By: Luz Garcia
Like all neighborhoods and communities, the Chicago Lawn neighborhood has evolved. During the 60’s it was a neighborhood mainly composed of Irish, German, Italian and other upper class European families. Today it is a predominantly Latino and African American, middle class community. Chicago Lawn is a neighborhood that is confronted with many serious issues. Along with gentrification came a rise in crime. Gang violence, poverty, and unemployment have caused a major impact to the community and the youth that grow in it. Due to these problems many activists and other people in the community felt that they had to create a safe, educational and resourceful environment for the community’s youth to grow up in. They all came together and this is how The Southwest Youth Collaborative also known as SWYC was founded.
The Southwest Youth Collaborative, a non-profit organization located on 6400 S. Kedzie, was founded in 1992. The purpose of SWYC is to build leadership in the community’s youth as well as to spread cultural understanding. It also promotes leadership, self-esteem, social growth, and community awareness. The collaborative hopes to nourish the potential that the youth has from every kind of racial, ethnic or economic background. The SWYC organization teaches youth skills that they can use to become contributing members of society and help make this a better world. The center achieves this through various programs because it also believes that when young people experience things directly then things are given meaning and reality, and that will help them establish those realities in their communities. Because Chicago Lawn is one of the most diverse communities in the southwest side it is a great resource and opportunity to teach tolerance.
The Southwest Youth Collaborative is where the Administrative offices and programming are found. “We roughly have about 15 projects. We offer mostly primary services, everything from after school programming, tutoring, career college prep, mentoring, work force development, job readiness, we also do organizing and advocacy work, we train young people to be leaders and organizers and advocates on the issues that impact them, on the problems and challenges they’re facing in their neighborhood and in their personal life…We’re connecting with a network of agencies in the Southwest side that offer a variety of things from health and wellness to education to immigration services.” Explains the associate director of the organization, Jonathan Peck.
Examples of their most popular programs would be the media program and their urban arts program. Media Masala is what the multi-media workshop is called. The workshop teaches basic media skills like web design, music and photography editing, as well as video and audio editing. Terrell Young, a current student at DeVry University, is one of the instructors of the media program. Young is a certified producer from CAN TV, "I’m teaching the kids to record, edit and build web pages." The students here learn how to use software that is being used to teach college students, putting them a step ahead. Most of the students think like Michelle Moore "I’m here, to gain experience in web media and hopefully carry that onto my future because I really want to major in information technology. I’m trying to make something out of my life." Programs like this one are like a stepping-stone for many youth, a lot of them want to go into media careers and most of them are still in high school. However, by learning the skills that they are taught at the center, they will be prepared for college.
Another popular program is The University of Hip-Hop, a program that teaches a variety of art forms. Trinidad Castillo is the instructor of the program and he also gained something from it when he was young, “I grew up here. Pretty much running the streets like most of the youth that attend the collaborative, and it was during the transition phase where most people are growing up and they don’t realize what they want in life. So who knows where I would have been, but then The University of Hip-Hop came about." The collaborative changed his life in a positive way. Castillo explains why he decided to teach here, “I grew up and I realized this is what I am. This is what I want to become. It more or less kept me out of trouble, so that’s the reason why I do it, to help maintain the youth and help by giving them an out. Something for them to release that everyday stress that comes with every day life and just living in this kind of neighborhood, it’s not the prettiest we all know. I just want to help the youth." Castillo wants to give back to the community what was given to him and his students appreciate his efforts like Christophe Bernard, a student who has been coming to the center for three years, “I love this place, a place where they pass down breaking to kids. True breaking not the commercialized one you see on TV.” Other programs include, Yoga classes, GED classes, martial arts, open-mic freestyle, and praise dancing.
The programs that are offered at the collaborative are free, Jonathan Peck explains where the center gets their funding, "We have a variety of funding we get funding from local, county, state, and federal government. We also get private foundations, family foundations and larger foundations and we also have a small percentage coming out of our individual donors and sponsors" SWYC also hosts many fundraising campaigns throughout the year, "We do fundraising events with local youth, staff, volunteers and other programs. And then we write grants." Says Peck.
Because of its success the collaborative has spread out and extended their branches. Some of the branches include, Hubbard High School on 6200 S Hamlin, where they perform Educational talent search; Gage Park High school on 57th and Rockwell; Tarkington Park on 3344 W. 71st, and Peck Elementary school on 3826 w 58th. The programs offered at these sites are based on the same idea, to help the youth. The Center’s efforts have also gone beyond the community itself. In 1997 SWYC developed a partnership with community activists in South Africa, since then, there have been other partnerships with organizations around the world like Belgium; Guatemala; Honduras; Mexico; Zimbabwe; Australia, and The Middle East. All creating the International Youth Leadership Institute in which young people meet and share their experiences and learn from one another.
To this day, the Collaborative continues to touch and change the lives of many youth as it has been doing throughout the years. With the efforts of the instructors and staff, students are provided knowledge and a place where they can get out of the violent streets. Organizations like The Southwest Youth Collaborative teach youth many useful skills and inspire them to make a difference, Calvin Ison is an example, “I want to help the youth and get the message out there that there is hope and you can do what you want to do and you can be what you want to be.”
Story on one of the many programs The Southwest Youth Collaborative Center has to offer.
