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Healthy Demand At Marquette Health Center

11/11/2009, 5:07 PM

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Elizabeth Duffrin

In its first three months, Marquette Elementary School’s new health center attracted twice as many clients as expected. With such high turnout, the center could become self-supporting as early as January, according to staff.

The health center, part of LISC/Chicago's Elev8 program at Marquette and four other middle schools, serves students and their families; eventually, it will serve the wider community.

Eric Young Smith

Parents love it,” said Meridith Casey, the nurse practitioner at the center, which is run by Access Community Health Network. “I think a lot of people are switching over here because they like the care that they’ve gotten, and they like the convenience.”

On July 12, Marquette became the second of Chicago’s five Elev8 school health centers to open with funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies and other grants.

The idea behind Elev8, a national demonstration project, is to show that holistic services for middle school students provided at the school site — from health care, to counseling and mentoring, to academic support and enrichment — can boost their academic achievement and better prepare them for high school.

Principal Paul O’Toole credits Marquette’s health center with helping to increase student attendance in the first months of school. Fewer students are heading home over minor medical complaints, he explained. “Down the road I think it will lead to better achievement,” he added.

Principal Paul O'Toole says the health center has reduced absences and should over time help lead to higher student achievement.

Eric Young Smith

The health centers serve a secondary function, providing needed medical services to families in underserved neighborhoods. While all give first priority for services to middle-school students, they will eventually serve the wider community outside of regular school hours.

Marquette’s center now serves students in grades 6 to 8 and their siblings, and opened to their parents in mid-October. Eventually it will open to the entire Chicago Lawn community.

Accepting a wider client base will allow the health centers to become financially self-supporting within a year. Marquette’s remarkable turnout — 500 clients by mid-October — may allow it to reach that goal in only six months, Access reported.

While Access has opened school health centers before, the enthusiasm greeting the opening of center at Marquette (as well as one at Perspectives Charter School in Auburn Gresham) was unprecedented, said Access administrator Jim Murphy.

The Elev8 health centers hoped to become financially self-supporting within a year, but Marquette's might reach that point within six months.

Eric Young Smith

“In the past, we opened up the school health center the way we opened any other health center,” said Murphy. “We would do a market analysis, connect with governmental officials, make sure it made good business sense for us to be there, and we would hang up a shingle and open up the doors. They opened quietly.”

The Elev8 project was different. Access spent almost two years designing the center with input from parents, school staff and their community partners. Every partner spread the word about the center’s opening. Southwest Organizing Project even sent its HealthCorp volunteer to phone and knock on doors to encourage parents to sign their children up for services.

“By the time we opened up the doors, everyone was excited that we were going to be there,” said Murphy. “The community, the parents, the organizers and the school.”

Marquette Students Interview Clarence Page

11/5/2009, 12:37 PM

Maureen Kelleher

Seven Marquette Elementary School sixth-graders interviewed Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page in a crowded auditorium on October 20 to celebrate the News Literacy Project’s arrival in Chicago.

“What is the difference between facts and truth?” asked Joy Jones, who wants to become a lawyer.

“That’s a terrific question,” Page told her. “It’s something that a lot of people miss.” He went on to cite F.

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page with Marquette students.

Eric Young Smith

Scott Fitzgerald’s distinction between nonfiction writers, who write facts, and fiction writers, “who write about truth” of the human experience. “Reporters go out and write facts. We columnists try to write truths,” he added. “That’s why we write shorter.”

Through an engaging curriculum and exposure to working reporters, the News Literacy Project helps middle and high school students get at truth by sifting the facts from the spin, marketing and outright hoaxes present in today’s media landscape. (For a more general story about the project, please click here.)

“There is really no other educational approach out there right now to help students know where to find information that is relevant and how to distinguish it from the many opinion-oriented blogs and other biased sources,” said Marquette Principal Paul O’Toole.

Marquette is the first Chicago school to partner with NLP; the event served as a recruiting tool for more local schools and media professionals to get involved. Students from Perspectives Calumet Middle’s budding newspaper had a chance to ask Page about his work during a reception after his talk.

At the same time, representatives from Jet Magazine and the Chicago Tribune met with social studies teacher Courtney Rogers and some of her students. NLP has already recruited an MSNBC producer and reporters from the Tribune and the Associated Press to speak with Rogers’ classes in upcoming weeks.

Media teacher Courtney Rogers

Eric Young Smith

Rogers volunteered to work with NLP for the opportunity to help her students build their research skills. “Middle school is when they start their research,” she said. “They really need to know what is true and what is not. I think it’s really good to start right away.”

Later this year her students will tackle monthly research projects, and the worth of NLP will be put to the test. “They’ll know how to look for sources, which are reliable and which are not.”

Students said NLP activities will help them in social studies and other classes. “It’ll help us figure out some words that are really tough and help us know what’s true and what’s not,” said Oscar Navarette.

Exposure to quality media is also building students’ general knowledge. For example, Navarette learned how vaccines work from a news story about swine flu. “They put a little bit of the swine flu disease inside you” and then your body fights it off so you don’t get sick, he said.

