More Hoops in More Hoods

While B-Ball on the Block is taking Little Village by storm, Back of the Yards is also getting in on the basketball action. Over at the Neighborhood Sports Chicago web site, Cristobal Martinez has a report with photos from last Friday night's action at 48th and Marshfield. This is the first year Back of the Yards has had a full-scale Hoops in the Hood Friday night basketball league with food, fun and introductions to service agencies visiting different blocks all summer long.

Speaking as a neighborhood resident, I'm delighted to see this getting off the ground in Back of the Yards. I was out there myself last Friday night and can say firsthand that it was a lot of fun and clearly a new experience for kids and families. Many of the kids couldn't believe they could just go up and get a hot dog, an icie or a bag of popcorn for free. Neighbors not just from the target block but from a three-block radius stopped by. Some of the kids on my own block played for a team sponsored by the UNION Impact Center. Part of the point of the effort is to bridge the various divisions of the neighborhood--race, ethnicity, language, gang territories--and I'm very proud that my neighbors on the UNION Impact team were part of one of the few where a diverse group of kids were playing on the same team.

In recent years the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council has gone through some transition in leadership and focus, and "Hoops" is helping the council raise its profile in the neighborhood in a new and positive way. Martinez's story quoted BYNC executive director Craig Chico giving a key stat to measure the impact to date: "If you want to measure our success with a number, we've served over 600 hot dogs each week."

Bridging the School-Community Gap

On the surface, it seems like schools and communities ought to be natural partners. Neighborhood schools are filled with kids who walk just a few blocks every day, often escorted by their parents. They are big public spaces, often next to parks that are filled with locals at night and on the weekends. Yet schools constantly say they don't see their parents enough, and neighborhood folks say schools are often aloof from the local goings-on.

I've recently come across a couple of different strategies for trying to bridge the divide. The photo above was taken in February at Reavis Elementary's Family Art Night. This school year Reavis has been hosting family events every couple of months or so, inviting parents to join their children in activities or letting parents get a taste of their children's after-school activities through a "showcase." It's been a big hit--administrators say they've never seen so many parents show up for a school-related event. In December, about 200 of them showed up in a blizzard to see their kids perform in the end-of-semester showcase. This is one of many new things happening at Reavis since it became part of Elev8 Chicago.

Another tack is being taken in Pilsen. Last week, about 40 principals, parent and community leaders and university representatives headed out to Itasca for an overnight planning retreat. They began the process of drawing up a five-year plan for education in Pilsen, which should help ease the transitions from one stage of education to another (like pre-K to K-12 and K-12 to college), reduce the high school dropout rate and improve adult education and job training. This group, known as the Pilsen Education Task Force, grew out of a Principals' Table that brought local school leaders together to discuss common issues.

The Reavis strategy has successfully brought formerly absent parents through the school doors, but have yet to engage them in deeper levels of partnership; in Pilsen, they've brought stakeholders together from a variety of levels, but acknowledge that parents are still under-represented.

What are other neighborhoods and schools are doing to build bridges? How's it going? Now that Reavis is getting parents inside the building, what's the next step? Should more neighborhoods be creating task forces like the one in Pilsen, or are there other ways to go here?

Power of Five Challenge #5: A Public Private Place

Much as Placemaking Chicago likes to stress accessibility being important to making a place, I think lots of us who like to ramble around Chicago want to know the cool hideaways, the spots somewhat off the beaten track.

The photo above is from one such hideaway. The Art House Studio in Pilsen is closer to the historic Heart of Italy strip at 24th and Oakley than it is to the bustling gallery scene along 18th east and west of Ashland. Outside it looks like just another pretty Chicago two-flat, but then you look in the garden apartment and see colors everywhere, like this:



The Art House is a space shared by Brazilian women artists living and working in Pilsen. Artist Patricia Peixoto says in addition to being part of events like Pilsen Open Studios, they have had their neighbors over for informal parties in the summertime. In this way, the Art House becomes both a hub for the immediate area and a bridge in and out of the neighborhood.

In October, Peixoto and longtime friend and colleague Magda Dejose showed off The White Garden, a set of peephole installations exploring femininity, and a set of paintings commemorating the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil. Like Colibri Gallery, the Art House hosts an event every fourth Saturday of the month. Theirs is an afternoon opening from 1 to 4 p.m. If you wanted to make a day of it, you could stitch a visit to their gallery together with a couple more great places, like stops at Tianguis and Golden Age, followed by a break at Cafe Mestizo and a leisurely dinner at Mundial Cocina Mestiza to keep you occupied until the fandango.

