Homemaking Skills Institute

webassets/finkel.jpg

From kitchens to community centers

Photo: Ed Finkel

South Chicago resident Betty Jo Nichols followed her passion to become a nutrition and cooking coach, providing workshops everywhere from people's kitchens, to community centers, to the Green Summit activities sponsored through NCP lead agency Claretian Associates.

Life as a nutrition proselytizer started for Betty Jo Nichols when a fellow parishioner at a local Church, who was training her to be a Sunday school teacher, commented that she constantly talked about healthy eating and wondered whether Nichols could pass along any tips and tricks.

The woman, who then weighed 284 pounds, enlisted Nichols as her personal nutrition trainer and is now down to a size 14, Nichols says. “I taught her how to cook more healthily, eat smaller portions, eat fruits and vegetables, cook with more nutrients,” she recalls. “She did it as a change in her life.”

That led to another woman asking Nichols the same thing, and before long she was being invited to people’s kitchens and then to community centers and after-school programs near her home in South Chicago and in Uptown, where she manages the computer-lab at a five-building complex for the formerly homeless.

Nichols has been in fund raising mode for what she’s now calling the Homemaking Skills Institute, which has offered programs in South Chicago in several people’s homes, the Germano-Millgate Center, and during the Green Summit environmental fair last spring. She received a $1,000 grant from LISC/Chicago in 2010 for a pilot workshop at a local Church during a senior health fair there.

“I teach them how to prepare food differently, to prevent illnesses they were creating for their own bodies,” says Nichols. “You would be surprised how many older adults don’t have the life skills on how to prevent obesity, how to grocery shop, how to cut down on salt in their diet.”

She has partnerships in the works with the YMCA Street Intervention in conjunction with this summer’s Hoops in the Hood program and also plans to work with the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago’s Children.

“This is my passion,” Nichols says. “I could talk to you about it all day—the fact that I can take something that comes up out of the ground and make something marvelous out of it.”

Betty Jo Nichols
Executive Director and Founder

Betty Jo Nichols founded and serves as the Executive Director of the Homemaking Skills Institute. Her Masters degree in Education and Counseling from Ottawa University and her extensive experience makes her uniquely qualified to manage the Institute's program. Her knowledge of cooking and the food service business comes from training as a Chef and her years as Chef and Owner of B.J.'s Catering Company. She knows the restaurant business from working as manager of several restaurants. She worked as a Grief and Spiritual Counselor at a Hospice firm, and she served as Director of Volunteers for an Assisted living program for the elderly persons struggling to continue living at home. Her commitment to community programs is demonstrated by her development of several youth after school and computer centers in Chicago.

Angela Hurlock
Chief Communications Officer and Secretary

Angela Hurlock is a member of the Homemaking Skills Institute Board of Directors. Ms. Hurlock has been the Executive Director of non-profit CDC Claretian Associates, Inc. since 2004 where she spearheads efforts to build community within the culturally diverse neighborhood of South Chicago by working with community leaders, residents, and organizations to provide afforable housing and related services for low and moderate income people, build residents based leadership, and serve as a catalyst in creating innovative solutions to community problems. Prior to this she was the Senior Director of a Real Estate Development for Bethel New Life-a Non-profit serving Chicago's west side. She has also worked for several years as a project manager and Architect for private design and Architectural firms in Chicago. Angela holds Masters Degrees in Architecture and Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and has also completed the Urban Developers Program. She co-sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago Rehab Network. Angela has taught seminars on project management for the Chicago Rehab Network, Housing Action of Illinois and Jane Adams Hull House, as well as financial literacy classes for many other local groups.

Barbara Allen
Vice President

Barbara Allen is a member of the Board of Directors of the Homemakers Skills Institiute. Ms. Allen has worked for 23 years for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. As the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, she drafts critical correspondance and arranges meetings with staff and strategic partners. Ms. Allen plans and coordinates the National Employee Benefits (NEBA) Committee and Subcommittee meetings as well as coordinating the committee's annual three-day conference. She has a BA in Psychology from Roosevelt University in Chicago and served as the Past Admissions chair of the Parnts Board of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Marcia Carroll
Treasurer

Marcia Carroll is a Vice President of M.B. Financial Bank. For the past thirty five years Marcia has been employed with M.B. Financial Bank, working herself through the ranks. Marcia started with the bank in 1974 as a teller and has filled the positions of teller supervisor, operations manager and banking center manager before being promoted in 2008 as vice president, banking center manager. In the thirty five years Marcia has received an extensive amount of on-the-job training, tremendous people skills and earned numerous certification and awards during her career. Marcia is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She serves as a Board member of the South Chicago Parents and Friends, the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, as well as Treasurer of the Homemaking Skills Institute.

George R. Smith Jr.
Board of Director

George Smith, Jr. has a wealth of experience working in the community, currently he is employed with the University of Chicago as a community relations director. George holds a Masters of Public Health Degree from the University of Illinois. He has written and received many grants to help prevent Breast and Cervical Cancer as well as the ticket for the Cure and Prostate Cancer.