Peace Fellows Trained in Kingian Nonviolence
On Monday, July 8, the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago hosted a Kingian Nonviolence workshop for the Chicago Peace Fellows and grantees of the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities. The Institute for Nonviolence is a street outreach organization that specializes in connecting with individuals who are most at risk of being a victim or perpetrator of violence. They also provide support for families of victims of violence and help people returning from prison find resources such as jobs, housing or health related services. The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities provide small grants of up to $10,000 to grassroots community leaders who are hosting activities in neighborhoods on the West and South sides that have high rates of violence. All of the Chicago Peace Fellows were recipients of these grants in 2018.
The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago invited the Chicago Peace Fellows and grantees of the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities for training led by Benny Lee on the steps and principles of nonviolence as taught by Martin Luther King Jr to his organizers in communities across the nation. Benny is a former leader of the Vice Lords, a notorious gang on the West Side, who spent decades in prison. Benny talked openly about his stint on death row after he and several others were charged with inciting a prison riot in the ‘70s. He shared about how nonviolence principles changed his life and helped him learn how to solve conflict and fight for justice in a different way.
Through the training, Benny shared his vision for building the Beloved Community, an all-inclusive society built around universal acceptance, healing from trauma, and celebration of successes. He encouraged the participants of the workshop to join him and each other in building the Beloved Community.
The Chicago Peace Fellows and other grantees asked questions and participated in conversation with Benny and each other. One Chicago Peace Fellow, Adi Lerner, who works at the Westside Justice Center as a program director, asked,
[quote]“How do we truly embrace nonviolence in violent circumstances?” -- Adi Lerner, Chicago Peace Fellow[/quote]
Adi stressed that often she finds many of the people she works with are victims of overt violence but also violent systems such as forced poverty, mass incarceration and systemic oppression. Benny shared his experience in fighting against these forces for returning citizens, people coming home from prison, and how he has made breakthroughs in returning their rights such as getting licenses that they were previously prohibited from getting by the state of Illinois. He said the principles are his grounding metrics for how he takes action to fight for peace.
The Nonviolence Principles are as follows:
- Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
- Building the Beloved Community is the goal.
- Attack the forces of evil, not persons doing evil.
- Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the Just Cause.
- Avoid inner-violence of the spirit as well as outwardly physical violence.
- The universe is on the side of justice.
Overall, the group really enjoyed the experience and connected with one another around the material. The Institute for Nonviolence hosts 3 day nonviolence workshops that are open to the public. Please visit their website to learn more about the organization, their upcoming events and trainings.
Neighbors Celebrate Family and Youth Peace Day
Along with my collaborator Gloria Smith of the Black Star Project, I am pleased to share an update from the 2019 Family and Youth Peace Day. This project is one of eight projects the Chicago Peace Fellows collaboratively designed and supported to put our principles and insights into practice to build peace over the summer.
What has your team accomplished over the past two weeks?
There were over 200 people participating in the event on June 27! There were several organizations from Bronzeville involved. Chicago Cares coordinated the planning, Chicago Youth Programs on 54th and Prairie was the site of all activities, the Community Builders had a table offering affordable housing, Pastor Chris Harris of the Bright Star Church brought a bus load of youth from Kenwood, Cigna brought 60 volunteers who played games with young people, prepared lunch, and built five raised garden boxes. 2016 Ma’at helped with these projects and helped build planters while seniors from our asset mapping project came and participated. The event started at 10 am and ended at 3 pm.
All Bronzeville organizations described their programs and all present felt the event was successful.
What have you learned?
Organized groups that keep their commitments can be very impactful in very resource challenged communities.
What is coming up that's important?
In the coming week, we will begin installing block club signs and planning for additional Family and Youth Day celebrations. We need all the help we can get.
How can other Peace Fellows or the community support you?
As we complete our asset mapping and begin planning what the community wishes to see built in their community, some of GATHER staff may be helpful in creating the plan!!! If there are Peace Fellows or neighbors who have built housing or created community plans, they also could be helpful.
