Flossmoor resident Mallory Price is a 2015 winner of the annual 30 Under 30 award from Windy City Times. The publication established the award to honor men and women under the age of 30 who have made substantial contributions to the Chicago area’s LGBTQ (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer/Questioning) community.
Price, 27, has worked for the last few years at Chicago House and Social Service Agency, most recently as a career services manager. The agency helps individuals and families by providing housing, employment services, medical linkage and retention services, HIV prevention services, legal services and other supportive programs.
She left her position at Chicago House last month to take a position as vice president of operations for a construction company. Although Price is taking leave of the social work field for now, she plans to run job-readiness workshops for Chicago House’s employment program each month.
Price grew up on Chicago’s South Side and in Tinley Park. She attended Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame, where she was president of the Gay and Straight Alliance. As a Point Foundation scholar, she attended the University of Chicago for her master’s in social work. During graduate school, Price interned at the LGBTQ Host Home Program sponsored by Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN), a social service agency helping at-risk youth. She helped raise more than $10,000 to help house LGBTQ youth.
Price is also a vice chair of the Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s, and helped pioneer the first scholarship at the schools for LGBTQ students, awarded to two students in April.
Price told the H-F Chronicle that she found her dream home – a three-bedroom Georgian Colonial – near downtown Flossmoor. The house and community, she said, met the three criteria she had established in looking for a residence in the suburbs: an older home with historic charm at an affordable price; a diverse and LGBTQ-friendly community; and nearby shopping and easy access to the city.
“Living and working in the city was convenient and had a lot to offer,” Price said. “But I finally decided that I wanted more space, a home where I could start a family, and I wanted to begin saving more so that I could start my own business someday. I felt the high cost of living in the city was not conducive to my goals.”
Price said she started her house search in several southwest suburbs but was “disheartened when I found sprawling subdivisions with homes that all looked the same and a lack of diversity and/or intellectual community.”
Then she remembered trips to Flossmoor as a child.
“I thought that Flossmoor would probably be out of my price range, but to my surprise, it wasn’t at all,” Price said. “I looked at the crime rates, the educational background of residents, which surpassed all the suburbs I was considering, plus I considered it a huge bonus that there was easy access to the University of Chicago, where I work part-time.”
She found her house, which was exactly what she had been looking for. The house, and the H-F area, met all her criteria.
“I put in an offer on a short-sale and, to my surprise, less than a month later I was getting ready to close.”