Episode Five_A Two Room Schoolhouse on the North Shore

Madonna Mission's Founder and CEO calls their small office and classroom space near Loyola Park, Chicago a "two room schoolhouse." Growing from a few clients to serving sixty refugee women and their families, Madonna Mission provides tutoring during the school year and Summer programming for school aged children. A core program in English as a Second Language helps refugee women in particular navigate life, work, health services, and other practical realities in their new homes. The organization serves a diverse population from Burma, Syria and other national origins. We interviewed the energetic Lynn Gordon about her organization's purpose, born of her experience in social work and with Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu as a model. We visited her about a month prior to the identification ot Coronavirus cases in the United States. Like many social service organizations this non-profit has, not without challenges, moved toward a model of remote tutoring during quarantine conditions in Chicago.