Professional Services in Chicago

Olan Mills Inc. provides families with high-quality portraits, continuing a mission that was established more than 75 years ago by founder Olan Mills Sr. Skilled in the art of capturing infants, children, families, and bunny-ears-giving ghost orbs on film, Olan Mills’s experienced smile snappers will take a series of poses amid a variety of backgrounds and lighting options. The studio is equipped with a selection of props—including numbers for birthdays, toys, and boxes—and patrons may bring their own photo-enlivening items from home. The resulting photos find their way to prints in natural color, black and white, or sepia tones; they can also be immortalized in the studio's signature Old Masters style, a canvas brushed with highlights to re-create the look of an oil painting. Like the gentlemanly mariners of ages past with their full schedule of sea battles, the photographers welcome appointments, but do not require them.

Originally founded in 1957, Old Town School of Folk Music teaches and facilitates performances of arts rooted in the traditions of diverse American and global communities. More than 700 accredited music, dance, theater, and visual-arts courses expand the cultural horizons of students of all ages and abilities, and more than 300 concerts and events reach more than 200,000 audience members every year.

Founder Frank Hamilton hoped that through his nonprofit academy "teacher and student would be partners in learning." Today, the school continues that tradition, fostering supportive learning environments that draw from an accessible education model. The school also presents performances by internationally known touring artists and Chicago's local artists—as well as its own staff and students—nearly every weekend, with free world-music concerts on Wednesday nights. Old Town School operates three facilities in Lincoln Park and Lincoln Square, including one 425-seat and two 150-seat concert halls, 64 classrooms, two music stores, a café, and a resource center.

Scattered across nine states, Mini U Storage's secure facilities make frequent cameos on the reality TV show Storage Wars. At each location, rows of storage units in a vast range of sizes house personal goods, business items, and vehicles. Specialty climate-controlled units can help preserve sensitive heirlooms or souvenirs from historic snowball fights. The Mini U Storage staff further assists clients in the moving process by offering complimentary rental trucks, along with boxes, moving supplies, and locks for purchase.

In August of 2003 more than 75 residents and community leaders from the North Kenwood, Oakland, Douglas, and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods of Chicago came together to discuss the current state of their communities and devise methods for improvement. That marked the formation of the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC), and today the team of individuals strives to bring together residents, local organizations, businesses, and government institutions to make the North Kenwood, Oakland, Grand Boulevard, and Douglas neighborhoods more sustainable, healthy, and economically diverse.

As the lead agency for the New Communities Program, QCDC worked with more than 400 community residents and stakeholders to establish a 10-year quality-of-life plan. In addition to guiding the implementation of this plan, the organization continues to focus on economic development, education, and employment services throughout communities. These three targets have led to initiatives such as the Bronzeville Community Market, academic-based support for low-income students, and life-skills and job-placement services.

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Cook County helps protect and advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in court cases. Through its well-trained volunteer advocates, CASA ensures that each child's voice is present in court, with the hope of securing safe, permanent homes where children can grow and thrive. Each advocate champions one child, researching the case and providing valuable information to the court so judges can make the best decisions about the child's future. Advocates work with the child for as long as necessary, which can last from a few months to a few years, but is typically about a year. In the last year, CASA volunteer advocates invested 12,000 hours of advocacy to 483 children in Cook County.