Page was impressed by the passion and determination he saw in the Marquette students. “These kids are wonderful,” he said.

One young man spoke with him afterwards about his desire to be an architect. Page recounted the student’s rationale; “’Math has never been strong in my family. I want to change that.’ How could you not love a kid like that?”

Marquette Students Honing Noses for News

11/5/2009, 12:36 PM

Monday, October 19, 2009

Maureen Kelleher

With help from the News Literacy Project, 150 Marquette Elementary School sixth graders are honing their noses for news, learning to sift out the facts from the opinion, advertising and even fiction they encounter in the endless stream of information available through television, Internet, radio and print.

Marquette social studies teacher Courtney Rogers and NLP’s Chicago coordinator Peter Adams are leading the students at one of the five schools in LISC's Elev8 program through two weeks of learning how to determine what news to believe.

The News Literacy Project is a national program that taps seasoned journalists to teach students the critical thinking skills they need to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of news across media platforms.

Students are exploring other basic questions about news, new media and their role in a democracy: Why does news matter? Why is First Amendment protection of free speech so vital to American democracy? What challenges and opportunities do the Internet and digital media create?

The News Literacy Project is an innovative national educational program that is mobilizing seasoned journalists to help middle school and high school students sort fact from fiction in the digital age. The project’s primary aim is to teach students the critical thinking skills they need to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information across all media and platforms.

Students are learning how to distinguish verified information from raw messages, spin, gossip and opinion and are being encouraged to seek news and information that will make them well-informed citizens and voters. The curriculum is flexible and it scales well” from middle to high school, said Adams.

At the end of the sequence students will produce projects to demonstrate their new knowledge. Other middle and high school students involved with the News Literacy Project have created board games, short videos and posterboards.

The Marquette students geared up for an October 20 visit from Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, who will visit in the midst of the process, giving the youth time to whet their appetites to ask questions about the news business.

At Marquette, Adams said students are entering the project with a broad range of prior knowledge about news. While some already understand the basics of how a newspaper works and even understand complex terms like transparency as they relate to news, others are much more naïve.

“It’s a mix,” he said. “There are students who have never really thought about this.”

During a recent class, students transitioned from examining advertising to reading a news article about the Naperville teen who died of swine flu. When asked why that story was placed where it was in the paper, “some students were tempted to say, ‘oh, her family probably paid to have it put there,’ ” said Adams. “It was a good misguided comment because it opened up the discussion.”

The partnership with Marquette is NLP’s first venture in Chicago. Former Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Miller founded the News Literacy Project in 2008, after speaking to his daughter’s middle school class about how journalism works.

NLP has already worked with schools in Bethesda, Maryland, and New York City. Adams says NLP hopes to expand to more Elev8 schools, possibly as early as winter 2010. “It fits with the Elev8 model. All the principals and directors were excited about the program.”

White House “Urban Czar” Tours Perspectives

11/5/2009, 12:32 PM

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Maureen Kelleher

Perspectives-Calumet Middle School on Oct. 30 hosted a visit from Adolfo Carrión, Jr., director of the White House Office on Urban Affairs, who said he hoped to replicate initiatives like the school's Elev8 program.

In Chicago to address a conference of LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program, Carrion toured the school, met with a sixth-grade class and visited the school-based health center that’s the centerpiece of LISC’s Elev8 program in five middle schools.

Adolfo Carrion tours Perspectives-Calumet Middle School with (from left) Principal Tamara Davis and Elev8 Director Tenisha Jones.

Eric Young Smith

“He was very impressed with the health center,” said Tenisha Jones, Elev8 director for Perspectives and the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GADC). “I heard him say, ‘We need more of this.’ ”

The visit presented an opportunity to showcase the Elev8 model to a high-level representative of the Obama administration. President Obama created the Office on Urban Affairs last February, with the mission to develop a national strategy to help cities and their surrounding suburbs increase jobs, housing and quality of life.

Carrión, a city planner, grew up in New York City’s Bronx borough and served two terms as borough president before Obama tapped him to lead the new office. As a New Yorker, Carrión is very familiar with the Harlem Children’s Zone, a comprehensive effort to help children and families within a defined geographic area.

The Zone began in 1997 serving a 24-block section of Harlem. By 2007 its network of services, including parenting workshops, charter schools and programs to manage asthma and obesity, were serving 7,400 children and more than 4,100 adults over nearly 100 blocks.

Carrion visits the health center at Perspectives, about which he said: "We need to do more of this."

Eric Young Smith

When Chicago Elev8 partners compared their work to the Harlem effort, “He understood that,” said Carlos Nelson, executive director of GADC.

Representatives from Chicago Elev8 will attend a national conference in New York November 9-10 to learn more about the Harlem Children’s Zone and the Obama administration’s effort to replicate their success through a national Promise Neighborhoods Initiative.

Back in Chicago, Carrión also connected with the young man who took his photo for the Perspectives yearbook, sharing that he too had worked on the yearbook when he was in school.

