The impact of violence, and some causes

February 02, 2012   Curtis Black   No comments

In the second installment of the Chicago Reporter’s Too Young to Die series, Kari Lydersen talks with Ondelee Perteet, a 17-year-old West Side resident paralyzed in a 2009 shooting.  Ondelee and his mother talk about the tremendous personal costs of violence: Ondelee struggles to maintain his positive attitude, and his mother struggles to care for him and pay the bills.  Photos are by Carlos Javier Ortiz.

(Classmates of Ondelee interviewed him for a video by the Westside Writing Project, another Local Reporting Initiative participant, in 2010.)

Last week the first report in the series showed that Chicago’s homicide rate is double that of New York City.  At Chicago Magazine, Whet Moser has a fascinating piece looking at differences between the two cities that may help account for that fact.

New York has less than a third the number of gang members that Chicago has, and various experts suggest this could have to do with public housing and incarceration policies.  The CHA’s Plan For Transformation displaced a hundred thousand people, while a massive public housing renovation program in NYC was the “exact reverse,” carried out without displacement.  Chicago’s approach ended up replicating the segregation that was originally built into the CHA high-rises.

Meanwhile, Chicago’s incarceration rate rose sharply in the early 90s and has stayed near that level, which New York has seen a marked decrease in incarceration.  (The greatest expansion of gang activity here was a result of increased incarceration of youth, according to sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh.)

That creates what one expert calls a “feedback loop.”  “Young men were shuffled back and forth between two environments that were ideal for the organization and growth of gangs.,” writes Moser. “While New York was rebuilding, Chicago was continuing the shuffle.”

Another Reporter piece looks at the mechanics of incarcerating teens as adults; Illinois is one of the few states that does so.  In gun possession cases, most teens were imprisoned without having been clearly identified as having a gun; indeed, guns were actually recoverd in less than half the cases.  Now the General Assembly is considering legislation to incarcerate 15- and 16-year-olds as adults.

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New CPS dual language program shows promise, faces challenges

February 01, 2012   Curtis Black   No comments

In a three-part series, Kalyn Belsha reports in Hoy on a new dual language program in CPS that builds on research showing the children who speak and write in more than one language show increased cognitive development, improved social relations, and ultimately better employment opportunities.

Because the articles are published in Spanish, we are posting English translations below the fold here.

A dual language pilot program in four schools, with outreach to another dozen schools where similar efforts are under way, represents an ambitious attempt to overhaul the district’s approach to bilingual and world language education – a departure from the single goal of proficiency in English.

CPS has 64,000 English-learning students, but native English speakers benefit from dual language instruction as well, research shows.

Previous dual language programs fell short by aiming at “early exit,” while it takes five to seven years to master two languages. At that point many dual language students begin to outperform English-only students, research shows.

So dual language programs require patience from administrators who are under pressure to produce higher test scores more quickly.

With no standardized test that measures bilingual achievement, dual language teachers now use a hodge-podge of independent assessment measures that take time from instruction and make it hard to compare data.

The State of Illinois is developing Spanish-language standards and assessments, but that is expected to take several years.

Meanwhile, with a new administration at CPS and continuing budget problems, the district’s long-term commitment to dual language programs remains to be seen.  While federal stimulus funds that launched the pilot program have expired, the district has increased some funding for the program (while cutting professional development) – and has extended the pilot program at two schools.

Belsha’s three articles follow:

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Chicago leads in youth homicides

January 25, 2012   Curtis Black   No comments

Chicago leads the nation in youth homicides, with a rate more than double that of New York or LA, according to a new article at the Chicago Reporter.  Nearly 80 percent occur in black communities on the South, Southwest, and West Sides.

Efforts by police and politicians – ranging from tactical gang squads to the CPS “Culture of Calm” program – have failed to signficantly reduce shootings and deaths.  Advocates say curbing youth violence will require addressing underlying causes, inclucing extreme segregation, lack of jobs, and violent, underfunded public schools.

Kari Lydersen and Carlos Javier Ortiz profile groups that are working against violence, including the rap group Spitfire and Fearless Leading by the Youth, and the Reporter features Ortiz’s photos of communities dealing with violence.  (See our post on The Sorrowing City for more on his photography.)

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More on AIDS at 30

January 20, 2012   Curtis Black   No comments

Betty Smith was a respiratory therapist who was tired of seeing AIDS patients treated as pariahs when she founded the South Side Help Center in 1987.

She started by reaching out to African American ministers. When many were “hesitant,” she started going to their wives.

Today the South Side Health Center offers HIV testing, education and outreach programs along with myriad community services like youth mentoring and substance abuse counseling.  The group is also dedicated to fostering other, younger community groups.

The group’s story is part of a panaroma of history and reflection available in Windy City Times’ AIDS At 30 series, including a number of articles looking at HIV/AIDS and the black community.

