Transition Roadmap was introduced and rolled out in the fall of 2017. The Roadmap consists of structured lessons and activities centered around three central themes: Self-Advocacy & Self-Determination; Postsecondary Pathway Planning & Career Development; and Employment & Independent Living Skills.

The program was integrated into the School’s curriculum, and dedicated time is allotted monthly, both during the school day and in the dormitories, for staff to conduct lessons and activities around the respective theme at every grade level.

As parental involvement is vital to transition planning, the Transition Department also helped launch the The Winding Path Ahead Transition Series in collaboration with Urban Autism Solutions. The series, which is open to all, seeks to better equip parents to make important decisions as they plan for their child’s eventual transition. The topics covered this fall were:

Vocational Rehabilitation Services Offered through The Department of Human Services; and Guardianship & Special Needs Trusts.

Currently, the Transition Department is in the process of developing partnerships with a host of local and national service providers—such as postsecondary programs and community organizations—that can help students plug into the broader community and achieve their transition goals. For example, through the Marriott Foundation’s Bridges from School to Work Program, O-School graduates currently receive support preparing for the world of work. The range of services offered include weekly career readiness groups as well as job search and retention assistance.

Expansion of the Student Work Program (SWP)

For the past ten years, the SWP has functioned as an internal program, employing over 70% of the student body in school-based jobs. With twenty different positions, these jobs are open to students of any age level and ability. In addition to increasing their vocational skills, students in the SWP experience benefits such as increased confidence and independence, the ability to take meaningful risks and to socialize with more self-assurance, and an understanding of what it takes to make it in a “real” world job.

Unfortunately, the O-School never had a real world job to offer until this year. At a time when unemployment for those with severe mental health challenges is at 45%, the School began actively looking for corporate and business partners that would help give its students that first opportunity. Thankfully, this past year, the O-School was able to find two wonderful partners in Bargains in a Box (a retail store chain in the Chicagoland area who recently received the O-School’s Corporate Mentor of the Year award) and Daley’s Diner (a local restaurant in Woodlawn).

During the past year, the O-School has had students working and training with both businesses – proving that they are fully capable of transferring skills learned in the O-School to their lives outside of the School. These opportunities are invaluable and have immense impact on the students’ confidence, vocational growth, and future independence.

Partnership with Canon Copiers

This year, the O-School began an exciting partnership with Canon Copiers. Not only did we welcome “the Beast”—an industrial grade printer—into the art room, but Canon also worked closely with O-School staff and students to create a four-part training program for our students to learn how to operate and maintain the Beast. These trainings not only allowed us to maximize the benefit gained from the new printer, but they also armed our students with a marketable job skill that could readily translate to a competitive paying job in the community.

Anthony and Tom, two of our talented Bargains in a Box employees

Thank You

Founder’s Society

(10K and above)

Tom Wallace Lyons Brian and Samantha Rubin

Settimicielo LLC

James and Joanne Steinback

Leadership Circle (5K to 9999K)

Vic and Marilee Conant Philip and Tammy Gianfortune Brian and Janet Hoffman

Jeff and Sara Hoffmann

Beatrice Mayer Scott McDonald and Susan Ford Pete Myers and Patrick Wojtak

The Riley Family Foundation Fund Adam Steinback and Amy Troob

Friends of the O-School (4999K and below)

Jacob and Jodi Abudarham Albany Bank and Trust Company AmazonSmile Foundation

Mahesh Ananth and Rekha Murthy Per Andersson Anonymous Arthur Hill & Co. LLC Lynne Austin Badesch Abramovitch Attorneys at Law Lauren Berebitsky

James McClure III and Carlyn Berghoff Valerie Blaine

Laneen Blount

BP Foundation, Inc. John and Paula Brien Bettine Brusca

Jed and Natalia Buchanan Canon Solutions America

La Guina Clay-Herron Ted Cornell and Nancy Schwartz Michael Craven

Maura Crisham Michael and Suzanne Davis Michael and Jennifer Denton Storrs Downey Brian and Andra Duncan Fredrick and Jean Durler David and Teresa Exner Chris and Kim Ferraro John Finnegan and Melanie Fairman

