Spirit of Giving Award
Each year, Communities In Schools of Chicago presents the Spirit of Giving Award to both a community partner and a school partner who consistently go above and beyond to positively impact the lives of Chicago public-school students.
Spirit of Giving Award winners largely do this work under the radar – day in and day out – simply because it is the right thing to do. In 2024, the Spirit of Giving Award was presented to:
Community Partner
Wellness4Every1
Wellness4Every1’s mission is to increase awareness of the inequalities in the wellness industry and provide opportunities for diverse communities to have access to quality arts and wellness programming. Partnering with CIS of Chicago for six years, Wellness4Every1 has long been a consistent and well-respected community partner.
Their team is communicative, transparent, and accommodating to the needs of CIS schools, sometimes even designing a new program in response to a school’s priorities. They go above and beyond to provide experiences that are relevant to CIS’ students, schools, and communities. They regularly attend CIS trainings and provide wellness services to teachers as an enhancement to CIS’ Geographic School Meetups.
The dynamic experiences that Wellness4Every1 shares with our students while they learn about health, nutrition, cultures, movement, and choreography are powerful to watch. Those activities are not only fun for students to participate in; the lessons learned from them leave a lasting positive impact on our young people’s lives.
School Partner
Principal Lawrence Spaulding, Percy Julian High School
Julian High School has been a CIS of Chicago partner for almost two years, and during this time, Principal Spaulding has done a great job of making sure the programming he accesses through CIS’ partner network is evenly distributed and caters to the needs of all grade levels. Collaborating with CIS, he has scheduled in-school career speakers, arts residencies, and field trips for students’ benefit. He has also tapped into CIS’ growing partnerships with fundamental needs partners to ensure that students and families have the full complement of supports they need to thrive.
Principal Spaulding has also been a powerful advocate for CIS. He has supported the organization the past two years in several ways, including hosting the CIS program team’s Southside networking meetups with other school partners, lending his expertise to panel discussions hosted by CIS, and always attending CIS planning meetings – something that principals typically delegate to other members of their team. He is responsive, reliable, and consistent.
