The Power of Repair

October 29, 2026

Author: Mark Schmeltzer

Relationships lie at the center of nearly everything we do at Mercy Home for Boys & Girls. So, it’s little wonder that the Leader Council’s fifth Empowerment Day helped our young women confront a common misconception about what makes a relationship healthy. Namely, that healthy relationships are entirely free of challenges. The event explored the essential skills involved in repairing and maintaining the strong connections that form the foundation of a healthy life.

Focused on personal growth and soft skills and structured to encourage Council members to share their own experiences in small-group discussions, Empowerment Day also fostered deeper connections between board members and youth.

Comprised of preeminent women in the business and civic arenas, Mercy Home’s Leader Council has championed education and career development for our young people since its founding in 2002. Through their professional accomplishments, members have long served as role models, especially for the young women in our care.

But as Leader Council member Maureen Gainer Reilly explained, Empowerment Day was created to bridge the gap between Council members’ professional personas and the fully relatable people behind them, individuals who have faced their own real-life challenges and obstacles.

“We specifically built these days to model for the youth that everybody struggles with certain things,” Gainer Reilly said. “So, one of the most powerful things about these days is you have Leader Council members sharing their vulnerabilities with the youth and not coming in as these kind of perfect mentors.”

In fact, letting go of perfection was part of the core message of the day.

“It would be really easy for a mercy youth to build up a narrative, like a board member is separate from me. That’s a different world. That’s something I don’t have access to,” Gainer Reilly said. “So, a day like this just hopefully flips that script.”

Seeing that even successful adults struggle sheds light on one’s own potential for success, even when we ourselves struggle. 

One of the young participants, Pierre, found the approach particularly impactful.

“I think it makes us look up to them even more because they’re putting their emotions out,” she said. “They are being vulnerable. So, it makes us feel comfortable to be vulnerable as well.”

Pierre said seeing people in very accomplished roles was motivating, but the program allowed members to lead in a more empathetic way, while painting a fuller picture of the skills needed to succeed in all areas of life.

“I feel like a lot of people think IQ is the only thing you need to be successful,” she said. “You need EQ, or emotional intelligence as well.”

Leader Council co-chair Susan Golden stressed that the intention from the program’s outset five years ago was to build trust.

“We are all about helping to mentor the next generation of women,” Golden said. “And if we don’t build trust with the youth, we really can’t be role models.”

Golden said that each year’s themes have been developed in close partnership with program teams at the Walsh Campus. The group discussions this year invited participants to explore how relationships can be strengthened, rebuilt, and restored after conflict, disappointment, or misunderstanding.

“We opened with asking [participants] to connect with a healthy relationship that they know has been stressed or broken,” Golden said.

“And everyone just reflected silently, and then we really started to share a situation where we had a broken, healthy relationship with someone important to us.”

Golden noted that many around the tables discussed siblings, parents, and friends, as well as the steps they took to repair those relationships or recognize when a relationship was no longer healthy.

By speaking candidly about challenges they have faced, mistakes they have made, and lessons they have learned, Council members demonstrated that growth is not about perfection. Their openness helped create an atmosphere where everyone could engage in meaningful conversations.

For many of the young women, seeing successful professionals discuss setbacks, regrets, and personal growth made those achievements feel more attainable. The Council members were no longer simply accomplished leaders. They became relatable people who had faced difficulties, learned from them, and emerged stronger.

That authenticity made a powerful impression.

“I learned that it is okay to not have perfect relationships, and it is okay to not repair every relationship, but you can repair the ones that you can,” said Cloe, another young woman living at the Home.

She also said that she learned about the importance of being at peace with herself as much as with others. In fact, repairing the relationship with one’s self was one of the event’s learning objectives.

Members said they gain as much from the conversations as they hope the young people do.

“What we have learned is every single one of these topics we have brought back to the Leader Council, and they apply just as much to successful professional women as they do the youth,” Golden said.

Before the breakout sessions, Morgan Nichole Martin of the nearby nutrition and fitness company Live and Believe Wellness (a.k.a. The Lab) led an energetic dance activity for both young people and Council members. The exercise was designed not only to help participants loosen up, but also to open up.

“We naturally store so much inside of our bodies that we don’t even realize,” Martin said. “Sometimes we store stress, we store grief, we store so many things in our body, that movement just allows it to be able to completely get out.”

Martin, who has participated in all five Empowerment Days, felt the event provided an important opportunity for young people to slow down and reconnect.

“They are around a lot of noise often,” she said. “If nothing else to have a day where you are connecting, slowing down for a minute, getting some joy, learning some new tools and practices they can put into everyday life.”

While Martin kicked off the day by turning the energy up to 11, Christina Robinzine of Sunkiss’d Wellness LLC, concluded it on a much calmer note. With participants stretched out on yoga mats, Robinzine led a sound bath, a guided relaxation experience that uses soothing sounds and vibrations from singing bowls to promote calm, mindfulness, and stress relief.

Live and Believe Wellness was one of several community partners that contributed to the experience. Over the years, the Council has welcomed many Black-owned and women-owned businesses from the neighborhood to participate in Empowerment Day. Gainer Reilly noted that these businesses serve as additional role models for the young women while helping them feel welcome and connected in those spaces.

Special thanks to local neighborhood businesses Live and Believe Wellness, South Side Blooms, and Alicia Starks and Mane in Heaven from Barrington.

Thanks also to Leader Council members Nancy Iannotta and Latoya Conners Gray who presented and helped lead activities.