Hoyleton Youth & Family Services
The first retreat of CHHSM’s Nollau Leadership Institute’s class of 2027 met May 18-21, 2026, at Bellwether Farm in Wakeman, Ohio. Participants arrived with feelings of anticipation and not quite knowing what to expect. By week’s end, classmates departed for home filled with wonder and hope. “Walking into the Nollau retreat, I was not sure…
CHHSM is grieved to announce that friend, supporter, and advocate Johann Lee Ellerbrake (née Havenner) has died at age 91. Ellerbrake died of natural causes May 19, 2026. Johann was born to Wilson Elsworth and Madeline Esther (née Nash) Havenner on November 18, 1934, in Washington, D.C., where she grew up with five siblings. She…
For participants at this year’s ecumenical The Gathering: Many Gifts, One Spirit, the event was a three-day, spirit-filled opportunity to form bonds and partnerships with colleagues from other health and human service ministries. Held March 24-26, 2026, in Indianapolis, The Gathering drew almost 500 people from Mennonite, Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, and United Church of Christ…
Hoyleton Youth & Family Services (HYFS) in Fairview Heights, Ill., held two ribbon-cutting ceremonies on its campus Easter Week 2026: one to celebrate the opening of its new “All-Abilities Playground”—an inclusive play space for children of every ability—and then, the next day, the opening of its new Medication Management Clinic. All-Abilities Playground Provides Something for…
Special thanks to Hoyleton Youth and Family Services Puentes de Esperanza’s Patricia Merz and Edda Berti for this translation of the feature story into Spanish. The translators worked with a slightly earlier version of the story. La ayuda de Hoyleton Youth and Family Services en Fairview Heights, Illinois, beneficia a clientes en todo el sur…
The STL Racial Equity Summit: #Unflinching: A Call to Action, held Sept. 30, 2025, brought together regional stakeholders, community leaders, and residents to confront systemic racial inequities in the St. Louis area, including representatives from Hoyleton Youth & Family Services’ Puentes de Esperanza (Bridges of Hope). The STL Racial Equity Summit focused on three core goals: raising…
Hoyleton Youth & Family Services, based in Fairview Heights, Ill., has a 130-year commitment to social justice. But recent events around the country and the world have heightened that commitment. As a CHHSM agency, Hoyleton approaches justice through a faith-based lens. So when executive staff members began creating and implementing a three-year holisitic leadership development…
The Rev. Richard Ellerbrake, long-time health and human services activist and advocate, and his wife, Johann, whose career has included serving as a physical therapist and in youth ministries, have provided a $3,000 Schwab Charitable grant to the UCC Council for Health and Human Service Ministries (CHHSM). Dick Ellerbrake, president emeritus of Deaconess Health System…
Imagine a world where every youth has the opportunity to thrive. At the 2024 Hoyleton Honors Night, held Feb. 23, themed “Imagine,” Hoyleton Youth & Family Services in Fairview Heights, Ill., took steps towards making dreams imagined into reality. The event was an extraordinary celebration of progress, partnership, and potential. This year, Hoyleton recognized several…
A more recent tradition at the CHHSM Annual Gathering — which takes place March 12-14, 2024, in St. Louis — is a plenary panel discussion on the gathering’s theme. This year, the panel takes place the afternoon of March 13, and will be a thought-provoking discussion on Innovation as the Gateway to Collaboration, where attendees…
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