Peace Fellows visit Field Museum to Explore Role of Race in Peacebuilding
The Chicago Peace Fellows visited the Field Museum of Natural History on June 19, 2019, for a guided tour of the "Looking at Ourselves: Rethinking the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman" and discussion on the theme of the Role of Race and Representation in Peace Building with museum staff.
The exhibit brings to the public the controversy around the collection of bronze statues created by artist Hoffman in 1933, depicting people from different cultures across the globe, men and women, indigenous as well as white Europeans, including busts as well as figures in dramatic poses and conducting daily activities such as agriculture and hunting. The exhibit, originally called “The Races of Mankind,” was popular for decades, but later became the subject of a national anti-racism campaign and ultimately was put into storage. Recently, in an effort to account for the past and improve the museum’s connection with Chicago’s communities, the statues were brought out of storage and placed in a new context that features explanatory signs recounting the statues’ divisive history, and the Peace Fellows were asked by museum staff to provide their comment and critique.
The Field Museum’s Alaka Wali, curator of North American Anthropology, and Jacob Campbell, an urban environmental anthropologist with the Keller Science Action Center, hosted Fellows Frank Latin, Dawn Hodges, Pamela Phoenix, Jackie Moore, Jamila Trimuel, Gloria Smith and Robert Biekman along with GATHER alumnus Raymond Richard as well as photo artist Cecil M Donald; Deborah Bennett, senior program officer at the Polk Bros. Foundation; Kristen Mack, senior communications officer at the John D. and MacArthur Foundation; John Zeigler, director of the Egan Office of Urban Education and Community Partnerships at DePaul University; artist Mike Bancroft; and a delegation from the Goldin Institute led by Founder and Board Chairwoman Diane Goldin; Executive Director Travis Rejman; Chief of Staff Oz Ozburn; Delasha Long, media and content specialist; and Burrell Poe, coordinator of the Chicago Peace Fellows.
The meeting took place on Juneteenth, the anniversary of the date many African Americans discovered they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and Alaka and Jacob welcomed the group in a Maori House built in 1881 on Tokomaru Bay, one of only four such Maori meeting houses outside of New Zealand. Jacob explained that the Field had acquired the house without consulting its Maori builders, but as the culture within the museum changed, they sought out leaders of the Tokomaru Bay communities and developed a relationship with them, ultimately securing permission to keep the house at the institution, albeit with instructions on how to properly respect and care for the structure.
[quote]“The Field Museum was built as a colonial institution. The question about this exhibit and ‘The Races of Man’ is ‘Do they transcend that colonial burden?’ And how do we make them transcend? How do we repurpose an old and problematic collection?” -- Alaka Wali[/quote]
The group then toured “Looking at Ourselves: Rethinking the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman,” as Alaka explained the statues had originally been used for “an explicitly racist purpose” despite the ambivalence of the artist, with the statues arranged in a way to show a purported hierarchy of human ‘types.’ Once prevalent among intellectuals, the idea of an evolutionary hierarchy among humans was thoroughly discredited as racist, and the exhibit was put away in 1969. But in 2016, the statues were restored and placed back on display with explanatory signs.
The Peace Fellows and the Field staff then returned to the Maori House for an extensive conversation. Frank Latin began by citing a recent study about Contract Buying in Chicago entitled "The Plunder of Black Wealth in Chicago” by Samuel DuBois at the Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and mentioned a forthcoming documentary about the topic from filmmaker Bruce Orenstein, artist in residence at Duke. Contract Buying was a discriminatory practice of home selling that cost tens of thousands of African American families somewhere between $3.2 to $4 billion during the 1950s and 1960s.
[quote]“I’m seeing how much institutions like this contributed to what we see today. We’re dealing with the after-effects.” -- Frank Latin, Chicago Peace Fellow[/quote]
Cortez Watson, a new staff member of The Black Star Project, mentioned the Black List series on HBO as a useful counter-narrative to “The Races of Man,” noting that Volume One is available without charge on Vimeo.
Robert said that he was particularly affected by one statue, a bust of Ota Benga, an African man who had been placed in a cage in the Bronx Zoo in 1906 before protests led by African American-owned newspapers and advocacy organizations forced his release. As a resource, Robert recommended a book by African American advertising executive Tom Burrell entitled "Brainwashed" and a video discussing his work.
