{"id":3745,"date":"2024-05-03T15:35:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T15:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3745"},"modified":"2024-05-03T15:35:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T15:35:34","slug":"passion-drives-mallory-gro-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3745","title":{"rendered":"Passion drives Mallory, GRO Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aaron
Aaron Mallory (second from left) and the GRO Community team at the Saluki Ball.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aaron Mallory is implementing the skills he learned at Southern Illinois University to advance the mission of his organization, GRO Community.<\/p>\n

A mental health service provider, GRO Community specializes in trauma-informed treatment for boys and men from low socio-economic groups and\/or Black and Brown communities. One of its keys focuses is curbing gun violence among these groups in Chicago and beyond.<\/p>\n

A 2010 graduate of SIU\u2019s College of Engineering, Computing, Technology, and Mathematics, Mallory favors a proactive, process-driven approach to combating these issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are supporting marginalized communities from a different approach,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to use economics and systems to create change. We want to solve the gun violence issue, which greatly affects Black youth and is heavily intertwined with mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallory came to SIU from Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School in Chicago, and he had to prove himself to stay enrolled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t the best student in high school, but I wasn\u2019t the worst either,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting into SIU was one of the best things that happened to me. I took University 101 and was able to ground myself in the college experience. I learned life skills and lessons and finished my first year with a 3.7 GPA.\u201d<\/p>\n

He joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, took part in the Saluki Summer Bridge program, and the Success in Engineering Through Excellence in Diversity program. He eventually became the vice president of Kappa Alpha Psi and received internships with John Deere and Boeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSIU really gave me my foundation. I learned how to navigate business and people,\u201d Mallory said. \u201cMy experience at SIU was love. It\u2019s a very diverse environment. It really cultivated the passion within me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to Chicago after graduation in 2010, Mallory knew he wanted to be involved in mentoring kids. He earned a master\u2019s degree in social work from the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a job, but it wasn\u2019t my passion,\u201d he said. \u201cI started working on GRO Community full time on March 13, 2020. It grew like crazy. Within a year, we had 10 staff members. Now we have 80, and we\u2019re aggressively hiring now. I am trying to create a pipeline of students from SIU to come work for us. Currently, there are nine Salukis on the staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that SIU connection that led GRO Community to become the Cocktail Reception Sponsor for the second annual Saluki Ball in Chicago. With a $10,000 donation to the ball, which raises funds that bridge the financial gap for SIU students, Mallory and GRO Community were among the event\u2019s most notable backers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, I was going to buy a table, but then I went online and saw testimonials from students impacted by these funds, and I knew we could do something bigger than that,\u201d Mallory said. \u201cSIU has been really good to me, and I wanted to show appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson Aaron Mallory is implementing the skills he learned at Southern Illinois University to advance the mission of his organization, GRO Community. A mental health service provider, GRO Community specializes in trauma-informed treatment for boys and men from low socio-economic groups and\/or Black and Brown communities. One of its keys focuses is curbing … Continue reading Passion drives Mallory, GRO Community<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3747,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions\/3747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}