“It was a really, really good time,” said Principal Tamara Davis. “Not just seeing the school, but visiting the South Side of Chicago and seeing really good and positive things regarding academics and living a healthy lifestyle.”

State of Renters Here: Insecure

9/17/2009, 12:23 PM

Thursday, September 17, 2009

John McCarron

Too many of Chicago’s 1.3 million renters are reeling from forced evictions due to foreclosures, layoffs, stagnant wages not keeping up with rents, and federal housing policies so hell-bent on home ownership they end up punishing renters.

“It’s pretty bad out there,” began Joy Aruguete, executive director of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp., in her wrap-up to some 200 housing experts and activists gathered for a “State of Renters” conference Sept. 15 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

"It's pretty bad out there," said Joy Aruguete, executive director of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp., summarizing the "State of Renters" in Chicago.

John McCarron

“There have to be more resources allocated to rental housing,” said Aruguete, whose agency is one of the most active local lead partners in LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program. “Renters continue to get squeezed into worse and worse situations, worse housing, worse neighborhoods.”

She said Bickerdike recently advertised the availability of new affordable apartments and, over a five-day period, more than 5,000 people picked up applications.

The Big Squeeze

The centerpiece of the conference, sponsored by the Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO) with support from LISC’s NCP and others, was a data-filled study tracing rental conditions here over the past 20 years. Some of its key findings were that:

· Though rental units still outnumber owner-occupied dwellings, between 1990 and 2005 the city lost more than 125,000 affordable rental units.

· Demolition of CHA high-rises, condo conversions and abandonment of larger walk-ups in close-in neighborhoods are combining to disperse renters to far Southwest and Northwest Side neighborhoods more accommodating to owners than renters.

· The rent burden on family budgets continues to outpace both wages and inflation. Between 2000 and 2007, the percent of households spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent grew from 40 percent to 53 percent, while the percent spending more than half their income on rent grew from 20 percent to 30 percent.

· Calls to MTO’s hotline reflect a surge in displacements due to foreclosure, a problem compounded by the fact that foreclosed owners are crowding into the ranks of families searching for affordable apartments.

“Chicago is mired in a foreclosure and affordability crisis,” said MTO executive director John Bartlett, arguing that conditions here and across urban America reflect national policies skewed against renters.

Level that bias

“The Bush administration’s solo strategy pushing homeownership has not and will not work,” Bartlett said. “President Obama needs to move to a more balanced policy. That’s why we’re trying to get the state of renters onto the national agenda.”

Sheila Crowley, president of the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition, said federal policies favor homeowners at the expense of renters.

John McCarron

But shifting federal resources toward rental—perhaps with new or increased rent subsidies, or with individual tax credits—won’t be easy if they are to be funded by cutting incentives for homeownership.

Sheila Crowley, president of the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition, indicated such a tradeoff may be inevitable because the U.S. is subsidizing homeowners “at the expense” of rental housing. Total tax breaks for U.S. homeowners have been estimated at $150 billion per year, roughly three times federal spending on various rental subsidies.

Crowley singled out the deductibility of mortgage interest from one’s taxable income, along with generous capital gains treatment of home sales proceeds, as policies that most favor the wealthy, and “encourage people to get bigger houses with bigger mortgages.”

“How many bathrooms do you really need?” Crowley asked, suggesting some wealthier Americans might consider “right-sizing” their mega-houses.

However the pocketbook politics play out, Bickerdike’s Joy Aruguete summed up the concern of many in NCP with her wrap-up: “If people don’t have decent housing, there’s no way they can participate in the vitality of their communities. We need to organize, organize, organize; and to advocate, advocate, advocate.”

More information: John Bartlett, MTO, 773-292-4980 x226.

On-Site Health Centers Open at Elev8 Schools

9/10/2009, 1:15 AM

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Elizabeth Duffrin

When Nataline Morris registered her sixth grader for Perspectives-Calumet Middle School, she was surprised to find a brand new school health center occupying former classroom space on the building’s north side. Curious, she signed her daughter Emma up for a physical on the spot.

In May, Perspectives became the first of Chicago’s five Elev8 schools (the others are Ames Middle School, Marquette Elementary, Orozco Community Academy and Reavis Elementary) to open a health center, thanks to a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies and matching local funds.

Medical Assistant Racquel Lampkin takes the temperature of Jada Siler, 11, at the Perspectives-Calumet Middle School Health Center, 8131 S. May St. Jada's mother, Sonya Mace-Siler (left), looks on.

Gordon Walek

With the opening of the new school year, all Elev8 schools are offering comprehensive services including physicals and immunizations, treatment for acute and chronic illnesses such as asthma, and individual and family counseling. Convenient access to high-quality health care is scarce in many Chicago neighborhoods, and most middle and elementary schools have only a part-time nurse.

In Morris’ view, on-site care means parents will miss fewer hours of work “to rush home for things that aren’t really emergencies,” while kids will have fewer opportunities to leave school over minor health complaints, like headaches and stomachaches. “As soon as they get home, they feel better,” she remarked, with a wry glance at Emma, age 11.