And that, my friends, is placemaking at its finest.

P.S. Since I cheated and gave you the same place twice earlier, I'm going to add a 5b with another space so you do get to see five cool Pilsen locales in this series. Stay tuned.

Englewood's Viaduct

I just happened upon this cool post over at the Windy Citizen, featuring Growing Home and the viaduct right next to it. Last summer I went up on that viaduct with some neighbor kids and had a great time. Unfortunately, the poster encountered a pack of stray dogs. Fortunately, everything turned out OK.

Last summer when I went up there I thought of the Bloomingdale Trail. Oh, for the day when the Bloomingdale Trail is done and Englewood is safe enough to think about a similar park.

Growing Home's Satisfied Customer

When I moved to Back of the Yards from the North Side four years ago, one of the things I thought I would miss the most was biking home with my weekly summer box of veggies from a CSA (community supported agriculture) share.

Not any more. The photo above shows you what was inside the box I biked home with today. Growing Home's urban farm at 58th and Wood is the pickup point for their CSA share program, and it's an easy bike ride from my house. A few weeks ago, I walked over with three or four of my young neighbors, who got a complete tour from Tyra Rodgers, who manages the site. They learned how hoop houses control temperature so you can grow cold-tolerant vegetables through most of even a Chicago winter, how soaker hoses work and how you can keep a garden healthy without pesticide and artificial fertilizer, among other things.

Today, they couldn't come with, but I got to hear from Tyra how the entire Growing Home staff went to visit Charlie Trotter's and see what he does with the vegetables they grow. They got a full kitchen tour and the opportunity to sample a seven-course meal. "It was really, really amazing," he said. "A once in a lifetime experience." Before the event he was reluctant to go because he's a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy and this event required a coat and tie. But afterwards, "it was worth it." Now he's hoping the staff at Trotter's will come down to the farm so he can give them a tour, too.

Tyra also told me he's been making good friends with the neighbors whose houses surround the farm. One gentleman, who let them use his hose before they had their own water supply, is a fellow gardener with a back lot full of watermelon, greens and other goodies. His grandchildren got to pick a few tomatoes and cucumbers as a thank you for the early support.

When I got home with my box one of the girls who came last time and two of her friends all wanted to see what was inside. "Carrots!" one exclaimed joyfully. Plus, the first tomatoes of the season, small plum tomatoes we all plopped into our mouths right away. Beets, too, which these little guys and gals like. Earlier this season I went up and down the block making people try asparagus in lemon butter with a little salt. There was a two-year-old who kept coming back for more.

Today, as we were snacking on tomatoes and carrots, one of my older neighbors went by and looked over with interest. When I explained how a share works--pay up front and get veggies all summer--and how two or more people could go in on a box together to make it easier to front the cash, she looked interested. This summer I'm splitting a share with a friend out by Midway airport, but maybe next year four or five of us could split a share here on the block.

March Madness of the community kind

Almost four years ago, I bought a house in the Back of the Yards/Garfield Boulevard area with the help of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. Partly in gratitude, partly to make new friends in my new neighborhood, I joined their local advisory board.

Tonight's board meeting was one of the best I've been to in a long time. Though home sales are in a slump, our numbers are better this year than they were last year, largely because we were without a local director in the office. I'd like to give a big shout-out to our new neighborhood director, Emilio Carrasquillo, for his tireless dedication and visible presence in the neighborhood. It's his drive and persistence that have brought in homebuyers and increasing numbers of homeowners looking to avoid foreclosure.

Our board is also regaining energy. Before I arrived, NHS was a strong presence at local CAPS meetings. Staff and board members had worked hard and successfully to reduce crime and get problem buildings out of the hands of criminals, turning them into newly rehabbed, owner-occupied homes. Their work made news, including this story from December 2003. But everything has a life cycle, and the NHS-CAPS relationship withered a bit in later years, with changing staff and board members.

When I joined the board, I was told one of my responsibilities was to attend my local beat meeting. Frankly, I was willing, but not too excited about it. First, I know schools and kids a lot better than I know beats and cops, and my years teaching alternative high school have left me with some concern that "fighting crime" can all too easily turn into locking up our kids, not helping them grow. But I made a promise to go and have tried to keep it.

