Circle Resource Center Shares the Joy of the Gospel

Writer: Sr. Sally Duffy, SC

Sr. Sally Duffy, SC speaks during an encounter at Circle Resource Center in Chicago during the site visit by the Nuns on the Bus & Friends on Oct. 8.

On Tuesday, October 8, 2024 Nuns on the Bus and Friends left Milwaukee and arrived in Chicago as part of NETWORK’s nonpartisan, nationwide “Vote Our Future” tour. We are calling on Catholics and all people of good will to protect the freedoms that promote a future of flourishing for all of us. Vote Our Future means everybody thrives, no exceptions.

We experienced the joy of the Gospel at the Circle Resource Center. Imagine coming to a foreign country where you do not speak the language, nor understand the culture, where everything and everyone is unfamiliar. Imagine you have experienced or witnessed violence, threats to join gangs, threats of rape, threats of being killed or witnessed a family member harmed or killed, and that the reason you are leaving loved ones in your homeland, your country of origin. Already traumatized and now you are grieving the loss of family members, especially the loss of your mother, you do not know if you will ever see your family of origin again.

The Circle Resource Center is a ministry of the Society of Helpers that opened in 2013. Sister Alicia Gutierrez is the Executive Director. The Circle serves predominately Latina women who are recent migrants to the Brighton Park neighborhood.

“Women from other countries who suffer from depression and anxiety and are having a difficult time making this place their home,” according to Sister Alicia. The Circle provides relationships, friendships, psychotherapy, a safe place to share their struggles and where the women are seen, heard, understood and healed.

ESL Instructor Sonia Aguilera speaks at the press conference at Circle Resource Center in Chicago.

The mission is to accompany women on their journey by offering support and encouragement, as well as providing a space for them to come, be themselves, and take a break from the stresses of everyday life. They are a community dedicated to providing women with opportunities to learn and make their lives better in a variety of ways.

The Circle Resource Center is also a place to use their creative gifts through crafts. The center builds on women’s strengths and equips them to fulfill their potential with programming developed and directed by the women of the community, allowing them to address their most pressing needs together. The programs offered are: meditation sessions, healing touch, expressing and dealing with emotions, communications skills, English as a second language, citizenship classes, parenting classes, psycho-educational presentations, women’s health and nutrition, and managing depression, anxiety, relaxation, and stress.

One women shared about “the joy and always feeling good when she leaves the Resource Circle.” Zumba is offered “to feel good about yourself, your body and who you are.”

This ministry serves to welcome and to integrate (not to assimilate) the women through community and sharing the joy of the Gospel! Sister Alicia summed it best as “a place to keep their hope in this country alive!”

This reflection is from the 2024 Nuns on the Bus & Friends bus rider blog.