The health centers are part of a larger plan to address many of the obstacles to school success common in low-income neighborhoods. These include poor eating and health habits, depression and risk-taking behavior.

Zairak Phillips, 14, and his father Andrew Phillips discuss the coming school year as Medical Assistant Racquel Lampkin reviews Zairak's medical records at the Perspectives-Calumet Middle School Health Center.

Gordon Walek

Each school’s Elev8 plan includes comprehensive sex education, fitness activities, nutrition education and regular visits from a dental van.

“We know in order for our students to achieve, it’s important that their physical and mental health is being taken care of,” said Perspectives Principal Tamara Davis.

The health center at Perspectives has already had an impact, she added. By the end of June, nearly half of returning middle school students had their required school physicals completed for this school year – an unprecedented occurrence.

In the past, the school has had to exclude some students who failed to meet the state-mandated October deadline. “Our students cannot afford to miss school,” said Davis. “With the health center here, we are excited that won’t happen.”

Building rapport with teens
The bright, airy health center at Perspectives is staffed by a nurse practitioner, a social worker, a medical assistant and a receptionist, all full-time employees of Access Community Health Network, which manages similar clinics at two Chicago high schools and is running the center at Marquette.

Nurse Practitioner Carol Wardlaw at the new Perspectives-Calumet Middle School Health Center.

Gordon Walek

The Elev8 health centers will be subsidized during their first two years of operation by the Atlantic grant, after which they must become self-sustaining. Toward that end, the Perspectives center will open its doors this fall to the entire Auburn-Gresham community.

So far, the center has served primarily middle school students who are being targeted for services by the Elev8 grant, but it also has welcomed students from the two small Perspectives high schools that occupy the same campus.

Parents of uninsured children are encouraged to sign them up for the state’s All Kids coverage. The school has required parents to sign a consent form for students to use the clinic as part of its registration, although parents can write a letter requesting their children be excluded. Students are then free to make their own appointments at the cost of $3 per visit.

To drum up business, nurse practitioner Carol Wardlaw and social worker Norma Jones visited middle school classrooms this spring and summer to introduce themselves and their services. They stress that the nature of their visits to the clinic will remain confidential.

“It’s really important for adolescents to have an adult they can talk to about their various concerns,” said Wardlaw. “Sometimes it’s not the parent they want to talk to.”

Without an adult confidant, teens can easily get into trouble relying on each other for advice on sensitive topics such as drugs or birth control, said Jones. “They seem to get lot of misinformation talking to each other.” When students come seeking her counsel, “I get them in the room, I tell them, ‘I’m not here to judge you, I’m here to help,’ ” she said.

Although condoms and birth control prescriptions are available at Elev8 health centers, neither is dispensed without an in-depth conversation that highlights the advantages of abstinence. Jones said she asks kids what they think is the most effective way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. “About 75 percent say condoms. I have to tell them, ‘No, not having sex is the 100 percent [effective] way.’ ”

Other common issues teens seek advice on include family and neighborhood conflicts and depression, said Jones. To uncover potential problems, students registering at the health center complete a confidential, four-page survey that includes questions about health history, health habits and concerns, risk-taking behaviors, exposure to violence, dating history, and their worries and fears.

Above all, Wardlaw and Jones say they want to communicate both caring and respect for their young clients. The goal, they said, is to motivate students to take an active role in pursuing their own health care.

In the exam room, Wardlaw sensed Emma’s nervousness about the upcoming shots and gave her a reassuring hug. Afterward, Jones met with her privately to review her survey while her mother waited in the reception area. Emma agreed later that she would feel comfortable coming to the health center on her own once school starts. “The doctors are nice,” she said, referring to Wardlaw and Jones.

Elev8 Goes Streetside With Health Fair, Art Show

8/25/2009, 2:41 PM

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ed Finkel

LISC/Chicago’s Elev8 program is becoming fully rooted in all five of its middle schools with the opening of on-site community health centers this summer and early fall. Perspectives-Calumet Middle School in Auburn Gresham, which opened its center in June, launched a major community outreach effort on July 23 with its Health Fair and Gallery Walk along 79^th Street near Racine Avenue.

Auburn Gresham residents check out the table of free drug samples provided by Walgreen's during the health fair.

Eunice Carson

Tenisha Jones, Elev8 program director at Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp., said she developed the list of vendors after surveying residents on their health concerns, which included diabetes, obesity, breast cancer and other women’s health issues.

Women's health was a major area of interest among those surveyed by LISC/Chicago's Elev8 program in organizing the event.

Eunice Carson

“I’m very excited about the vendors who are here,” she said, which included the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, Chicago Women’s Health Center, Federation of Community Schools, Campaign for Better Health Care, University of Illinois-Chicago College of Nursing, and University of Illinois School of Public Health. “I’m very much interested in bringing Elev8 into the community.”

“We’re looking to educate the community on what Elev8 is and the influence it’s having,” said Ramon Gardenhire, advocacy director for Elev8, which is funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. “We’re hoping to get parents in the community involved.”

The July 23 event included a jazzercise class designed to underscore the importance of fitness and healthy living.

