Parade Connects Home with Community

September 8, 2025

Mercy Home was well represented at the annual Bud Billiken Parade festivities as event sponsors for the third year in a row. As part of the “It Takes a Village” festival in Washington Park following the parade, our coworkers had the opportunity to spread the word about Mercy Home’s mission. And along the parade route, they passed out information and swag to spectators.

The Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States, has been a Chicago staple for 96 years. Watched and attended by more than one million people, the parade honors and celebrates African American culture and the start of another school year.

As they have for generations, thousands of spectators lined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to watch the marching bands, floats, dance troupes, tumblers, cheerleaders, civic organizations, celebrities, charities, politicians, and more.

In years past, Mercy Home entered a float in the parade, but for the past several years, we have focused our presence in the parade’s “It Takes a Village Festival.” The gathering allowed our coworkers the chance to connect with neighbors, business owners, community leaders and organizations, food, crafts and arts vendors, and more. 

At the festival, our Mercy Home coworkers and youth shared information about our impact on the community and grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for hungry parade goers.

“The energy was awesome,” Ashley Monroe Turner, coordinator in our Community Care program, said. “Because we are sponsors, we could go to the observation deck with all the other sponsors and see the dance groups firsthand.”

At this year’s festival, Mercy Home also promoted its Friends First mentoring program and had sign-up sheets available for interested participants. Friends First includes both community-based mentoring as well as a workplace, corporate mentoring program with one-on-one mentoring between youth from St. Malachy School and employees of two corporate sponsors. The young people, who do not live at Mercy Home, are usually referred to Friends First by their school as youth identified that could benefit from mentoring.

The parade and festival are a great opportunity for our admissions and Community Care teams to spread the word about Mercy Home’s role in the community and talk to parents, young people, and businesses about the work we do. These connections will enable us to help even more youth and families.

“For me, the highlight was sitting at the table [during the festival] and watching young people ask about Mercy Home,” Monroe Turner said. 

We are grateful to all our coworkers who volunteered their time and represented the best of Mercy Home in our community!