Dr. and Mrs. Paul Florsheim Benjamin and Wendy Frank

James Freeman

Robert Druzinsky and Renee Friedman

Irwin and Adrienne Friedman

Jonathan and Kristin Friesen Paula Frits

Phillip and Sharon Fuhrer

John and Gail Gannon Charles and Shanna Garcia Robert and Linda Gardner Mark Golden and Laura Moehlman Stephen and Linda Goranson Robert and Kathy Gotter Stuart and Diane Grauer Theresa Gregoire and Masaya Yoshida Tim and Brianna Hammerly Milton Harris and Abigail Sivan William Hayden and Carolyn Belke Nina Helstein Cathy Hollingsworth Beth Hovey

Nick and Joanna Huggett Barbara Huston

Inside Family Counseling, LLC Timothy Isaacson Robert F. Isaacson Richard and Karen Jacobsen Douglas and Kristen Johnson Julie and Michael Tracy Family Foundation

Linda Jurczyk Esther Steinback Kane Jerald and Jane Katch Tamara Kenny Gary Mandell and Diana Kon Beth Kon Kovler Family Foundation

Jay Kozie

Andreas Kronfeld

Laner Munchin Charles Larson Gary Lauder Law Offices of Steven E. Glink Michael and Kerry Leaf John Leen Harold Loewenthal Peter and Sally Madden Tina Man-Gitlitz Karen L. Mansfield Patrick and Jane Marcoux Steve and Veronique Markscheid Terry and Rose Marie McBride Mary McBride

John and Donna McCarthy Thomas McCarthy

Michael McCluggage

John and Jean Meister

Mark Melickian and Erin Collin

Larry and Barbara Mermelstein Jared and Penny Mesenbrink Nick and Barb Miles Andrew Miller and Marya Morris

Morton Abelson Foundation

Mary Ellen Nelligan

Alexandra Nikitina

Jeffrey Nimz

Geri Nozicka

James Nyeste and Marla Hand

Paul O’ Connor

Olivia Bea Ross Foundation

Thomas Parkinson Leslie and Darlene Pearson

John Perkins

Jennifer Pierce

Kathryne L. Pirtle Rose Ann Ragusca Mark and Nancy Ratner

Lenny and Gina Reilly Robert and Shelly Reisch Michael and Monica Rhodes

Joann Rist

William and Sharon Rossi Craig and Mary Ruble Amanda Lynn Schindalga Myron and Beverly Shapiro Howard and Theresa Shimmel Howard and Abby Simon Jerry Sklar Stuart and Michelle Stern Timothy and Jennifer Stratman David and Margaret Straughn Rich and Anna Teerlink

John Tracy

UBS

Ken and Diana Uchiyama Ramesh and Sajil Unni Hector and Norma Valles Kevin and Mindy Wade Jack Wallace

Blaken and Heather Wamsley Matthew and Lisa Wegner

Barbara Weiner Megan Wells Hague Williams

Warren and Kathy Wimmer

Joanne Wise

William and Donna Wittert

WPO Chicago Chapter, Inc. Judith E Yasunaga

Bryan and Aberlynn Zeigler

Luis and Regina Zervigon

Nurture/Engage/Inspire > big dreams

For everyone who becomes a part of the O-School—whether staff or student—the emphasis on individualized care, the healing impact of human relationships, and the cultivation of innate strengths and talents becomes a bedrock for future success. Here are some of their stories.