Eunice Carson

A national initiative dedicated to providing middle-school age youth and their families with an array of services to help students succeed in school and life, Elev8 offers high-quality out-of-school time learning opportunities as well as comprehensive, age-appropriate, school-based health care.

Among the five Elev8 Chicago schools, health centers at Marquette Elementary and Reavis Elementary also opened this summer, and centers at Ames Middle School and Orozco Community Academy are scheduled to open before the school year begins.

The event featured a variety of health screenings.

Eunice Carson

During the Auburn Gresham health fair, vendors were grouped into categories – like advocacy, women’s health, child-specific services, and insurance-related products – so they could hopefully meet and create new partnerships, said Sam Perryman, health services coordinator at Perspectives. For example, Walgreen’s and the Access Community Health Network, a system of health clinics that’s on site at Perspectives, were discussing referrals back and forth.

“They can network together so everyone is referred to the appropriate person,” Perryman said. “Vendors more generally are making connections, so we can pull them together [for future initiatives].” And there was another benefit: “People who stop through also get a much broader idea of, for example, what their health insurance options are.”

Access Community Health Network wanted to get the word out about the newly opened clinic at Perspectives, said Terrie Jordan, clinic manager. “[Community members] don’t know that there’s a facility inside the school,” she said, adding that it’s mostly for students and expects to handle primarily physicals for school and sports teams.

Carlos Nelson, executive director of Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp., checks out the artwork of these Perspectives students.

Eunice Carson

Perspectives Principal Tamara Davis said students and their parents were excited to see the mosaics, paintings and mixed-media creations from the after-school Elev8 program on display.

These ranged from collages that drew inspiration from President Obama’s election to more abstract works like cardboard sculptures of raised tetrahedrons in complementary colors – yellow and purple, blue and orange, red and green, and black and white.

“We know the more students are involved in extracurricular activities, the more it translates into achievement in the classroom,” Davis said. “It’s important for us to step outside the school because we are part of the community.”

A father and son admire the latter's work on this presidentially inspired multimedia piece.

Eunice Carson

“Our kids are truly engaged,” said program manager Monique Turner. “The really enjoy the art classes and the art club. We try to make the connection between what’s going on during the day and after school [programming] … without them actually knowing.”

The appeals are similar for brothers Kendall and LeSean Harbin. “It’s been really fun to hang around with my friends and to create things,” said Kendall, who begins eighth grade in September. “It gives you a new experience.” Added ninth-grader LeSean, “I like hanging out with friends. I like working with art, with my hands.”

For another account of this event, please click here.

Orozco Students, Joffrey Ready to Boogaloo

8/6/2009, 9:33 AM

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Elizabeth Duffrin

The Wah-Watusi and the Boogaloo are coming to Orozco Academy in Pilsen this fall thanks to its new partnership with one of the country’s premier dance companies.

Students at Orozco will be dancing like it's 1969 during the after-school program provided through the Joffrey Ballet.

Orozco was one of six middle schools in Chicago to win two years of weekly dance instruction from The Joffrey Ballet as part of the company’s community engagement effort. Dance instruction in years past has included swing and Latin. This year’s theme: dances from the ’60s.

Orozco students were thrilled at their selection, said Principal Coralia Barraza. Beginning in October, the Joffrey dance club will become one of Orozco’s Elev8 after-school programs, which include a variety of academic, fitness and arts offerings. Participating students also receive three complimentary tickets each year to the ballet.

Joffrey provided this swing-oriented program at Near North Montessori last school year. All middle school dance club students are invited to perform in a spring concert.

Courtesy Joffrey Ballet

Joffrey’s teaching artist will introduce the fundamentals of dance, such as counting out sections in eight beats, and the similarities between the way kids dance today and the groovy moves of yesteryear.

But the club is also aimed at developing the social and emotional skills of early adolescents, explained Pierre Lockett, director of community engagement for the Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet. “We use dance as a tool to help them develop skills like teamwork, discipline, [and] seeing a project through to completion.”

In between weekly instruction, students will choreograph their own ’60s-inspired performances under the guidance of Orozco’s dance teacher. Students identified as having the strongest skills will become team leaders, said Lockett.

The presence of a dance instructor in the Elev8 afterschool program, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, was one of the factors that tipped the selection in Orozco’s favor, he added.

The Orozco program will teach social skills like teamwork in addition to dance moves.

Barraza observed that few Chicago elementary and middle schools are able to provide the arts experience now available at Orozco through Elev8. She credits the past year of programming with inspiring three of her eighth graders – a dancer, a visual artist, and a mariachi band member – to enroll in the district’s new arts high school.

“Students have [artistic] talent, and they might not discover that if they did not have the opportunity,” she said.

Digital Excellence Program Helps Bridge Divide

7/22/2009, 2:49 PM

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Jane DeRonne

Four neighborhoods are bridging the digital divide through LISC/Chicago’s Digital Excellence Demonstration Communities (DEDC) pilot program, bringing universal, meaningful participation in technology to low-income communities. Mayor Richard M. Daley announced the program as an integral part of the City of Chicago’s Digital Excellence Action Agenda that was launched July 21.