“We need to continue the struggle,” Robert said. “The struggle is real and deep.”
Jackie Moore said she was disappointed with the exhibit’s efforts at contextualization and worried that the statues were only perpetuating rather than dispelling stereotypes. She also urged the Field Museum to ensure that its admission prices were not preventing members of the community from seeing its exhibits. “All I saw was a different flavor of the same ice cream,” Jackie said.
[quote]“It makes me think, ‘What scientific racism are we being fed today? -- Deborah Bennett, Polk Bros. Foundation”[/quote]
GATHER alumnus Raymond Richard recounted his personal journey through the criminal justice system to advocate for rights and opportunities for returning citizens, and said the exhibit opened his eyes to the historical challenges faced by African Americans, particularly African American women.
“We don’t know our history,” Ray said. “If young people knew, they might make change.”
DePaul’s John Ziegler said the exhibit raised many important questions, especially “How do we begin to disrupt this narrative?”
“The thing that is really disturbing is that this is the Field Museum – you’re supposed to come here to learn something.”
Jamila Trimuel discussed a statue of a young Ethiopian woman, whose hair was braided in a style similar to that used by African American women today, explaining that American corporate culture continues to discriminate against African American women while American culture as a whole defines African American women as unattractive. “We have not grown,” Jamila said. “I could not have worn the hair style my sister rocked all those years ago.”
Dr. Pamela Phoenix said she was particularly disturbed by a statue of a naked white European man in an athletic pose.
“It looked like he was the hero,” Pamela said. “I thought, ‘Not this story again.’”
Several participants mentioned the connection to the conversation around reparations and the testimony of Ta-Nehisi Coates at the House of Representatives and his Case for Reparations from the June 2014 issues of The Atlantic, while others noted the resonance with the ongoing debate to remove Confederate Statues across the country.
Chicago Park District Explores Partnerships with Peace Fellows
On June 18, 2019, the Chicago Peace Fellows met with Derrick Faulkner, the Area Manager, and Art Richardson, the Regional Director, from the Chicago Park District. Together they held an open discussion of how the places and programs of the Park District can be used to further peace building and violence prevention over the summer. Art opened the conversation by acknowledging that "outreach is not engagement" and that the Park District relies on partnerships with community leaders like the Peace Fellows to authentically hear from the community and to establish collaborations that respond to the challenges and aspirations of all Chicagoans.
The Fellows were excited to learn about the Park District's "Summer Pass" initiative which allows one child per pass to attend any of their neighborhood Parks' summer programs free of charge. The Park District is rolling out this pilot program in specific west and southside parks to bolster participation and provide opportunities for youth who might not otherwise afford the fees of summer programs.
Each Fellow was also given a Summer Pass to pass out to a member of their communities.
[quote] "We measure success not by how much money we bring in, but by the number of children we serve. No family will be turned away from Park programs because of an inability to pay. We'll make it work for families." -- Art Richardson, Regional Director[/quote]
Art and Derrick spoke about the other free programming the Park District offers throughout the city, including initiatives like free music and art programs in Lawndale and mentoring and leadership camps. Such programming is paid for by large city events like Lollapalooza, through sponsorship from large companies such as Nike and LL Bean, or through partnerships with institutions such as the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Peace Fellow Robert Biekman asked how the Park District sought to "build community as a means of violence prevention instead of waiting for a tipping point" and then having to use programming as a reaction. Art Richardson shared his commitment to "recruit Ambassadors from the community" where local residents can enter into a "give and take relationship" with the park, working together as a partnership to build safe neighborhoods. Currently Park Advisory Councils (PACs) are the primary place for this to happen, but Art and Derrick both also noted how conversations with change makers such as the Peace Fellows lead to productive partnerships.
[quote]"It is better to do it together than fail alone." Art Richardson, Regional Director[/quote]
Peace Fellow Jacquelyn Moore asked about programming for teenage youth, a demographic she targets in her work. She shared that there is generally ample programming for young children but fewer opportunities for teens.
