We are in the process of forming an ad hoc group to organize against the Alderman's 'backroom deal' to allow the Chicago Park District to lease, or otherwise turn over, the new Gale Park Community Center to the Lathrop Homes Boys and Girls Club, a private, not for profit organization. As everyone now knows, this 'turnover', as it is, will take place without ANY community voice or input.
In addition to lending your support to this 'grass roots' effort, we need people to volunteer and assist in this organizing effort. This issue is not limited to and affecting only the NoH neighborhood. This is a Rogers Park community wide issue, involving the Alderman, the Chicago Park District, the misuse of taxpayer monies, and the
total exclusion of community residents.
We need community wide support.
Please contact "SOCC" (Save Our Community Center), for now, at luckenbach@rcn.com or call 773-465-2433
Source.
5 comments:
Rogers Park residents got 'slap in the face'
The Gale Park Advisory Council is recognized as the authority working and speaking on behalf of community residents. For over a decade they have been accountable, accessible, and responsive to the community. Most notably, they are widely respected for their advocacy to keep the community center idea alive. Well, finally the cake is baked, eco-green decorated, and ready to serve. But wait! A politician and his allies want to claim credit and take over?
Rogers Park residents got a slap in the face when we learned that political insiders have been meeting for months to make decisions for us. The behind-closed-doors dealing violates our right to participate, and yes, even take the lead, in decision making that affects our lives and our community. It seems that the long established and globally recognized values of community control and self-determination are not the values of our politicians and their friends.
What's also appalling are the blunt force machinations underway to kill honest volunteerism and initiative by the residents who comprise the parks council. The similarities between the machinations of the Chicago Children's Museum to assume control of a piece of Grant Park and this Rogers Park episode are striking. How can our North Side "progressive" alderman oppose one non-profit organization's campaign in Grant Park and at the same time meet secretly to encourage another non-profit to assume control of park space in Rogers Park?
I welcome the Boys and Girls Club, with its focus on youth services, to bring their resources as an addition to what the park district and our community can provide. I do not support installing the club as a replacement for local community resident activism (the parks council) which already exists and has a good track record of advocacy on our behalf. The vision we've been working toward for so long is a community center that helps create a much needed sense of community, involvement, and connectedness among local residents. The goals to serve both young and older residents, of all races, and of all classes are all important.
I urge our alderman to work with our community, residents, and local organizations. Support and assist the parks council and credit them for the real and successful work they have been doing for over a decade.
The advisory council has the numbers, the people, the skills, the creativity, and the energy to create what can be a unique model for park district service in Chicago. Their leadership has inspired us so far. To destroy it would be folly. I look forward to their work to recruit unprecedented financial and volunteer support from more Rogers Park residents, businesses, and institutions. I will work to help make that happen.
Michael Harrington Rogers Park
great letter!
thanks, Michael!
Joe Moore has no motivation to listen to the residents of our ward. There is, after all, no election in the near future.
How about this organization demanding Joe's resignation?
Existing youth programs must be included in plans for Gale Community Center
By CAROLYN READ, MSW, MPH
One View
Editor's note: The letter below was sent to Ald. Joe Moore, 49th; Jim Ginderske, volunteer director of Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park; State Rep. Julie Hamos, 18th; State Senator Heather Steans, 7th; and Chicago Park District CEO Tim Mitchell. In some instances, minor editorial clarifications were made with the author's permission.
I am writing in response to a story that appeared in the [July 3 issue of News-Star, "Opening of Gale Community Center Delayed"] reporting that a Boys and Girls Club may be coming to Rogers Park. There are many people who are very concerned about the proposed location of the proposed Boys and Girls Club in the newly constructed Gale Community Center. There are many people worried that the Boys and Girls Club will focus predominantly, as stated in the name of [the] organization, on children. These are all extremely valid and I have an additional concern.
For four years I have been the youth program director for the Howard Area Community Center. We run successful and well-attended afterschool and summer programs at Gale Academy, Jordan School, Chicago Math and Science Academy and at two of our own sites, including the Computer Clubhouse located at 1527 W. Morse. During the school year, we serve over 300 Rogers Park youth ages 8-18.
Each summer, for six years now, [HACC] has run a summer camp in which we serve 100 children ages 6-13 and employ 17 teens to work as counselors in training. The camp is based out of Gale Academy and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for six weeks. Families only pay $50 for their first child, $40 for their second and $35 for their third child. This includes breakfast, lunch, snack, a camp T-shirt and field trips each Friday to sites such as Waveland Bowl, Lincoln Park Zoo, Shedd Aquarium, Cirque Shanghai and CoCo Key Water Resort. This is one of the most affordable camps in the city of Chicago.
Over 90 percent of the HACC Youth Program staff [members] are certified youth development practitioners. They completed a semester long college program sponsored by the City of Chicago Children and Youth Services and [the] Chicago Area Project. They are CPR/first -aid certified and have a great deal of experience working with the youth in our community.
I am disappointed that in all the planning for this proposed Boys and Girls Club that [HACC's] already well established and respected youth program, right here in Rogers Park, was never included in the discussion or needs assessment. As printed in the recent article in the [News-Star on June 26, "Gale May Get Boys and Girls Club"], it was stated that "[Ald. Joe] Moore and other community leaders are scrambling to put a day camp together for North of Howard children with $50,000 in state funds procured by Senator Health Steans, 7th." There seems little need to scramble to put together a day camp where one already exists. Truly concerned community leaders should have taken the time to talk to youth programs in Rogers Park and especially ones, such as [HACC's], with a long history of specifically serving the North of Howard community. Each year we struggle to procure funds to run camp and after school programs. Even a portion of that $50,000 would make a tremendous difference for our youth program.
Youth in Rogers Park deserve the best programming we can provide, but the process should not be a divisive one. Youth in our community must be valued and cared for to the best of our ability and that means establishing strong partnerships and clear lines of communication for agencies that work with the youth. Not communicating with or involving Howard Area Community Center's Youth Program in any of this planning for the Boys and Girls Club, leads me to believe that the best interest of youth is not the most vital importance to the planners of this proposal. To move forward in a positive direction means bringing together the providers of youth programming in Rogers Park and valuing their years of service and contribution to the youth living North of Howard.
I look forward to being part of future conversations and discussions regarding the Boys and Girls Club proposal.
Carolyn Read, MSW, MPH, is the youth program director for the Howard Area Community Center in Rogers Park.
wow
powerful writing!
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