Mercy Home for Boys & Girls

BENEFITS

Coworkers at Mercy Home enjoy a number of outstanding benefits. Below is just a summary*:

• Medical Insurance
  PPO and two HMO plans, coverage for employee, spouse and dependent children
• Dental Insurance
  PPO plan available for employee, spouse and dependent children
• Vision Insurance
• Teledoctor
• Life Insurance
  Employer-paid life insurance
• Retirement Plan
  Optional 403b retirement savings plan with Agency matching-dollar program.
• Disability Coverage
  Short term and long term disability coverage 
• Paid Holidays
  Ten paid holidays per year.
• Pre-tax savings
  Flexible Spending Account for health care and dependent care expenses.
• Sick Time
  
  
• Paid Vacation
  
  
• Free Lunch
  Complimentary lunch (depending on campus and hours worked).
• Health Club
  Health club facility on both campuses
• Employee Assistance
  Confidential Employee Assistance Program for employees and immediate family members.
• Transit Program
  Pre-tax transit program for public transportation costs with CTA.
• Tuition
  Tuition reimbursement available up to $2,500 per year with a maximum of $10,000 per employee.
• Extended Benefits
  Direct care staff receive two additional days off (“service days”) per calendar year.

*Benefits and providers are subject to change at any time.

Since our founding in 1887 Mercy Home has continued to expand, allowing us to provide an exceptional level of care. We provide care for our youth on two separate campuses providing everything our kids needs in order to succeed.

Boys Campus
Located in Chicago’s West Loop, Mercy Home’s boys campus is a home to around 100 young men. The campus features a learning center to aid the boys in their studies and a dining hall where meals are served family style. Our young men enjoy opportunities to participate in sports in our Noha Gymnasium and the 20/30 Club fitness center, thanks to generous contributions from our donors.

The young men of our boys campus are actively involved in the surrounding community, often working at nearby businesses and participating in neighborhood cleanup projects.

The ten homes on our West Loop campus feature dormitory-style housing. By sharing a room, the young men learn the core values of respect, responsibility, trust, honesty and caring. Each young man is placed in a specific home designed to support his growth, based on factors including age and how much structure will benefit each individual emotionally and developmentally.

Walsh Girls Campus
Nestled on a hill in Chicago’s south-side Beverly neighborhood, Mercy Home’s Margaret Walsh Girls Campus offers a cozy, tranquil setting for our young women to call home. Opened in 1987, part of the Walsh Campus is the former Walgreen family mansion.

The campus features the Marie Noha Craft Cottage, which is a popular spot for the girls to create arts and crafts, a learning center that offer resources for school work, the Speh Fitness Center, a dining area for family-style meals and in the warmer months the grounds are lush with gardens and a fountain.

The Walsh Campus features dormitory-style housing in four homes, which are organized by age. By sharing a room, the young women learn the core values of respect, responsibility, trust, honesty and caring. The girls eat their meals family style, strengthening the shared experience of sisterhood for each young woman.

1887
OUR FOUNDING
Chicago Archbishop Patrick Feehan, a native of Tipperary, Ireland, convened a group of priests and pressed them for a solution to the growing crisis of homeless boys who filled the city’s most dangerous streets. As a result, the Rev. Dennis Mahoney outlined a plan for a working boys home that Feehan quickly endorsed. He assigned Fr. Louis Campbell to run it. Fr. Campbell opened the home in temporary quarters above a library on LaSalle Street, in the shadows of the Chicago Board of Trade Building. He originally names it St. Paul’s Home for Working Boys. Later that same year, the facility is incorporated as a distinct organization within the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and renamed it the Mission of Our Lady of Mercy.

1889
A PERMANENT HOME PURCHASED
Fr. Dennis Mahoney takes charge after Fr. Campbell falls ill. He raises a modest down payment to purchase a private residence at what is today 1140 W. Jackson Blvd., just west of downtown Chicago. The site has been the permanent home to Mercy Home’s headquarters ever since, and it’s where our boys campus operates today.

1909
JACKSON BOULEVARD BUILDING BUILT
Monsignor C.J. Quille opens a bright, modern new home for our children that replaces the existing old residences on West Jackson Blvd. It remains the nucleus of our Boys Campus today.

1919
FR.QUILLE STARTS VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Fr. Quille opens a trade school where the boys will learn bricklaying, carpentry, painting, candle making and more. This tradition of preparing young people to become self reliant and successful continues in the job skills and career preparation programs we offer today.

1934
FR. EDWARD KELLY ARRIVES
Fr. Edward Kelly arrived amidst the Great Depression. Kelly brought the Catholic Youth Organization’s athletic program to the Home’s gymnasium and basement, where a boxing ring was installed. During his 39 years as Mercy Home’s president, he was dubbed “the Apostle for Boys” by the Chicago Daily News.

1973
REV. CLOSE TAKES THE HELM
Rev. James J. Close takes the helm following Fr. Kelly’s death. In his 33 years as its president, Close will dramatically expand the Home to serve more and more children.

1981
AFTERCARE PROGRAM LAUNCHED
Mercy Home begins a program of AfterCare to support the continued success of youth as they move beyond Mercy Home.

1987
MERCY HOME CELEBRATES ITS CENTENNIAL WITH EXPANSION
After caring for boys for a century, Mercy Home has the opportunity to open a new home for young women in the former Walgreen family mansion on Chicago’s South Side. That same year, our new Friends First mentoring program starts training adult volunteers to serve as role models to young people in need who live throughout the community.

2003
MERCY HOME OPENS THE REV. JAMES J. CLOSE RESIDENCE HALL FOR BOYS ON ITS WEST LOOP CAMPUS
This new facility, which increased our capacity on the boys campus by 40%, enables Mercy Home to provide healing for more children in need than ever before.

2006
Fr. Close retires and Fr. Donahue assumes full leadership of Mercy Home, becoming its eighth and current president.

2012
NEW RIDGELAND PROPERTY SECURED
Mercy Home for Boys & Girls celebrates its 125th anniversary by expanding its services to aftercare members and their families through its supportive housing program. Work begins on rehabilitating a donated, vacant apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood that will provide safe, affordable, transitional housing when it opens the following year.