James Scott of the Youth Pride Center writes that HIV is “wreaking seemingly uncontrollable havoc on the African American community,” particularly among young black men who have sex with men (who may not identify as gay or bisexual).

Cleo Manago, founder of the Black Men’s Xchange, recalls being heckled at a mid-1980s conference when he called for a multidimensional approach to attract diverse African Americans to AIDS services.

“The black community still has HIV because America has never had an efficient and black culturally responsive HIV prevention model, policy, campaign, leadership or agenda — in 30 years,” he writes.

WCT interviews West Side native (longtime LA resident) Phill Wilson, who’s emerged as one of the nation’s most outspoken AIDS activists since founding the Black AIDS Institute in 1999; he talks about his own history and activism, the challenge of reaching out to the black community about AIDS, and his assessment of the strengths of weaknesses of President Obama on the issue (he serves on Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS).  “I believe that the president has had some hits and misses,” he says.

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Nina’s story: prostitution and recovery

January 18, 2012   Curtis Black   1 Comment

In a new audio report at Gapers Block, Sarah Ostman tells the story of “Nina,” the first woman to enter the WINGS program, which offers treatment services for women facing prostitution charges in Cook County.

Nina began selling sex at age 13, after becoming addicted to cocaine.  That’s the typical age that girls enter prostitution, according to Jody Raphael of DePaul University.  At first it seemed glamorous, Nina says – then the violence began.  Over 33 years, she served three prison terms and numerous stints in jail.  She had seven children and lost custody of all of them.  She tried several times to get sober.

Along with new state laws protecting underage girls and sex trafficking victims, the WINGS program reflects a new understanding of prostitution, long considered a victimless crime.  Most prostitues were coerced into the industry at a young age.  And if prostitutes are more victims than criminals, perhaps they should get treatment rather than prison time, Ostman says.

We follow Nina through work readiness sessions at the Career Advancement Network, some of which are emotionally charged – and to a graduation ceremony for the program, where the women sing “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.”

A year later, she’s yet to land a job – she volunteers at a food pantry in Back of the Yards – and has faced a number of challenges, including the threat of foreclosure and utility cutoffs.  But she’s got a suportive fiance, she’s reconnected with her mother, and she’s developing relationships with her children.  And she’s committed to staying sober and working toward her goals.

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Remembering King in Chicago, and much more

January 17, 2012   Curtis Black   No comments

Growing up in Englewood, Martha Jones remembers her mother praying for Martin Luther King’s safety during his Chicago open housing campaign in 1966 – as well as the riots that followed his assassination two years later.

Her story is one of dozens captured by the Southwest Neighborhood Youth Writers Project and available at their Young Defenders website.

The project trained recent high school graduates to produce stories about their neighborhoods and oral histories of its residents.  Project participants have given us a broad view of the hopeful and determined people who make up Southwest Side neighborhoods that are often neglected.

Ben Polk recalls the security of Englewood when he was growing up there – and tells of a blood-covered man recently knocking on his door after he’d been held up.  Liliana Celis writes of rushing to the site of a shooting and finding that a 13-year-old boy had been shot dead.  Nineteen-year Englewood resident Jamesetta Harris talks about volunteering with CAPS, and Morgan Park High School teacher Alvin James talks about making an impact on his students.

There’s a profile of Hubert Newkirk, a retired Streets and San superintendent who established a “litter-free zone” on Halsted from 75th to 83rd, with ex-offenders hired to keep the street clean.

There are stories of recent immigrants like Dionicia Celis, Tania Velazquez, Marcela Orozco and Jaime Espinosa. Carolina Rivera, a community leader and a parent mentor at Talman Elementary, says the Southwest Organizing Project has had “a huge impact in my life,” and Rebecca Shi, a young Chinese immigrant, helps people with computer skills as technology organizer at SWOP.

There are pieces on Southwest Side institutions:  St. Sabina Church, the Southwest News Herald, the Chicago Lawn YMCA, Palermo’s restaurant – and the 20-foot-tall Indian statue at 63rd and Pulaski.  Also Marquette Park (along with a meditation on “empty swings” in playgrounds where children no longer feel safe to play).

And did you know that Ashburn got its name from coal ash waste from steel mills that was dumped there?

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Disability and freedom

December 22, 2011   Curtis Black   1 Comment

In the final installment of their series on Disability in Chicago, the Neighborhood Writing Alliance highlights Tuesday’s settlement of the final lawsuit charging state policies violate the rights of people to choose to live outside institutions and nursing homes with the story of one man who made the transition.

With the help of Access Living’s deinstitutionalization program, Nathaniel Allen recently found a two-bedroom apartment in Englewood and moved out of a nursing home.  He’s a retired security guard who has osteoarthritis.