Captain Webb (Alumni)

Captain Webb of the U.S. Army attended the O-School from 1993 to 1998. Before he became a commissioned officer, he was a Combat Medic. Although Captain Webb came from a family where many did not graduate high school, he received his MBA at Robert Morris University in Chicago. His time at the O-School gave him stability and an understanding that he can accomplish his goals while having a learning disability. To be a good commander, one has to be great at communication and understanding, and the O-School prepared him to work with people of diverse backgrounds. It also showed him the power of his words and how they can affect people negatively or positively. The greatest thing he gained from his five years at the School is the relationships he formed with the students and staff so that, before he even stepped foot in the Army, he already understood the meaning of “Brotherhood.”

Jim Grabowski (Alumni Staff)

Jim was a dormitory counselor at the O-School from 1993 to 1997. There he learned how to use clinical understanding and compassion to heal. Today, Jim serves on the faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work and the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training program at the Institute for Psychoanalysis. In addition to teaching, he supervises therapists working with children and families. Jim also trains advanced graduate students in psychology and counseling at the Kedzie Center, a community mental health center. Every day, Jim makes use of the foundational training he received at the O-School and considers it to be the best training for a newcomer to the field.

Jennifer Bailey (Alumni Staff)

Jennifer worked at the O-School from 2010 to 2015. During her time at the O-School, she had many roles, including intern, Summer Fun staff, Starz residential counselor, Starz dorm manager and the Transitional Living Center dorm manager. At the O-School, she learned various clinical skills, including planning and running group therapy and family sessions. She also learned the power that a nurturing and safe milieu has on the individual. After leaving the O-School in July of 2015, she moved to Virginia and works as a therapist at The Little Keswick School, a therapeutic boarding school for boys. She now applies the lessons learned at the O-School to provide group, individual and family therapy to a new set of students and their families.

Expenditures

Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School Statement of Financial Position (as of June 30, 2017)

Assets Liabilities and Net Assets Cash & Equivalents $613,255 Accounts Payable $109,929 Accounts Recivable $1,643,763 Prepaid Student Revenues $80,984 Intercompany Due (to/from) $771,363 Total Liabilities $190,913 Prepaid Expenses $42,977

Property & Equipment - Net $158,576 Unrestricted Net Assets $2,996,797

Temporarily Restricted $42,224

Permanently Restricted $0 Total Net Assets $3,039,021

Total Assets $3,229,934 Total Liabilities and Net Assets $3,229,934

The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School is part of the Leslie Shankman School Corp, a 501(c)3, which operates the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School and its sister school. The Foundation for the Educational Development of Children, a 501(c)3, includes investments, building and land, and its sole purpose is to support the Leslie Shankman School Corporation.

Leslie Shankman School Corporation Consolidated, Including the Foundation for the Educational Development of Children Statement of Financial Position (as of June 30, 2017)

Assets Liabilities and Net Assets Cash and Equivalents $17,762,257 Accounts Payable $133,632 Accounts Receivables $1,791,402 Accrued Expenses $541,783 Accrued Interest Receivable $150,415 Accrued Interest & Asset Management Fees $182,445 Pledges Receivables $185,000 Prepaid Student Revenues $573,869 Prepaid Expenses $99,236 Loan Payable* $709,846 Property & Equipment-Net $28,631,427 Term Loan Payable $8,063,000 Loan Receivable $20,628,320 Loan Payable QLICI (NMTC Transaction) $28,286,000 Deposits $57,900 Total Liabilities $38,490,575 Loan Fees, Net of Accumulated Amortization $683,635

Unrestricted Net Assets $17,691,092

Temporarily Restricted $1,595,466 Permanently Restricted $12,212,459 Total Net Assets $31,499,017

Total Assets $69,989,592 Total Liabilities & Net Assets $69,989,592

to a generous donation this loan was paid in full in October 2017

Thank you for your friendship and support.

By investing in our programs, you give our students a safe haven and a path to hope.

To make a gift to the O-School, please visit our website at www.oschool.org or use the enclosed envelope to send a check.

We are truly grateful to each of you for all that you have made possible this past year.

Ingleside Avenue