5K For Hopeful Beginnings

Pre Race Packet Pick Up

Starting the week of May 5, 2025

Hopeful Beginnings Office

510 N. Plum Grove Road

Palatine, IL 60067

Race Day Packet Pick Up and Registration

8:30 AM at Twin Lakes in Palatine

Race Start

9:30 AM

Register early....registration fee increases on May 1, 2025!

Since its conception, Hopeful Beginning’s vision has been that all children deserve a loving home. Hopeful Beginnings acknowledges that caring for those who care for children is the best way to ensure that little ones have all they need to grow and thrive in the world. In order to achieve this, the agency provides a plethora of services, including adoption services, case management, and access to free baby essentials, as well as free perinatal mental health counseling for birthing persons experiencing postpartum depression/anxiety, grief, and loss of a pregnancy and or difficulty adjusting to parenthood.

Hopeful Beginnings takes its responsibility to the community and to children very seriously and is committed to providing quality services. As a 501c3, Hopeful Beginnings is committed to serving all families without prejudice. This means we are proud of our history of being founded in 1887 by Sisters of the Episcopal Church, and we are still supported in small part by a grant by Episcopal Charities, but as a public agency, we are bound to our duty to serve children and families of all religions, income levels, races, and orientations.

Hopeful Beginnings staff is second to none in their wide range of experience and expertise.

Founded in 1887 by the Episcopal Sisters of St. Mary, they began assisting low income women and children in Chicago’s south side. By 1894, the sisters moved to the west side and began to shelter orphans and children of ill and unemployed working women, soon after, it evolved into foster care and became known as St. Mary’s Home for Children.

Increasing demands for an adoption program in the early 1950’s, a thrust was made in that direction. By 1968, the Agency was asked by the Lakeview-Uptown Mental Health Center of the Chicago Board of Health to accept referrals of children and their parents in this community, who were facing crises-in school, neighborhood and at home, thus adopting the new program name of St. Mary’s Services for Children, while keeping the corporate title of St. Mary’s Home for Children.

By the mid 1970’s services for birth parents in need and families looking to adopt became the primary focus and the name was officially changed to “St. Mary’s Services”. In 1989, St. Mary’s left Chicago and moved to the Northwest Suburbs of Arlington Heights. Open Adoption began to surface in the 1990’s and as time went on, it became more evident that this type of adoption was best for the adoption triad. During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, St. Mary’s also provided home study services to those adopting Internationally, which continued until early 2014.

In 2013, we redefined our vision and clarified our strategic plan to include educating teen mothers so that they may provide the best possible home for their children. We are more community focused, doing community outreach, and have assessed that due to our program in the high schools, teen pregnancies are on the decline in the six schools that we serve. In the autumn of 2017, we did a study to determine two things. What community in the Northwest Suburban Area had the most need and what are the needs in that area. The community that was identified was Palatine and the needs were hands down: Counseling for Postpartum depression, Grief and loss of pregnancy, and Adjustment to Parenthood. We started counseling and then moved to Palatine immediately afterwards. We continue to provide adoption services for both women experience unplanned pregnancies and families wishing to expand their families, along with providing FREE counseling services with pregnancy and/or parenting issues.

In early 2020, we started doing business as “Hopeful Beginnings of St. Mary’s Services”, and are back to basics as were the founders of our great agency, that is, serving the needs of the community!