Professional Services in Cicero

A job in corporate finance spurred Joe Mulvey to start his own business—one that would allow him to create a comfortable environment for both employees and clients. So in 1986 he opened the doors to Classic Media Productions, Inc. and has been creating and transferring film and media ever since.

Beginning with duplication services for companies such as Frito Lay, Classic Media’s techniques have evolved over the years, from creating web-based content to transferring recordings from antiquated hardware onto up-to-date formats, such as DVD and Blu-ray. Aside from transferring existing film, Joe and his staff also create tender memorial photo montages and videos in honor of loved ones or special events, elegantly capturing a newlywed couple’s first kiss with each other and then their ensuing kisses with the ice sculpture.

Metropolitan Family Services, a human-services agency, runs seven community centers throughout Chicago and the suburbs, including two nationally accredited children's centers that provide engaging early-education programming. Nearly 43,000 families and individuals receive counseling or other support services through Metropolitan's elder-care services, early-childhood programs, and other family-oriented programs and services.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository strives to end hunger in Chicago communities by distributing food through a network of 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters. Volunteers and employees inspect, sort, and repackage all donated food to ensure safety, and distribute the food every weekday to its member agencies. Along with community kitchens and food pantries, the organization organizes children's programs and partners with Chicago Public Schools to distribute fresh produce and other nutritious food at food pantries located in schools. Last year, the food depository distributed 64 million pounds of nonperishables, fresh produce, daily products, and meat—the equivalent of 134,800 meals each day to people in need in Cook County.

Friends of the Parks was born of a specific need more than 35 years ago. At the time, Chicago's city parks and recreational areas existed in shambles. Partnering with volunteers, park-advisory councils, policy experts, governmental officials, and schools, Friends of the Parks sought to establish the parks and forest preserves as public spaces where neighbors could explore and admire the outdoors. They surveyed park conditions and gradually improved the green spaces.

Currently, Friends of the Parks preserves, protects, and promotes the use of public spaces through programs that range from cleanup events for Earth Day to educational field trips for public-school children. The organization actively works to restore the forest preserves and Lake Michigan shoreline and provide public tours and summer internships in natural areas.

As a leading Illinois family- and child-service agency, Children’s Home + Aid serves more than 40,000 children and families each year through its child-development and -care programs, family counseling, and foster-care-advocacy programs. The organization's roots extend back to 1883, when the Reverend Van Arsdale brought into his home a young girl whose mother was in crisis. The minister's umbrella of care soon spread throughout the country, where he established advisory boards that evolved into regional boards that now help shape public policy for child welfare. Children's Home + Aid focuses on early childhood and juvenile justice, preventing child abuse, and garnering positive child development in strong families.

The organization's Adult Connections program pairs foster youth reaching the age of emancipation with supportive adult mentors who help them increase their independent living skills, as well as provide them with a positive adult relationship. Each year, roughly 30,000 of the 463,000 children in foster care throughout the United States age out of the foster-care system. By lending their time to guide these youth, adults can help to prevent homelessness, food insecurity, and unemployment.

Pied Piper Parties & Playschool provides enriching play for children of all ages with active classes and themed events. Using her experience working at a Montessori preschool, Stephanie Williams oversees the youth playschool and camp, while colleague chef Janelle Rinehart leads hands-on cooking classes that introduce nutrition and discuss where dinner comes from and why it can never go back. Youth playschool helps children 5 months–3 years gain social skills with four progressive classes filled with music, art projects, and story time. In cooking classes, youths up to 10 years old prepare sweet and savory treats with supervised use of cooking equipment. Two-hour parties celebrate kids with custom themes ranging from dinosaurs to princesses, and include games, cake, and take-home gift bags.