[quote]"You turn twelve and the world turns its back on you and then wonders why you are a mess." -- Jacquelyn Moore, Chicago Peace Fellow[/quote]
Art admitted that previous difficulties in working with teens had led to reduction of programs for that age group but gave examples of how the Park District is actively reversing that trend to create more opportunites for teens oustide of their successful youth employment programs. The "Extreme Team Camp" is a successful 6-week program that happens in 35 parks and is looking to grow.
Diane Latiker, a Peace Fellow from Roseland, asked about the Chicago Park District's strategy to follow-up with and stay engaged with the children and youth it serves. Derrick and Art invited advice and partnerships around keeping youth engaged and seeing them return to programs each year. Diane suggested that the Peace Fellows could work with the Park District to help create a follow up program, or perhaps be the follow-up mechanism, for the children, youth, and families that utilize the summer programs. "How can we be that continuity and connect for the Park District after the summer programs end?" she asked.
The two-hour conversation ended with the exchange of contact information and several follow-up meetings schedule for fellows with the manager of their neighborhood park. Art Richardson let all the Peace Fellows know that he would happily provide support and waive fees for Chicago Peace Fellow events and was looking forward to speaking individually with Fellows about their shared summer projects and neighborhood initiatives.
Where Non Violence is Personal
The Chicago Peace Fellows recently met with a unique group of activists who are teaching non-violence techniques to gang members in the city’s toughest neighborhoods.
“My job is to stop the violence,” said Kenya Hardy, street outreach worker with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago. “I do whatever I have to do, like a cousin, like a big brother they can look up to.”
On some days, Kenya accompanies the young men he works with to court, but on others, he may help them get stable housing or even mediate a dispute with a girlfriend.
[quote]“I’m here to show them love and show them that violence ain’t the key.”-- Kenya Hardy[/quote]
The Peace Fellows met the staff of Institute for Nonviolence Chicago in their office in the Austin neighborhood on the far West Side on May 16, engaging in an intense conversation about which strategies are actually effective. Founded just three years old, teh Institute for Nonviolence Chicago operates in 3 of the city’s most violent neighborhoods, Austin, West Garfield Park and Back of the Yards, using an approach that takes into account the high levels of trauma in these communities and aims for restorative justice, rehabilitation over punishment and vengeance. Eighty percent of Nonviolence Chicago’s 20-person team is hired from these three neighborhoods.
Each of the neighborhoods comes with distinct challenges, according to Tara Dabney, the group’s director of development and communications. Austin receives the greatest number of people released from incarceration – called ‘returning citizens’ – while Garfield Park includes a major interstate highway, which attracts open air sales of illegal drugs and prostitution, and Back of the Yards has a conflict between different gangs that has persisted for several generations. In Austin and Back of the Yards, Nonviolence Chicago has been able to negotiate truces that have greatly reduced the number of homicides and other acts of violence, building relationships with open-minded police commanders and officers. These neighborhoods and six others account for one-half of the homicides in Chicago, and the ultimate goal is to convince elected leaders to use government money for anti-violence efforts.
[quote]“In every large city where they have seen a major reduction, they have seen a large investment of public dollars” Tara Dabney[/quote]
Staff member Artemmeo Williams spent nine years in prison and found there were few services available for returning citizens when he emerged. Williams relied on his family “to reintegrate into society and not go back into prison.” In his work for Nonviolence Chicago, he provides the full spectrum of support to other young men coming back to the Austin neighborhood, even interacting with the Illinois Department of Corrections before their release.
“Whatever they need to sustain life, we’re there for them,” Artemmeo explained.
Asked by Peace Fellow Sokoni Karanja whether he might provide training to a South Side community, Artemmeo responded with enthusiasm.
[quote]“We’ll go to Mars if we have to.” Artemmeo Williams[/quote]
In her work in the Back of the Yards, staff member Elena Casada provides assistance to survivors of violence, who do receive limited government assistance but lose support after several weeks. Elena accompanies families to funeral homes, guides them through compensation applications, and finds counseling as well as support groups. She works with the understanding that her relationship with these families will be long-term, as the waiting lists for trauma-informed counselors are currently one year long.
