Angelina Sidney joins La Casa Norte executive team

La Casa Norte congratulates Angelina Sidney on her promotion to Director of Facilities and Asset Management, a new position on the executive leadership team.

Previously the agency’s property manager, Angelina has worked at La Casa Norte almost five years. In her new role, she will be more hands-on in managing building repairs and upkeep at LCN’s seven sites in Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Back of the Yards, and Brighton Park.

Angelina manages a staff that includes a leasing associate and the six-person facilities staff. She also oversees Pierce House for youth and youth-led families living in 25 studio, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments. She also networks with property owners in the Chicago neighborhoods where our scattered site clients prefer to live.

Angelina Sidney

“I’m excited to work with the team in a different capacity,” she says.

Angelina began working in non-profits when she joined the staff of New Moms, a West Side agency that assisted her when she was a teenage mom. Just 17 when her older daughter was born, Angelina said her own experiences informed her work with New Moms.

Like many young mothers, Angelina said she dealt with people telling her “your life is over,” or offering up harsh, unsolicited parenting tips. Such comments undermine a young mom’s confidence in her ability to build a happy, self-supporting life for herself and her family.

 “Just because I was a young parent does not mean I wouldn’t be an effective parent,” she points out.

As a teenager, Angelina participated for two years in New Moms community outreach program. She graduated from Association House alternative high school, studied to be a chef, and won her first job at New Moms as a cook. (In fact, working with her older daughter, Angelina still runs her own catering business on the weekends!)

Later, while working full-time and raising her three children, Angelina earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Kaplan University.

In eight years working at New Moms, Angelina’s jobs included parent support specialist and serving as the organization’s group facilitator, running four nightly meetings a week. In her groups, young mothers would discuss parenting and personal issues, such as “how to be attentive as a parent and how to set boundaries.”

A lifelong West Sider, Angelina still runs into former clients. Some thank her for encouragement she gave them when they needed it most.

“I feel good about it because I always question, “Did I do something right?’ Every time I question it, someone pops up and says thank you,” she said.

Angelina first joined La Casa Norte as a supervisor in the drop-in program, which serves over 200 youth a year, ages 16 through 24.

In that role, she started a jobs club and intensive case management for youth who participate in the weekday program. At the time, Angelina was the West Side’s only skilled assessor for unaccompanied youth who wanted to access the homeless services and housing system.

She left La Casa Norte for a year in 2020 to work as a recovery counselor at Trilogy, assisting older adults. She returned in March 2021, wanting to resume working with young people who typically have a more hopeful perspective about changing their lives.

“I wanted to come back to be around the youth, because they feel like they have the time to change their lives,” she says.

Angelina also sees her role as helping to advocate for La Casa Norte’s 69 scattered site residents, about half of whom are youth.

Many are so accustomed to living in poor conditions that “they don’t know what to expect or what to do about landlords who fail to do repairs. I’m glad to be able to help clients get their problems fixed.”

- By Anne Bowhay