Mayor Richard M. Daley discusses the importance of access to digital technology at a July 21 news conference at The Resurrection Project in Pilsen as LISC/Chicago Executive Director Andrew Mooney (left) listens.

Gordon Walek

The four pilot neighborhoods—Pilsen, Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Chicago Lawn—have developed digital excellence plans and begun their implementation, including projects such as distributing low-cost, refurbished computers; training community members in using digital resources; creating community web portals (www.pilsenportal.org is one example); and helping local youth develop digital content.

The neighborhood-based, wide-ranging plans aim to build awareness, skills and digital infrastructure and programming. "If we want to improve the quality of life for everyone, we must work to make sure that every resident and business has access to 21st Century technology in their own neighborhoods and homes,” said Daley at the July 21 news conference in Pilsen.

The Resurrection Project in Pilsen, Teamwork Englewood, Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp. and Greater Southwest Development Corporation in Chicago Lawn—all lead agencies in LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program (NCP)—engaged more than 300 residents, public agency officials, business owners and nonprofit leaders from more than 60 institutions to develop their digital excellence plans.

Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp., whose organization is representing one of four neighborhoods in LISC/Chicago's Digital Excellence Demonstration Program, talks about the need for digital technology as TRP Executive Director Raul Raymundo (left) listens.

Gordon Walek

The neighborhoods are now implementing their plans, including working with community partners to take advantage of special Microsoft grants that will provide software to 33 nonprofits working in the DEDC sites.

With support from LISC and guidance from expert planners, the neighborhoods are also developing a cross-community “master plan” that focuses on five main goals: raising awareness/changing mindsets; providing education, training and technical support for users; providing universal, affordable high-speed Internet access; providing affordable hardware and software; and developing digital programming, skills and content.

The planning process leverages the experiences and relationships developed through NCP, which over the past seven years has built a robust and effective platform for community development initiatives.

"We’re proud to build on the New Communities Program and support neighborhoods as they connect their community members to technologies they need to be successful in today’s world,” said Andrew J. Mooney, LISC/Chicago’s executive director.

Other support for the DEDC program comes from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Microsoft Corporation.

Albany Park Ripe for New Business, Study Says

7/14/2009, 2:38 PM

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Elizabeth Duffrin

Despite the turbulent economy, the time is ripe for business expansion in Albany Park and Mayfair on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

That was the surprising finding of a recent analysis by LISC MetroEdge, a non-profit firm that uncovers market potential in under-served neighborhoods.

Liz Griffiths, executive director of the Albany Park Chamber of Commerce, stands above the north branch of the Chicago River, which forms the neighborhood's eastern boundary.

Gordon Walek

The buying power in Mayfair and Albany Park far exceeds the local retail supply, the study found. Businesses often overlook urban markets, particularly those viewed as marginal, explained Helen Dunlap, a senior consultant with LISC/MetroEdge, who co-authored the study.

But Albany Park’s down-in-the heels image is decades out of date, she observed. In fact, nearly half of households in the diverse and densely populated community are middle- to upper-class.

“This is not an area where you’re seeing major foreclosures or unemployment,” she said to 100 neighborhood groups, business owners and residents at a March meeting at the Albany Park Bank. “This is a very powerful market.”

The density of the neighborhood is the secret to its economic power. Residents in the area studied—from Foster Avenue south to Lawrence Avenue, and from Cicero Avenue east to the Chicago River—spend more than $300 million per square mile annually on retail goods and services.

These mannequins advertise top offerings at La Femme Boutique, a clothing and costume store at 4728 N. Kedzie Ave.

Liz Griffiths

That’s triple the spending per square mile of tony Wilmette on the North Shore. In fact, only nine of Chicago’s 77 communities boast more buying-power per square mile, according to MetroEdge.

What Albany Park needs is an image make-over, Dunlap suggested. MetroEdge advised sprucing up some of the shabbier stretches of the commercial district, adding to the retail mix, improving business operations and developing the unused CTA land around the Lawrence & Kimball Brown Line station to add retail space.

But the most immediate goal should be to launch a campaign to market the neighborhood’s quirky mix of ethnic restaurants, gift shops and groceries.

“You have baby goat [sold] in a Middle Eastern store next door to [a store with] Asian fish products next to one of the larger and more renowned Hispanic bakeries,” is how Scott Berman, president of the Lawrence Avenue Development Corp. (LADCOR) describes the heart of the neighborhood at Lawrence and Kimball.

The Fish Guy, at 4423 N. Elston Ave., is an example of Albany Park's diverse businesses.

Gordon Walek

The neighborhood is about 30 percent each Asian and Middle Eastern, and 20 percent each Hispanic and Eastern European, with business owners hailing from places as diverse as Cambodia, Vietnam, Egypt, Jordan, Ecuador, El Salvador and Hungary, according to Berman.

LADCOR commissioned the year-long study and was surprised to learn that MetroEdge considered the neighborhood’s multi-ethnic character such a strong selling point. “That we hadn’t realized,” said Berman.