“Whatever it takes to help them find a new normal, we do,” Elena said.
Peace Fellow Frank Latin, founder and executive director of Westside Media Project, asked the staff of Nonviolence Chicago about the effects of criminal justice policy on communities, and how to stop criminal activity.
Kenya Hardy answered that current policy makes it more likely that juvenile gang members will commit gun crimes, while many gang members actually prefer prison, because they receive stable housing and food as well as a modicum of security.
“The system is not working,” Kenya summed up. “Young men get comfortable and safe in prison. In jails, there’s a structure.”
Artemmeo added that in many cases, the young men involved in gangs wanted to get away from criminal activity, but had no resources to leave the gang structure.
“Our community is depleted of resources so we can’t do but run to the corner for a job,” Artemmeo said. “They’re not living. They’re surviving.”
Peace Fellow Maria Velazquez from the Telpochcalli Community Education Project noted that organizers at Nonviolence Chicago needed to be creative as well as flexible to respond to multiple needs and changing situations.
Peace Fellow Johnny Payton, who has extensive experience doing anti-violence work himself in the Cabrini Green public housing development and other communities, underscored the importance of building alliances across communities.
[quote]“We’ve just got to be here ‘hood to ‘hood to help each other.” -- Johnny Payton[/quote]
Peace Fellow Lisa Daniels lost her own son to gun violence seven years ago in an incident in which he was both a perpetrator and a victim, and currently serves on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, where she is able to provide guidance and advice to try and stop other young men from killing or being killed.
[quote]“There has to be a place where we connect on a human level. They ain’t trying to shoot. They ain’t trying to kill. They want love.” -- Lisa Daniels[/quote]
For both the Peace Fellows and the outreach staff at Nonviolence Chicago, anti-violence work is highly personal. Case Manager Delano Macintyre added that he has a record for possession of a firearm himself and that his own son currently receives services from Nonviolence Chicago.
“I’m happy to see kids doing good,” Delano said. “If we don’t go to work, my son is in trouble.”
Ladies of Virtue Recognize Youth Leadership
On Saturday, May 18, the Ladies of Virtue (LOV), founded and led by Chicago Peace Fellow Jamila Trimuel, hosted their 2019 Recognition Ceremony to honor high school and eighth grade graduates as they move on to the next chapter in the program.
[quote]"Our 8th Annual Recognition Ceremony is a time where our Ladies of Virtue sisters showcase their talent, share what they learned throughout the year, and express how they made a difference in their communities.” -- Jamila Trimuel, Ladies of Virtue[/quote]
“Over 150 of our dearest supporters - comprised of our LOV family and friends, sponsors and community partners - joined us to recognize all of our girl's wonderful accomplishments," Jamila explained.
The youngest of the mentees, affectionately named the Gems, are drawn from the 4th – 8th grades. When the ladies graduate from the 8th grade, they become high school mentees, affectionately named Queens, which continues from the 9th through 12th grades. High school graduates are encouraged to join the LOV 4 Life program for alumni and sometimes even move on to become mentors themselves.
The program opened with a welcome video from founder Jamila Trimuel in which she recognized the legacy of her former mentor, the Rev. Willie T. Barrow. The Rev. Barrow paved the way for Trimuel to follow, leading her down the path to her passion of mentoring. Trimuel also acknowledged the Chicago Foundation for Women for their recent $35,000 grant to LOV to help with operations.
Throughout the ceremony, mentees from the Gems and Queens groups showcased their talents in the form of spoken word, theatrical skits, and dance performances. They also shared what they learned throughout the year and recapped some of their favorite moments, including college tours, senior trips, and a professional etiquette luncheon they attended earlier this year.
LOV took extra care of their seniors during the recognition ceremony by gifting them with scholarships in excess of $5,000 and care packages full of items to get the ladies started on their college journeys. Most importantly, each high school graduate was personally recognized by her mentor in a very emotional farewell speech that should guide them through college and into their adulthood.