Through Access Living, Allen got a housing voucher to help cover rent, and the group also provided furniture, household items, and other help.  Now he’s taking classes at Kennedy-King College.

Access Living was one of several groups that sued Illinois on behalf of three groups of people living in institutions, charging that state policies did not offer the choice of living in a community setting as required by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1999 Olmstead decision.

Last week NWA reported on the issue of domestic violence and people with disabilities.  That community is “an invisible group in terms of domestic violence,” said Linda Miller, director of the domestic violence program at the Schwab Rehabilition Center.

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On health reform, many remain uninformed

December 14, 2011   Curtis Black   1 Comment

While health care providers prepare for national health care reform – or worry about their capacity to meet an upsurge in demand – many Chicago residents who will benefit have little idea about changes that are coming.

In the final installment of the Neighborhood Stories series at Illinois Health Matters, Judith Graham talks about health care reform with South and West Side residents, many with serious health issues who have had trouble accessing care.  Many are uniformed, and some are skeptical, she reports.

There’s a “gaping chasm” between policymakers implementing reform and low-income residents, and it demands stepped-up outreach and education, Graham writes.

Many don’t know about the expansion of Medicaid – income standards will be raised, and adults without dependent children will become eligible, giving an additional 500,000 to 800,000 Illinois residents coverage.

Meanwhile, with budget pressures on Medicaid growing, private clinics turning away Medicaid patients, and expected funding for an expansion of community health clinics yet to materialize, providers worry about meeting increased demand.

Another challenge: the Cook County Health Service faces a “struggle to redefine itself” as the number of uninsured people declines, and those who are left are increasingly undocumented residents ineligible for Medicaid.

An additional 300,000 Illinois residents are expected to purchase insurance on a new insurance exchange under the individual mandate. In many cases they’ll be eligible for government subsidies for coverage.

On the South and West Sides, meanwhile, hospitals and clinics are banding together to provide “medical homes” and more comprehensive care  for Medicaid patients and others, a development that health reform will continue to encourage.

Illinois Health Matters is a one-stop online resource for information on health care reform, managed by Health and Disability Advocates in partnership with a number of community organizations.   Consumers can subscribe to the Illinois Health Matters newsletter at the site, or follow the project on Facebook or Twitter.

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Focus on Auburn Gresham

December 12, 2011   Curtis Black   No comments

WBEZ is currently featuring Bill Healy’s photo-journalism series on Auburn Gresham.  In the introduction to the series, vivid photos of neighborhood residents — working, playing, worshipping, hanging out — accompany an audio piece with BGA’s Alden Loury discussing growing up in the South Side neighborhood.

“It gave me a firm foundation of the mix of African American life in Chicago:  it’s not completely a tale of poverty and disfunction, and not completely a tale of success and excellence,” he says.

Chicagoans tend not to distinguish South Side neighborhoods the way they do neighborhoods on the North Side, Loury says.  “But communities have character, and it’s important to give the communities an identity.”

In an interview with 848, Healy says one goal of the project is to counter that tendency: to “put a face” on the neighborhood, and to bring Auburn Gresham alive through the stories of its residents.

The first installment – the story of DJ Farley Jackmaster Funk, one of the creators of house music – is up this week, with more to come.

[Further episodes feature a local entrepreneur, a young gay man, and a teenager and his pastor.]

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Entre Nosotras

December 09, 2011   Curtis Black   1 Comment

Entre Nosotras, a multimedia blog by Radio Arte, has been publishing posts on Latina youth artists, activists and issues since September, focusing on news from Pilsen, Little Village, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, and Brighton Park.   Portions have also appeared in Hoy and Extra, and several programs have been broadcast on WRTE.

Topics covered range widely.  There are interviews with artists like young painter Angelica Atzin and photographer Jackie Oroczo, videos of local artists and musicians participating in Little Village’s Villapalooza, and a report on young designers in the Latino Fashion Show.  There’s a report on El Cilantro, a blog for young environmental activists, and an interview with educator and activist Veronica Arreola, producer of the Viva La Feminista blog.

There’s an interview with a survivor of domestic violence, discussing her new-found freedom, and a piece with members of the Vida Fidei youth group discussing spirituality.  There are pieces on STDs and how fast food industry marketing targets young Latinos.

The series is produced by a team of young women from Radio Arte’s media training program, which gives the basics of journalism and radio production to hundreds of local youth each year.  Broadcast on 90.5 WRTE FM since 1997, Radio Arte is currently transitioning to digital broadcasting and programming; it will be one of the first Latino media centers in the nation.

Entres Nostros plans further coverage of a range of health isssues – from breast cancer and obesity to teen pregnancy and mental health – as well as efforts to encourage girls to enter the sciences, and a feature on young Latina bloggers (and how to blog).  So stay tuned.

 

Thanks for Diana Pando of Community Media Workshop for translation assistance.

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