Category: Frontline Heroes

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, one Chicago area community was treated to something else equally contagious: altruism. Days before Christmas, local resident Cassie Greenhill brought holiday cheer to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the Shady Oaks campus of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) in the simple but meaningful form of holiday cards.

For more than 150 years, LSSI has brought healing, justice and wholeness to people in its community. Cassie extended the work of LSSI in supporting her community when she began calling for holiday card donations in 2019. What started as a mission to receive 500 cards ending up morphing into double that amount. “I’m literally shaking having this much attention to something so small,” Cassie said in a local television news interview.

Cassie, who has autism, did so by tapping into her network for support, including students at her former high school. The Sophomore Student Council at Oak Forest High School worked together on the 1,000 cards. The cards were personalized for each recipient at the LSSI campus. LSSI officials said the residents at Shady Oaks enjoy reading the cards and having them read to them.

LSSI is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a nonprofit that harnesses a nationwide network of 300 health and human services organizations to change lives in communities across America. Together, the network works with one in 50 people in America each year.

Learn more about Lutheran Social Services of Illinois.

A joint project between Lutheran Senior Services (LSS) communities Meridian Village and Dunn Road Manor is providing a little comfort to people experiencing need. Residents from Meridian Village, located in Glen Carbon, Illinois, visited Dunn Road Manor, an LSS Affordable Housing community in Florissant, Missouri, to teach their craft group how to crochet plastic mats from plastic shopping bags for people experiencing homelessness.

These mats will be donated to groups who work with people experiencing homelessness throughout the greater St. Louis area: Supportive Services for Veterans with Chestnut Health Systems in Belleville, Illinois; All Among Us in Ferguson, Missouri; and Churches on the Street in St. Louis and Madison County, Illinois. The mats are soft, can be washed off and dry rather quickly.

“We took plastic bags, scissors, crochet hooks and other items we needed to do this project,” explained Jeannie Artimisi, lifestyle enrichment coordinator at Meridian Village. “We got to Dunn Road Manor and the ladies started showing them how to make ‘plarn’ — plastic yarn — from plastic bags and we worked together. We had a great time!”

At Meridian Village, they’ve been crocheting, assembling and donating these mats for several years and were excited to share the project with another LSS community. Charlotte Gougeon, a resident at Meridian Village, has been involved in this project since it started and has lost track of the multitude of  mats they’ve made and donated.

“When we started this project here, one of the ladies asked me how long we are going to make mats,” said Gougeon. “And I said, ‘How long is forever?’”

There is a process for making these mats, so a lot of hands are needed. When the group gets together at Meridian Village, several people prepare the plastic bags and wind up the plarn, several crochet the mats and another attaches handles to the mats so they can be carried like a backpack.

“Projects like this are very fulfilling and they show kindness, love, caring — all represent part of LSS’ Christian Mission of Older Adults Living Life to the Fullest,” said Artimisi. “LSS residents are just wonderful. They really care about helping others.”

The latest donation consisted of 25 mats and an assortment of personal products the residents collected for the shelters.

“It’s important to me because I like to give back to the community,” added Gougeon, who is involved in a number of activities both through Meridian Village and her church. “This a good thing to do; it helps with two issues — ecology and homelessness.”

These aren’t the only communities doing good. Check out these other altruistic projects from LSS communities:

• Residents at Concordia Village, an LSS Life Plan Community located in Springfield, Illinois, crocheted more than 120 infant hats for the HSHS St. John’s Hospital newborn intensive care unit.
• In Richmond Heights, Missouri, residents of the LSS assisted living community Richmond Terrace made bracelets for a local hospital to include in infant bereavement gifts.
• Residents at Heisinger Bluffs, an LSS Life Plan Community in Jefferson City, Missouri, sewed pillows for children at the Special Learning Center, which provides comprehensive, early intervention services for children with developmental delays and disabilities.
• Independent Living residents at Mason Pointe, an LSS Life Plan Community in Town and Country, Missouri, made clothing protectors and walker bags for their fellow residents in assisted living and long-term care.