Reflecting on Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson
On Thursday, May 9, 2019, Peace Fellows Velvian Boswell, Robin Cline and I as well as Goldin Institute staff Travis Rejman and Burrell Poe attended the City Club of Chicago's luncheon with Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Superintendent Johnson stated crime in the City of Chicago is down since 2016 and attributed the decrease to 2000 new recruits since 2017, changes in command staff due to promotions and retirements, and upgrades to technology including a new Strategic Support Center.
In addition, the superintendent shared details on various neighborhoods and his plans for the summer. Peace Fellow Robin Cline stated, “I’d be interested in hearing more about the pilot program that kicked off in January in the 25th District where they hired 12 new District Coordination Officers.” Robin provided a link to an Austin Weekly article related to the new strategy which emphasizes problem solving through building and maintaining relationships within the communities.
Velvian Boswell shared:
[quote]“I’m glad he acknowledged that some of our residents, especially those in the African American community, have been mistreated. I wonder how many of the 2,000 recruits he mentioned were African American. I also wonder what he could have done to benefit the community with the dollars spent on the technology center.”[/quote]
When asked about his legacy, the Superintendent stated he wants all of Chicago to be proud of its police department. He also said he's hopeful for a more positive narrative about the city.
I wanted to hear more about the Superintendent’s plans for youth and ways to stem violence and promote peace over the summer. I think there should be summer jobs for every youth who wants to work. After leaving the luncheon, I went to the 35th Street CPD main office to work with a group that’s helping young people expunge or seal their records so that they can obtain work.
Advisors Meet to Discuss the Chicago Peace Fellows Progress
Advisors to the Goldin Institute’s Chicago Peace Fellows initiative came together over dinner April 30 to hear updates about the Fellows and discuss the implications of their work in a context of the city’s ongoing crisis of violence.
Over plates of pasta at a restaurant across the street from City Hall, Goldin Institute Executive Director Travis Rejman, Program Coordinator Burrell Poe and Special Advisor Gabe Gonzalez briefed the attendees on the Peace Fellows’ progress through the capacity-building curriculum the Goldin Institute created based on our 17 years of experience working with grassroots organizers around the world.
The Peace Fellows initiative was launched earlier this year with the support of the Conant Family Foundation to connect and equip 19 prior grantees from the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities who were provided with a stipend as well as an iPad pre-loaded with the GATHER learning software authored by the Goldin Institute.
John Zeigler, director of DePaul University’s Egan Office of Urban Education and Community Partnerships, participated in the Peace Fellows workshop dedicated to “asset mapping,” and came away impressed. Asset mapping - creating geographic representations of community-based resources - must be done methodically to be effective, he cautioned, but many of the Peace Fellows had long histories in their neighborhoods, which they used to inform their maps.
[quote]“Many people in the room were legends in their own right. What was rich in the conversation was that they could connect stories to their assets. What I heard was knitting together their stories so they became a map.” -- John Zeigler [/quote]
Deborah Bennett, a senior program officer at the Polk Bros. Foundation, one of the philanthropies participating in the Fund for Safe and Peaceful communities and supporter of the Peace Fellows program, said interviews with prior grantees revealed that many felt isolated, even from other organizers who were in the same neighborhood. They were focused mainly on their day-to-day struggles and were rarely able to get an overview of their own communities, let alone the city as a whole.
Deborah shared, "What we learned was that they really appreciated the value of bringing people together so they could figure out what was going on in their communities.” Deborah was certain, therefore, that the Peace Fellows would be able to help each other in their work even as they met with people in key institutions and shaped their understanding of life in the neighborhoods.
[quote]“We’re lifting up the ideas of those most impacted by violence.” -- Deborah Bennett[/quote]
Mimi Frankel, a member of the Frankel Family Foundation’s Board of Directors and the Goldin Institute’s Board of Advisors, questioned the efficacy of traditional approaches to counteracting gangs and illegal drug trafficking, and suggested greater involvement from the corporate sector.
[quote]“Businesses are out there and they’re looking for a way to be involved." -- Mimi Frankel [/quote]
Teny Gross, executive director of the Institute for Non-Violence, said Chicago was behind other large cities such as New York or Los Angeles in developing strategies for reducing violence, but was optimistic that the key players were in place and major change would soon be realized.
