Alison Bowen

Refugees walk through the departure terminal to a bus at Dulles International Airport on Aug. 31, 2021, in Dulles, Virginia, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

‘These people will arrive with trauma.’ How Chicago groups are helping to welcome Afghan refugees.

September 1, 2021 at 11:37 a.m.

Grocery shopping. Furnishing apartments. Finding translators. These are just some of the ways Chicago resettlement agencies are working to welcome an expected influx of Afghan refugees who fled their homes...

Shoaib Syed reads with a young refugee student on Aug. 18, 2021, at Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America in Chicago.

Refugee children speak multiple languages, but struggle in school. Chicago volunteers help through tutoring. ‘Welcoming these children robustly is so important.’

August 25, 2021 at 5:06 p.m.

The room was bright and airy, colorful bins decorated with spaceship stickers and walls stacked with filled bookshelves. Masked tutors and students paged through books like "Hidden Figures." Robots and...

How parents and teachers can help kids nervous about returning to school

August 19, 2021 at 4:44 p.m.

After a year of isolation and online schooling, some children might be beyond ready to return to school buildings. Others might be nervous about seeing friends again or being back...

Ashton Kroner plays with her service dog, Ariel, on Aug. 18, 2021, at her home in Crystal Lake. Kroner is a veteran of the United State Marine Corps and veteran outreach coordinator for the Road Home Program at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She was stationed in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012.

‘It’s getting punched in the gut.’ Veterans, families try to reconcile Afghanistan collapse with military sacrifice.

August 19, 2021 at 2:14 p.m.

The dark evenings spent saluting coffins loaded onto aircraft bound for America. The Afghan boy with a wounded arm, recovering in an American military hospital. The wife of a Marine...

Christian Santos, 22, gets a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from Alexis Watts at a pop-up vaccination event at Guaranteed Rate Field before the Chicago White Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays on June 8, 2021, in Chicago.

When is it a HIPAA violation to disclose proof of vaccination? More COVID-19 questions answered.

August 17, 2021 at 11:07 a.m.

When is it a HIPAA violation to disclose proof of vaccination? How can you still catch COVID-19 if you're vaccinated? And what measures can you take to stay healthy until...

Robin Tillotson, shown on Aug. 12, 2021, runs a travel company called This I Do For Me, which focuses mostly on international group travel for Black women over 50 years old.

Chicagoan’s travel company specializes in group trips for women above 50. ‘Once you hit 50, life is really just beginning.’

August 13, 2021 at 9:49 p.m.

Robin Tillotson remembers her first flight as an escape, and a measure of her mother's love. Her father had cancer, and her mother sent her and her brother to Los...

Scott Imbrie wears virtual reality goggles as he takes part in a scientific study, July 30, 2021.

Quadriplegic man first in Chicago to participate in research for robotic prosthetic limbs: ‘We always need to figure out a new way to do things’

August 25, 2021 at 10:33 a.m.

The first time Scott Imbrie cried over his catastrophic injury, he was looking out over Lake Michigan from a room inside the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. But as soon as...

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