These projects not only help LSS residents to live their lives to the fullest, but by giving back, LSS residents are also helping others do the same.

Lutheran Senior Services (LSS) is a mission-driven, not-for-profit network that specializes in housing, care and supportive services for older adults 62+. With 19 locations in Missouri and Illinois, LSS supports more than 13,000 seniors a year through options that include senior living communities offering all levels of living, affordable housing for those with limited incomes and home- & community-based services. LSS builds upon more than 160 years of excellence in living out its Christian Mission of Older Adults Living Life to the Fullest.

Lutheran Senior Services is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a national network of 300 Lutheran health and human services organizations that works with one in 50 people in America each year.

Learn more about Lutheran Senior Services.

Over the past week, the world has watched in shock as the crisis in Ukraine unfolds. The United Nations estimates there are now nearly 700,000 Ukrainians who have been displaced by the conflict, a number that is expected to continue rising. Here in the United States, Lutheran Services in America members are focused on supporting Ukrainians who seek refuge in America.

Lutheran Community Services Northwest in Tacoma, Washington, is reaching out to the local community to assist newly arrived families from Ukraine. The organization’s Refugee Response program is active in communicating to donors the items that asylum seekers will need, such as bedding, clothing, and even diapers.

The Russian invasion has weighed heavily on the LCS Northwest team. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is on all of our minds. We have several team members who are formerly from Ukraine and Russia. Over the years, we have resettled thousands of Ukrainian refugees here in the Pacific Northwest – more than 2,100 over the last five years, in Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver,” wrote David Duea, LCS Northwest president and CEO, in a recent Facebook post. “Our call, locally, is to show compassion to all . . . It is also our mission to continue welcoming those who face repression in foreign lands. We expect to receive more Ukrainian refugees over the coming months and years.”

As with its support of Afghan refugees, LCS Northwest reminds us that one of the biggest challenges in assisting newly arrived families is sustaining public attention over the coming weeks and months. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” their team recently wrote.

Lutheran Community Services Northwest is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a nationwide network of 300 health and human services organizations that lifts up one in 50 people in America each year.

Learn more about Lutheran Community Services Northwest and find out how you can support its efforts to change the lives of Ukrainians and other newcomers.

The war in Ukraine has upended more than a million families from their homes. With new arrivals entering the United States every day, our members are working to find new homes for Ukrainian refugees across the country.

Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida is working with officials in the Sunshine State to prepare for a potential surge in new arrivals and ensure they have the resources they need. The LSS team is looking out for changes in protocols for receiving refugees from Ukraine.

“I think with refugee resettlement, [protocols] change all the time,” said Laura Cook, Resettlement Director at LSS, in a recent interview. “Families, even from other countries, are booked, and then they’re unbooked for certain reasons, whether that be illness or whatnot. So for resettlement, it really changes from day to day.”

That uncertainty has not deterred the LSS team. The organization has experience working with Ukrainian refugees prior to the current conflict. Cook said in a second interview that many of these families traveled through the Lautenberg Amendment, a federal resettlement program that was originally designed for religious minorities living in the former Soviet Union and has since been expanded to offer safety for refugees worldwide. “Individuals in the United States can apply for their families and that generally takes two years, so we do receive Ukrainian refugees throughout the year,” Cook said.

LSS’s refugee services provide support to people who have been granted refugee status through the U.S. State Department or the United Nations. The organization maintains a strong network of partners and supporters that has helped welcome refugees to Jacksonville for more than four decades. LSS’s Ukraine efforts come on the heels of its work with our Afghan allies. The organization is expecting 100 Afghan refugees in addition to 275 newcomers from areas experiencing similar circumstances.

Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a nationwide network of 300 health and human services organizations that empowers one in 50 people in America each year.

Learn more about Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida and find out how you can support its efforts to change the lives of refugees from around the world.