The dinner was also attended by Leslie Ramyk, executive director of the Conant Family Foundation; Lisa Dush, a DePaul University professor who is conducting an academic evaluation of GATHER; Keith Lewis from the University of Illinois at Chicago; Leif Elsmo, executive director of community & external affairs at University of Chicago Medicine; Teresa Zeigler; Gia Biagi, director of Urbanism and Civic Impact at Studio Gang; and Goldin Institute Chief of Staff Oz Ozburn.
Chicago Peace Fellows Map What's Working
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) lies at the heart of the work of Goldin Institute and GATHER. The Chicago Peace Fellows got some time to hear from one of the biggest proponents of the philosophy, John Zeigler, who serves at faculty for the ABCD Institute as well Director of the Steans Center at DePaul University in Chicago.
In his opening remarks to the Peace Fellows during the Asset Mapping workshop, he discussed several aspects of ABCD and how it is a transformational way of viewing communities.
[quote]“In mapping, you have to understand the story, every community has a story. Who’s story is a map telling?” - John Ziegler [/quote]
We then got to learn about the assets that are present in the communities of the Chicago Peace Fellows. Each Chicago Peace Fellow shared an asset map of their communities and what they consider assets. The Fellows each chose many different ways of expressing their assets in the community. Many chose different assets such as churches, schools, and/or businesses. Others chose influential members of their communities and service providers. Parks and other built parts of the environment made their way to maps from Little Village to Roseland.
Chicago Peace Fellow Diane Latiker shared her map and focused on the wide range of assets, including informal gathering spaces in the neighborhood. As one example, Diane shared, “Old Fashioned Donuts has been in the community for decades. I am proud that people come from around the world to eat donuts here.”
The last part of the workshop was a robust conversation about how their maps intersect and what kind of information would be important for a shared asset map. They talked about ways that their organizations overlap such as similar services provided and overlapping service areas. Many talked about capturing information related to informal community leaders and informal gatherings. The Chicago Peace Fellows expressed that a shared asset map would include how they are connected to each other and how they can support one another.
[quote]“How do we capture the memories and experiences people have in communities around buildings that are not there anymore?” - Robert Beikman[/quote]
Principles and Practices that Empower Shared Learning
On Wednesday, April 3, the Chicago Peace Fellows came together to build a list of principles and practices that will unlock shared learning and collaborationfor the group. This workshop was hosted by Peace Fellow Alex Levesque at his Automotive Mentor Group, where he trains young men and women to remodel classic cars. His program recruits youth at high risk of being involved with violence.
Alex started the workshop with a tour of the facilities and details of his program, sharing how he helps young people find purpose through their work with cars. He told us about his triumphs in helping young people find gainful employment and some of his challenges with reaching young people and the barriers they face around employment, homelessness and violence in the community and at home.
We started our conversation about the differences between best practices and best principles with Alex’s locker full of belts. He has a locker full of belts because it is a requirement that everyone has a belt on when working on the shop floor. He noted that many young people do not wear belts and that it would be a challenge to have to turn away a participant simply because they didn’t have the appropriate attire. Many of his participants come from different parts of town and have long and complex commutes. His best principle is safety first and a best practice that he developed was to have belts at the shop for anyone that needed one.
After this conversation, we moved into a workshop where we sat in different groups and discussed what our best principles can be as a group. The group reflected on the course curriculum and reviewed the dozens of comments on the theme on the discussion board.
After a process of grouping comments into themes and prioritizing values that we can share and enact, the group refined the list to the following five core principles:
- Communicate openly, inclusively, honestly and respectfully.
- Promote compassion, harmony and peace.
- Embrace mutual support and accountability.
- Adopt an intergenerational and intersectional worldview.
- Foster a growth mindset.
The group will continue to grapple with these principles but they committed to adhering to these as a group in how they engage with each other, the curriculum and the communities in which we work. Often, what is shared between practitioners are best practices but we focus on best principles because the practices should fit the context, and principles encourage others to develop practices based on what’s best for them.
