"TOGETHER WE PRAY"
April Redzic President & CEO, DuPagePads
April Redzic, MNA, was imprinted with a need to help children and families struggling with poverty at an early age. As a Big Brother Big Sisters tutor during high school, she saw first-hand how economic disadvantage affects a child’s learning and well-being—but also how resilient and creative the human spirit is, especially when caring people come forward to help.
Today, April is President & CEO of DuPagePads, an organization that provides a warm place to sleep and a beacon of hope for those experiencing homelessness in DuPage County. She joined the organization in July of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and led the organization through a shift to sustain hotel-based emergency shelter provision, a new strategic plan, and the acquisition and conversion of a 125-room hotel to create Illinois’ first Interim Housing Center of its kind.
With 20 years of experience in Chicagoland nonprofits in the housing sphere, Redzic’s vision is simple: Everyone should have a safe place that they can call home.
Prior to joining DuPagePads, Redzic served as Vice President of Resource Development for Kids Above All, and also held director roles at the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago and Catholic Charities in Chicago. Redzic holds a master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration from Notre Dame University – Mendoza College of Business and a Bachelor of Science from Loyola University Chicago.
“A stable home environment is the cornerstone of everything for someone who is struggling with their life conditions,” states Redzic. “If you do not have an address, you cannot get a job. If you do not have a place to sleep, you cannot be rested for a job interview—or perform well in a classroom. If you do not know where you are going to sleep on a given night, it is hard to plan for the future. It all begins with having a room of one’s own and a safe personal space to live in.”
For more than 35 years, DuPagePads’s mission has been is to end homelessness in DuPage County, Illinois. Its signature year-round programs feed and shelter individuals and families who are homeless, and connect them to case management and other services that can address the underlying cause of their homelessness.
