For the third year in a row, HSA Commercial Real Estate’s social outreach arm, HSAwareness, traveled to Chicago Commons’ Paulo Freire Family Center in the Back of the Yards neighborhood to help spruce up the facility’s playground and deliver school supplies.

The team from HSAwareness, led by HSA CEO Bob Smietana and senior vice president Josephine Thomas-Hoytt, brought 24 backpacks filled with school supplies for Chicago Commons students who are preparing to enter kindergarten this fall. HSA’s team also spread new mulch and wood chips, planted flowers, and stained wood furniture and fixtures at the Paulo Freire Family Center, which provides comprehensive early childhood education programs for local families in need.

For more than 120 years, Chicago Commons has partnered with individuals, families and communities to overcome poverty, discrimination and isolation by providing access to programs to help children, families and seniors live richer, more fulfilling lives.