Response recently relocated to its new location at 3033 W. Touhy, in West Rogers Park, making the variety of services offered more accessible to adolescents in the area and across Chicagoland.

Decorated with rainbows, colorful educational boards on the walls and games lining the shelves, the walls of Response carry the quirky, teen-friendly culture that the old building housed, filling up the new space with familiar warmth. As a resource center that has served adolescents on the north side of Chicago for over 40 years, the staff carefully crafted the new center to give that same inviting feel to every person, new or returning, who that walks through the door.

After recently hosting an open house, the Response Center programs have been busy serving tweens, teens and young adults by providing counseling, prevention education and leadership development programming.

The outreach team, known for the educational programs it provides across the community, most recently hosted a full day of programming at Vernon Hills High School. All students attended the specially crafted program, which taught them about the importance of monitoring social media, using the internet safely and differentiating between reliable and unreliable news sources.

The counseling team at Response is proud to announce that Gendernauts, a group for transgender and gender exploring youth, is now being offered at no cost for adolescents. Voices: The Chicago Jewish Teen Foundation generously funded Gendernauts in order to make the support group an accessible and affordable resource for gender exploring teens in the larger community. Along with the Gendernauts group, Response staff are excited to launch two other groups: a mindfulness group for teenagers looking for skills to help them “chill out” in moments of anxiety and stress, and a support group for parents of adolescents, appropriately titled ‘You are Not The Worst.’

Whether out in the community teaching adolescents about healthy relationships, training professionals about LGBTQ+ inclusion, providing counseling support for the families of adolescents or just housing a safe space where teenagers can feel at home, Response professionals are determined to make a difference in the lives of each client they serve.

Want to see it for yourself? Check out the new space at 3033 W Touhy Ave., Chicago IL 60645, or call at 847.676.0078. You can always learn more at responsecenter.org and follow the links to our social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and most recently, Snapchat (Response3033)!