113-115th Calumet Block Club

Developing Communities Project (DCP) triumphantly marked its silver anniversary with an energy-filled convention, Celebrating 25 Years of Community Transformation: Looking Back While Moving Forward at Allen Metropolitan C.M.E Church, 10946 S. Lowe in Chicago. Incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under the leadership of its first executive director, then community organizer and now President of the United States, Barack Obama in 1986, DCP remains church-based with the mission to improve the quality of life by training and empowering grassroots leaders to advocate for favorable public services and public policies for the families of Greater Roseland. 

 Attended by DCP member churches, elected politicians, community activists, youth, and seniors, the organization kicked off the celebration with two, dynamic workshops.  The Economic Development workshop focused on the critical roles that transportation, transit oriented development, workforce development, housing and the environment play in the economic viability of the community. The panelists were Abraham Lacy, executive director, Far South Side Community Development Corporation; Janet Smith, PhD, co-director, Nathalie Voorhees Center for Neighborhood Improvement at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and Robert Wordlaw, executive director, Chicago Jobs Council.  Lou Turner, DCP public policy director & assistant director & assistant professor, African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana facilitated the workshop.  Click here to read more  

South Side leaders push for Red Line extension

(as published on chicagotribune.com November 27, 2012)

By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter  

Community leaders on Chicago's South Side on Monday questioned the commitment of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the CTA to extend the Red Line to 130th Street, complaining that the long-sought rail project may be suffering unnecessary delays as the transit agency moves quickly to spend hundreds of millions on other improvements.

Among the key concerns is the CTA linking the Red Line extension to its overall modernization plans for the entire line, which is the agency's longest and busiest rail route.

"The Red Line extension could be moving faster, and we want to make sure it is not put on the back burner,'' said Gwendolyn Rice, executive director of the Developing Communities Project. "Work on one project should not preclude work on the other.''

CTA President Forrest Claypool has said it makes no sense to extend the Red Line without also enhancing the line elsewhere by eliminating slow zones caused by deteriorated track and updating stations and electrical power along the route so trains can circulate more quickly between the North and South sides.

Emanuel made the Red Line extension, estimated to cost at least $1.5 billion, his No. 1 transportation priority when he campaigned for mayor.  Click here to read more. 

DCP Project Vote 2012

 By Rev. William Kyle

In 1994 DCP under the supervision of, now President Barack Obama, Project Vote was developed to register Chicago's Greater Roseland area residents to vote. That voter registration drive became a key event in the life of DCP. Fast forward to the Presidential election of 2012 and DCP is involved once again with Project Vote II, "for such a time as this."

DCP sponsored two Volunteer Deputy Registrars training courses through the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners. Forty persons were trained within the two sessions and of the forty registrars trained nineteen of them were organized and several registrar teams were created. The teams registered Greater Roseland residents in Public Libraries, Discount Food Stores, Chicago State and Olive Harvey Jr. Colleges, Simeon and Fenger High Schools, Church Coffee Hours, Block Club Meetings, Family Gatherings and many more locations.

All of the team participants shared how wonderful it felt to be doing such important outreach. There was an excitement generated in the places that we served. DCP Registrars formed an expanded political community as they discussed the importance of this election. However as Deputy Registrars they stayed out of the "who you gonna vote for" discussions.  

The voter registrar teams registered nearly five hundred new voters, with some persons registering as many as fifty.   Kudos to board member and chairman of the CTA Red Line Oversight Committee (ROC), Phyllis Palmer, who independently registered over 100 persons, many while riding up and down the CTA Red Line. DCP is proud of our contributions to the 2012 Election via Project Vote II.   We are even more proud that our former executive director Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term as the President of the United States of America. Congratulations POTUS Obama!!!

Literacy Initiatives

By Patricia Gray Smith

Literacy Statistics from the 2010 U.S. Census and the Secretary of State show that 2.2 million people in Illinois "have limited amounts of currency (earnings) because of their poor skills in reading, writing, math, or English proficiency".  

WHAT CAN DCP DO ABOUT ADULT LITERACY ? 

Since July, 2012,  Executive Director Gwendolyn Rice and Patricia Gray Smith, Literacy Coordinator have been in discussion with community residents, local churches, colleges, and literacy organizations to aid in DCP's efforts to address adult literacy tutoring in Greater Roseland.     

 
WE'RE ON OUR WAY!
In October, 2012 potential tutors committed to training with Literacy of Chicago to learn instructional methods for Adult Literacy and English as a Second Language.  Our first graduate completed the program in October and is working with our first adult learner on a weekly basis.  Three additional tutors are slated to complete training in January 2013. 

OUR GOAL
We plan to have multiple sites throughout Greater Roseland that are accessible to residents.  With our adult literacy program DCP will be able to provide free tutoring for ages 16 and up, for persons wanting to enhance skills before embarking on General Education Diploma studies, workforce training, or other personal development desires.  Our program will help adult learners improve skills in reading, writing, spelling, and communication.  Tutors may also provide some assistance with mathematics or other subjects. 

Environmental Equity Matters

By Jessica Page, UIC Vorhees Center for Neighborhood Improvement

Since early 2012, DCP in collaboration with the UIC Nathalie P. Voorhees Center has hosted a series of forums to discuss the condition of our environment - the water, land and air - through our Environmental Equity Matters in Greater Roseland project. This project is supported through the US EPA Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE), which aims to help build community awareness and capacity to address local toxic environmental pollutants. The ultimate goal is to collectively work together to reduce exposure to toxic pollutants and improve the local environment. With the support of key community leaders, we have been working to facilitate critical conversations among a range of stakeholders (including residents, businesses, health providers, schools etc.) about environmental risks and impacts.  

We recently held three town hall meetings to share environmental information from experts at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. We also received valuable input from the community.   We learned a lot!

Brownfields: The first town hall was held on September 13th at Lloyd Bond Academy. We celebrated the recent passage of Illinois House Bill 3381 banning new landfills in Cook County signed into law by Pat Quinn on July 22, 2012. Residents shared concerns about particular brownfield sites in the community as well as ideas for productive uses for these sites, including preferences for senior housing, community gardens, art and technology training centers and dog parks. In addition, we learned about the EPA's resources available to address brownfields, including assessment and cleanup grants.  Click here to read more.