Siince the study was released in March, the Albany Park Chamber of Commerce has upgraded its ethnic restaurant and culture guide and distributed 40,000 copies to local businesses, the city offices of tourism and cultural affairs, and two nearby colleges, with a second printing planned for downtown hotels, McCormick Place and Navy Pier.

Ethnic restaurants will play a major role in drawing customers to the neighborhood, said Liz Griffiths, executive director of the chamber, as some are already well-known.

The Cambodian Association of Illinois, at 2831 W. Lawrence Ave., features a museum and programs about Cambodian life and culture.

Gordon Walek

Berman said that LADCOR plans to aggressively recruit successful small business owners in other neighborhoods to open second locations in Albany Park. MetroEdge found that demand exceeded supply by 150 percent to 600 percent for garden and building supplies, department store goods, restaurants and bars, clothing and groceries. Berman also plans to approach some chain clothing stores.

Such efforts have been made in the past, but with the MetroEdge study, “We have much greater ammunition,” Berman observed. “We will say to these corporate people, 'Don’t just think Bucktown, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square.' ”

Jesse Arteaga, owner of Chuy’s Chicken Restaurant on Lawrence Avenue, who turned out for the MetroEdge meeting last March, said he liked the idea of attracting more competition. “Businesses feed off of each other,” he explained. “If you go into one place, even if you don’t go into the next, you see that it’s there.”

But space for new retail is scarce in the densely populated neighborhood. For decades, LADCOR and its community partners have periodically lobbied the CTA to develop land near the CTA Brown Line terminal near Lawrence and Kimball and the nearby train yard.

An intense community-wide planning effort for the land got underway in the mid-1990s with the encouragement of then-CTA President Robert Belcaster, but died when commuter demand forced reconstruction of the Brown Line terminal.

Marie's Pizza on Lawrence Avenue is an Albany Park institution.

Gordon Walek

MetroEdge encouraged LADCOR to approach the CTA again, citing new developments: The CTA recently opened an office for transit-oriented development and hired a consultant to identify suitable sites on its property to develop using federal stimulus money.

After the consultant attended the March meeting, Berman said LADCOR whipped out plans and drawings from the mid-90s. (Ideas include a grocery store, day-care center, coffee shop, medical offices, affordable housing for families and seniors and about 400 parking spaces for shoppers and commuters.) “Right now, we are in serious talks with the CTA,” Berman reported.

In the meantime, and on a smaller scale, Griffiths and Berman began leading city-sponsored bus tours of the neighborhood, also on the advice of MetroEdge. (Griffiths even led one for the Lisle Park District.) Click to see an article about one of those from last summer.

Berman said he's hoping that even these small efforts to reintroduce Albany Park will pay off in long run if tour-goers share the experience with friends. “They’ll tell other people, and we’ll get a reputation as an interesting, unusual neighborhood,” he said.

Call (312) 742-1190 to sign up for the next Albany Park bus tour on Saturday, August 15.

CWFs Step Up in Hard Times

6/30/2009, 4:14 PM

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

With neighborhoods and families struggling through the economic crisis, it’s no surprise that LISC/Chicago’s Centers for Working Families (CWFs) are busier than ever.

“We’re being flooded with people looking for jobs, looking for food stamps, looking to save their house from foreclosure,” said Ricki Lowitz, LISC/Chicago’s senior program officer in charge of the CWF network since its inception in 2004.

LISC/Chicago's Centers for Working Families served more than 8,000 families in 2008.

But the CWFs are also more disciplined than ever, helping families prepare for and find living-wage jobs, craft budgets, set up direct deposits to interest-bearing bank accounts, win loan modifications, apply for government assistance and avoid predatory loans and fee-laden financial services.

The achievements of the 12 CWFs that operated throughout 2008 speak to the value of the program’s integrated menu of services: more than 8,000 families were served; more than 5,000 obtained employment services, with nearly 1,000 placed in jobs and another 1,500 in education and training programs; and nearly 1,000 were helped to apply for benefits or income supports worth over $1 million.

Still, it’s in the people, not the numbers, that the real achievements of the CWFs take form.

Jacqueline Hawkins sees it every day as director of the CWF in South Chicago, where more and more pink slips are leading people to seek employment services.

“We try to ascertain where they’ve been, and what they need to get to where they want to go. Maybe it’s back to school. Maybe it’s re-training. Most often it’s coming up with a budget that fits the new circumstance.”

“And almost always,” said Hawkins, “ it’s about self-esteem … showing someone what they’re worth, or could be worth, so they don’t go away thinking they’re worthless. That much is fundamental.”

TuMultimedia Videos About NCP on YouTube

6/23/2009, 11:26 PM

Friday, June 12, 2009

Patrick Barry

The New Communities Program has released a new video by TuMultimedia that features all 16 NCP neighborhoods.

The video offers glimpses of many NCP achievements and serves as a "thank you" to Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation, for his long-term commitment to the communities. Click here to view the video on You Tube.