Our local beat meeting has struggled, too--there was also a leadership void there, and we're still working on having the district formally recognize the new local leadership. City cuts in CAPS community liaisons have also really hurt the grassroots organizing that gets people to the meeting.

But at tonight's NHS meeting, people were ready to get up and try again. So we've created our own form of "March Madness"--next month, all seven or so of us will go to each other's beat meetings to see what we can learn from each other. There are three of us in the same beat who are going to work together to make sure we have our end of the meeting organized--agendas, recruitment. Then, we'll put pressure on our district to start sending us the same officers more consistently, giving us better updates on responses to our tips and requests from one meeting to the next. Another board member is planning to revive his local block club; we've got his back, and maybe watching him will help some of the rest of us (like me) see what we can do on our own blocks.

To top it all off, Emilio and at least one, maybe even two of my fellow board members will be joining me at the NCP Getting It Done Conference on March 26 and 27.

Each One Teach One: College workshop in Back of the Yards

On Saturday, January 5, 68 high school students, college students and their parents gathered in the basement of the Immaculate Heart of Mary church hall at 46th and Ashland to learn about college admissions and financial aid. The workshop was the latest in a series of efforts by college students and recent graduates who are part of Holy Cross/Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish to encourage younger students in the neighborhood to plan for college.

Like many lower-income Chicago neighborhoods, Back of the Yards has very few college students and college graduates living in the area. Many students in our community are the first in their families to even consider college. Many also lack US citizenship or the proper residency status to be eligible for federal grants and loans for college, one huge barrier on top of all the other challenges they face in preparing for higher education. It's easy for high school students here to get discouraged and think college is not for them. But thanks to the efforts of the Holy Cross/IHM college group and others, this picture is beginning to change.

Three years ago, the parish hosted a gathering of current college students in the neighborhood. That meeting grew into a group of students and recent graduates who met monthly to plan service activities and develop ways to educate more local youth about college and how to get there. Since then, the group has regularly held a workshop for neighborhood students in grades 6-8 at the Peace and Education Coalition student summits, held in the fall and spring. This year, the group wanted to move into work with high school juniors and seniors and their parents.

The January workshop featured a video about three recent college graduates from the parish and their stories of how they made it to and through school. One of them paid for college without access to federal financial aid by doing two years at City Colleges before transferring to more-expensive UIC, plus starting his own business. Afterwards, table groups were encouraged to write down their questions about college admissions, financial aid and academic and student life. These questions formed the basis for a panel discussion with admissions and financial aid officers from local colleges and universities. The college group web site has a page with scholarship information, including both a link to the federal student aid form and a directory of scholarship money for undocumented students.

The workshop organizers assembled an outstanding panel, many of whom stuck around long afterwards to talk one-on-one with students. Panel members were:

Mirna Garcia, financial aid counselor at DePaul University
Erasto Martinez, admissions counselor at Loyola University of Chicago
Ramona Meza, youth coach for Instituto del Progreso Latino's Escalera Program
Christian Yanez, director of Hispanic/Latino student affairs, Northeastern University
Greg Michie, professor at Illinois State University
Nancy Serrano, school and community relations liaison for the Chicago teacher education pipeline and partnerships, Illinois State University.

Students and parents who attended really appreciated the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. "It did give us a basic understanding of the steps to get into college and about financial aid," said Jazmin Panfilo, a senior at Holy Trinity High School who has applied to UIC and wants to become a teacher. "I think it was great."

"There were more people than we expected, so that was really good," said Jesse Iniguez, a recent graduate of UIC and a member of the college student group at Holy Cross/IHM. "It gives us hope."

What gave me hope was seeing so many young people in college or recent graduates creating a path for others to follow. I think the best part of the day was the icebreaker, when high school students had to find someone in the room who had: traveled abroad, gone to graduate school, been in a college fraternity, etc., etc. With all the talent in that room, it wasn't hard to find at least one person for each category.

It inspires me to see a core group of young adults who grew up in the neighborhood proving it is possible to finish high school, go on to college and make a good life for yourself. Not only that, but these young adults are committed to sharing their experiences and knowledge with the next generation of high school students and their families. The two primary organizers of this event were Jose Alonso, a Northwestern grad who recently finished his law degree at Loyola, and Fabian Garcia, who earned a bachelor's in computer engineering from UIC. Great job!