Mara Walsh is currently a broker with Busby Group-Compass Real Estate, and she has been a member of our Board of Directors since 2018. In addition to Mara providing ChicagoCAC with relationship-building and volunteer expertise, she and her husband Liam have been generous donors to the organization for many years. She talks about her experience volunteering and what she wants people to know about ChicagoCAC’s work below.
How did you get involved with ChicagoCAC?
I’ve been involved with ChicagoCAC for about ten years, maybe more. I was with a large consulting firm at the time, going through a career transition. I really wanted to find an organization to give back to and started researching non-profit organizations that support children. I have a 16-year-old stepson and several nieces and nephews, so I really wanted to focus on children. I found ChicagoCAC, reached out to the director, and started to volunteer with them. As time progressed, I wanted to get more involved, so I started joining specific committees, including Marketing & Communications and the planning committee for the Luminary Award Dinner, followed by Co-Chairing LAD for two years.
What’s your current role with ChicagoCAC?
I’m currently on the board of directors. In that position I help focus on corporate sponsorship, including facilitating and strengthening a relationship between KPMG and ChicagoCAC. KPMG has sponsored LAD, donated books and bookshelves to the center, worked with the toy drive, and provided support in other ways. My sales and marketing background has also provided me with tools to help solicit donations and sponsorships for fundraisers in creative ways.
What draws you to our work specifically?
Because sexual abuse is a topic that’s so hard for so many people to talk about, ChicagoCAC is not as well-known as it should be within the community. There are so many organizations out there and they all do fabulous work, but ChicagoCAC makes an incredible difference and impacts the lives of so many children in Chicago. Specifically, it provides support that these children who have been abused need to begin healing and move on to a healthier life. I love the fact that it brings the Chicago Police Department, therapists, the medical staff, State’s Attorney’s Office and DCFS together to advocate for and protect children that have been abused.
The main thing that stuck with me is that with the old way of interviewing children, they have to tell their story multiple times to multiple people, which is very painful for them. In this new framework, the children who have been abused only have to tell their story once, and it’s truly a collaborative effort to support the child.
Tell us a meaningful story from your time with us.
When I first started, I wanted to donate my time, so I started helping out in the Family Hope Center. I’d go in and sit with children or their siblings and hang out while the adults or another child were in their session. As they waited, I would be playing with them, using puzzles, coloring books or other toys. I really enjoyed it, but it was very difficult. You see these 4–6-year-old kids sitting there coloring and playing with you—you see their innocence, but you also know something terrible happened to them and that is why they were at the center. It made me take a step back and realize how important the work is that ChicagoCAC does and the impact the work has on these children’s lives.
Having donations like books or games, fun things to have around and lighten the space, is so important. Kids need to have a comfortable place to come, and donations that corporations like KPMG give help keep things fresh and updated and most importantly, make it possible to help these children begin to heal from the abuse they have suffered.
What would you say to someone who doesn’t know what we do, or why they should support our work?
Touring the facility and seeing it firsthand will give you a much better sense of the work that the organization does. Taking the time to understand the process and all that goes into helping these innocent children start to heal is very impactful, and all of the services provided are free to the clients.
The center served a little under 2,400 kids in Fiscal Year 2021—but that is just cases that were actually reported to ChicagoCAC. There are so many more incidents that go unreported, and many children keep their stories to themselves for years. People don’t want to talk about it or hear about it, but until the broader community understands how prevalent child sexual abuse is and what a pressing issue it is for our society, educating people about ChicagoCAC’s work remains critically important. It’s amazing how many people want to share their story with you as adults once you open that conversation – you don’t realize how sexual abuse has impacted so many people, and that so many have never told their story.