CHICAGO—Today ڰ (NEIU) and Family Focus held a ceremony to mark the beginning of a new formal partnership between the two institutions. Sharon Hahs, president of ڰ, and Merry Ex, president and CEO of Family Focus, ceremoniously signed a partnership agreement at the event held this morning at Family Focus’ center in suburban Aurora.
This partnership is especially important for ڰ as it prepares for a fall 2014 opening of its new El Centro Campus. The new NEIU El Centro Campus currently is under construction in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood at 3390 N. Avondale Ave., near the intersection of the Kennedy Expressway and Kimball Avenue. In addition to serving ڰ students, the NEIU El Centro Campus is dedicated to providing resources to its surrounding community.
Hahs said, “We are taking the opportunity, presented by this important new location, to expand our relationships with community partners, like Family Focus. We believe it is important to be a community partner and we want the community to feel welcomed at ڰ.”
Ex added, “The benefit of working with ڰ is that we have access to a potential pool of interns to assist in our centers and programs as well as have access to meeting space. Also, having a MOU [memorandum of understanding] is helpful if we have staff members looking to obtain advanced degrees from ڰ.”