A shorter version of the TuMultimedia video is posted on Community Beat with references to the featured communities:

a community garden on Maypole Avenue in East Garfield Park;
the South Chicago Art Center;
a mural in North Lawndale;
the La Estancia development in Humboldt Park;
a mariachi band at Cooper School in Pilsen;
the Oakwood Shores mixed-income development in Quad Communities;
the West Haven Giants baseball team; and
the foreclosure prevention efforts in Chicago Lawn and Auburn Gresham.

Students to Springfield: More $ for Health Services

6/19/2009, 3:41 PM

Friday, June 19, 2009

Elizabeth Duffrin

Sixty students from Ames Middle and Reavis Elementary recently boarded a yellow bus bound for Springfield to lobby for more school health centers.

"I felt happy, excited and nervous,” said Eunice Zepeva, an 8th-grader from Ames in Logan Square, about speaking to her representative. More than 300 middle and high school students from across the state participated in the lobbying effort, organized by the Illinois Maternal & Child Health Coalition.

Students from middle schools participating in LISC's Elev8 lobbied legislators in the state capital of Springfield.

Ramon Gardenhire

Convincing legislators to increase public funding for school health services is among the goals of Elev8, a national initiative at Ames in Logan Square, Reavis in Kenwood and at three other Chicago schools serving the Pilsen, Chicago Lawn and Auburn-Gresham communities. All five of Chicago’s participating schools will open health centers this spring using a portion of an $18 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The idea behind Elev8 is to show legislators how addressing a range of student needs—from after-school programs to mental health services—can boost achievement in low-income neighborhoods. As part of the project, the Federation for Community Schools organizes parents and students to join related advocacy efforts like the bus trip to Springfield on April 1.

Lobbying organizations can only get so far with legislators, explained Megan Erskine of the coalition, which is pushing for an extra $3 million for school health centers this year as part of the state’s capital bill. “Personal stories are what grab the legislators’ attention,” she said. “No one can tell a story about a school health center and better than the students.”

State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin (D-Chicago) greets students, who watched their state legislature in action.

Ramon Gardenhire

DaMarcus Fisher, a 7th-grader at Reavis, said he told his state representative, William Burns (D), that many students at his school have asthma or food allergies that could be treated at a school health center. When kids have to leave for a doctor’s appointment, “They miss out on [school] work, and parents miss out on jobs.”

Zyesha Jones, an 8th-grader at Reavis, told Burns about the time she fell in cheerleading practice and had to leave school early because her school only has a nurse on site twice a week.

Eunice from Ames was so nervous about meeting her representative she forgot what she was going to say. After a quick glance at her notes, she explained to Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez (D) how school health centers would make health care more affordable for many families.

A student signs a guest book.

Ramon Gardenhire

“She said, ‘That’s a good point. You should keep protesting and bothering us about it,’” Eunice recalled.

Besides the chance to polish their public speaking skills, students said the visit to Springfield taught them more about the legislative process.

Watching a debate on the floor of the General Assembly from the visitors’ gallery, Roxana Maya, a 7th grader, said she realized that law-making was a more contentious process than she had thought. “I didn’t think they voted against each other,” she explained. “I thought somebody said something and they all agreed on it.”

Terrance Moore, a 6th grader at Reavis, found out that legislators debate issues that matter to him, like how to curb gang violence. “When you watch it on TV, it seems all boring. But when you go there, you understand what they’re doing,” he said.

Erskine said she hopes the experience convinced kids that they can take an active part in government and advocate on any issue of importance to them.

Zyesha from Ames said she’s thinking about taking her participation in government even further. “Being able to see the inside of the [capitol] building, seeing all the paintings and the different rooms and talking to all the people, it made me want to achieve more,” she said. “Maybe I can work a little bit harder so I can be a senator and work inside that building.”

LISC Launches Great Neighborhoods Program

2/25/2009, 1:36 PM

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

LISC/Chicago’s decade of experience with the New Communities Program (NCP) has helped 16 neighborhoods address their challenges and reach their goals. Now a new program, tentatively titled the Great Neighborhoods Program, will apply lessons learned from NCP to other Chicago neighborhoods, beginning in Albany Park.

Like NCP, the Great Neighborhoods Program will concentrate on strengthening communities from the ground up. Throughout its three-year commitment, LISC will work with lead agencies, partner organizations and residents on a range of planning and capacity-building efforts.

Happy Family, by local artist Shencheng Xu, will be in the sculpture garden in Ronan Park.

Participating communities will leverage LISC resources, including cross-community connections, specialized expertise in areas like fundraising and communications, and programs like Building Community Through the Arts and MetroEdge.

The North River Commission, the lead agency in Albany Park, has identified four priority areas in which to focus its efforts, including promoting commercial development, designing a multi-ethnic sculpture park and healing garden, developing more effective communications and building fundraising capacity.

“We’re thrilled that this opportunity is coming to Albany Park,” said Melissa McDaniel, Executive Director of the North River Commission. “What this program allows us to do is focus on community priorities that will have largest impact on greatest number of people.”

A second community will be chosen in early 2009.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2008-09 issue of Working Capital, the quarterly newsletter of LISC/Chicago. See the entire issue, or back copies.