What Do We Value? Chicago Groups Speak Out
By Patrick Barry
Published: July 12, 2010
When the movers and shakers of Chicago’s community development world gather for an “all NCP” meeting – bringing together all 14 lead agencies in LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program (NCP) – the conversations are filled with hard news, hope, humor and congeniality.
A meeting on June 23 brought together 50 practitioners to discuss how the program should evolve as it enters Year 9 of a $50 million, 10-year funding commitment from the MacArthur Foundation.
“We are entering a period of uncertainty,” said Susana Vasquez, who as NCP director has shaped the program’s culture. “But there is no uncertainty about what we have built together. I don’t see any of that changing. We’ve proven that a comprehensive approach makes sense, and that being in deep relationships is the right approach.”
What does that mean? Vasquez asked her colleagues to identify “what we value” in the NCP work.
“It’s the power of the partnerships,” said Donna Stites of Chicago Lawn. “When NCP started we were at a critical juncture in our neighborhood because organizations didn’t really know each other. Now we have a ‘go-to’ list when we have to get something done.
“Community development for years operated in silos,” said Raul Raymundo from Pilsen. “This effort is part of a whole. We are no longer working on housing in one neighborhood but across the neighborhoods, across the city.”
“We’re working with a sense of compassion and a sense of history of our communities,” said Doris Jones of Englewood.
Brains, innovation, peer learning
As one after another stood to speak, they sketched the human and structural elements that have helped MacArthur’s investment leverage more than $500 million in related activities.
“I value the innovation,” said Jackie Samuel of South Chicago, “that we’ve had the power to think outside of the box to create programs.” “I value the comprehensive approach,” said Kim Jackson of North Lawndale. “It has changed us as an organization and made us stretch.”
“It’s tangible results that you can touch and feel,” said Cheryl Johnson of Auburn Gresham.
“What I really appreciate in the partnership with LISC is your brains,” said Susan Yanun of Logan Square. “It isn’t just a funding relationship that I value, but the strategizing and analytical relationship.”
“It’s the peer learning,” said Carlos Nelson of Auburn Gresham. “For an organization like mine with no experience in community schools and no previous work with youth, it’s being able to observe the work done by Nancy Aardema and her organization (the Logan Square Neighborhood Association), and then to develop our own initiatives.”
“This program successfully creates replication models,” added Mike Rodriguez of Little Village, referring to the rapid spread of farmers’ markets and street-basketball programs. “We share the best nuggets and add our own essential local twists.”
Many mention the quality-of-life plans and the bottom-up engagement that created them. “The plans are an excellent outline of the work that’s needed” said Arvin Strange of Woodlawn. “They are sort of biblical,” added Ernie Sanders of Auburn Gresham. “They exist whether I am here or not, before and after I am here.”
“Pride.” “Flexibility.” “Reputation.” “Money.” “Accountability.”
Power, hard truths
Participants said that community development practice has matured in Chicago because of NCP. Relationships are deeper and more honest.
“We wondered when we entered NCP if it would get in the way of our values,” said LSNA’s Aardema, whose organization was founded in 1962. “But we’ve been able to live our own values and learn from others. There’s a respect there.”
“We value the trust that exists both between us and LISC and us and the other neighborhoods,” said organizer David McDowell of Chicago Lawn. “That allows the work that we do to be reflective of our specific neighborhoods."
“Candor is important,” added Keri Blackwell, a LISC senior program officer. “It’s refreshing that the people I work with can say ‘Keri, you are wrong.’”
Others mention NCP’s collective strength when “speaking to power.” “What is exciting for us is that the city departments and institutions that would not have listened in the past are now listening, and seeking us out,” said Bernita Johnson Gabriel of Quad Communities.
“When we support each other in relationship to power, we’re able to talk to them in a different way,” added Aardema. “They get a sense of the whole. They listen more.”
Emotional commitment
Several acknowledged the vast networks that have resulted from NCP’s long-term approach. “We have hundreds of people in deep relationship (in North Lawndale),” said Kim Jackson. “This wasn’t the case in 2003.”
“People play nice with each other now (in Pilsen),” said Álvaro Obregón. He organized “once-sworn enemies” into that neighborhood’s 2006 planning process, and cited a 73-unit senior housing development as one of many results. “But it takes a lot of work to keep it together.”
“We are really proud of our communities,” added Jeanette Galicia. Her family moved away from Pilsen in 1990 but she moved back in 2006; now her family eats together in Pilsen every Sunday. “A generation of educated Latinos is moving back or staying,” she said. “We have fallen in love with our community and have deep ownership. That’s important because if I’m not proud and in love with the community, I can’t sustain the work.”
Photo slideshow by Gordon Walek.
Posted in Thinking Out Loud