The Village Keepers

In a city so violent that murder rates regularly make national headlines...

By Kate Proto Photos By Tony Armour Photography

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FocalPoint | Winter–Spring 2013

Chicago’s educational institutions face a daunting task—keeping kids safe and out of harm’s way as they travel to and from school.

Consider the numbers: 405,000 Chicago Public School (CPS) students traverse the city each morning, afternoon and evening. If a parent cannot afford the time or resources to drive them, and if CPS does not provide them with a school bus (as is the case with charter, magnet, and selective enrollment schools), chances are that his or her route involves walking and/or taking public transit.

Adrienne Leonard helps two CICS ChicagoQuest students safely cross the street

Without certain protections, protections often referred to as “safe passage,” a student traveling even a short distance to school might run a hazardous gauntlet each day: from encountering shady characters on public transit, to facing gang members and drug dealers on the street, to navigating traffic at a busy intersection. Such circumstances have led to tragedy, as in the case of Derrion Albert, a young man who was brutally beaten on his way home from a South Side Chicago high school in September 2009.

Given CICS’s decision to operate in the city’s areas of highest need, developing partnerships that keep children out of harm’s way is critical. One must be relentless and resourceful, linking up parents, neighbors, community organizations and police officers to strengthen ties in the communities CICS serves. Adrienne Leonard, a community organizer who does such work for CICS, calls it “connecting the dots.” Leonard’s passion for safe passage came as a direct result of Derrion’s death—Derrion’s family and Leonrd are close, so his loss greatly affected her. “I wanted to do something that would prevent this from ever happening again. I told Derrion’s grandfather, Joseph Walker, ‘In Africa, the village-keepers take care of the village. That’s the problem. We’re not taking care of our village. Anyone should be able to get

to school safely, and it’s the village-keepers, the people in the neighborhood, who should keep them safe.’”

key ingredients Over the years, Adrienne Leonard has cobbled together quite a broad network of village-keepers to accomplish her goal and the goal of “Pain to Power,” the not-for-profit group she helped create to establish safe routes to and from school.

By working very closely with a CPS high school as well as multiple CICS and Perspectives charter school campuses, Ms. Leonard has learned true community reform has several key requirements. One: Start at the elementary level, particularly with Chicago Police Department (CPD) programs like “Officer Friendly” and “Keepin’ it Real,” which teach young people to trust police officers, use caution with strangers and pick safe walking routes.

“It’s the only way you can change the mindsets of the children from an early age,” she imparts. Two: Be resourceful, getting help from across the community, particularly since CICS does not have access to CPS safe passage funds. “If the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), or Chicago Police Department are running programs or offering incentives, see what you can offer your volunteers and schools,” suggests Ms. Leonard. Three: Recruit and train trustworthy parents and community members who live in the neighborhood, and run background checks on everyone for peace of mind.

“You can’t hire people to do this type of work who don’t live in the community—you need the village-keepers to do the work.”

One of Ms. Leonard’s regular volunteers, Roosevelt Hawkins, agrees with this requirement wholeheartedly. “If we know the rougher people in the community, we can try to communicate with them and ask them to cross the street to keep a distance as our kids come to and from school. They know and respect me, and they respect that the kids are going to school.” Mr. Hawkins wishes, however, that more of the volunteers were male. “We need more men to step forward and help with these kids. Our presence makes a difference.”

Another fundamental aspect of running a successful safe passage program is overcoming the rhetoric suggesting traditional public schools and charter schools are at odds with each other. When it comes to keeping kids safe, folks need not have a bias toward school “type,” says Phyllis Palmer, a community leader in the Altgeld GardensRiverdale community. “I don’t want to hear from people saying ‘this school’ versus ‘that school.’

These are our kids. It’s about choices, wherever they choose to go, they are going to be taken care of. That’s the bottom line out here.”

Committed to Greatness

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VillageKeepers A Labor of Love Phyllis Palmer provides eye-opening illustrations about the complexity of community work. In Altgeld Gardens alone, where CICS Lloyd Bond and CICS Larry Hawkins serve students from grades K-12 in one of the city’s most impoverished and isolated communities, Palmer is connected to a web of volunteers. “It’s a labor of love,” she shares. “I just tell people to keep their eyes out—if you see something give us a call. Stand outside for 30 minutes especially at the end of the school day; if the area is clear then you’re good.” In the center of the Altgeld neighborhood, the public library provides a safe haven for kids who don’t have anywhere to go right after school. If a child needs safe passage from the library, a staff member will call one of Ms. Palmer’s dependable associates.

“I know one mom, Marguerite Jacobs, her son goes to CICS Larry Hawkins, he’s on the football team. She also works for Chicago Housing Authority and organizes their tenant watch program. The CHA folks are on the corners when school is going in or coming out, and they’ll physically walk children from a safe haven to get latchkey kids home safely.”

Ms. Palmer’s work doesn’t end in the neighborhood. From encouraging the CTA to provide more security staffing at the 95th street Red Line station, a transportation hub for Chicago’s south side, to riding the buses each morning and after the dismissal bell, she is relentless.

Marguerite Jacobs, CICS Larry Hawkins parent,

18 stops // to FocalPoint Spring 2013 chat with a|fellow community resident.

“I’ll ride the bus all the way to the end and back. The kids are recognizing me on the buses,” she says proudly, “I’ll tell them, ‘Excuse me, I don’t want no cussing, no fighting. I know your principal, I know your mama, I’ll call her tonight. Get your tail home.’ At the end of this past school year, one young person asked me reluctantly if I was coming back next year. I said, ‘This is the first face you’re going to see next year.’”

Once a well-trained group of volunteers is formed, small victories help to keep the momentum going. One of Adrienne Leonard’s first safe passage initiatives involved working with a group of dedicated parents at CICS West Belden, in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, to mobilize around safety issues.

The group, called the “Parent Patrol,” successfully advocated and got the city to turn North McVicker into a one-way street, cut back the trees for improved visibility of street lights, and installed a speed bump near the school. They also banded together one day when a young man from the neighborhood came looking for a CICS student. While the young man waited for dismissal, the parents stood guard to ensure that the CICS student was not targeted.

For Adriana Ramirez, a parent of three at CICS West Belden, the best incentive is seeing her child succeed: “Since I’m volunteering at school, my daughter, who loves having me around, is doing better and better. She even asked me if the school would be around when she had kids. I told her, ‘I hope so, baby.’” //

Juan Covarrubias, CICS West Belden Security Guard, takes a moment to spend time with his nephew as school lets out.

One of Ms. Leonard’s regular volunteers, Ron Bouyer, a crossing guard who works in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood near CICS ChicagoQuest, sees these efforts as a way to get back to traditional community values.

Key elements to a successful safe passage program 1. Regular communication and collaboration with:

“Used to be a time when people in the neighborhood looked out for each other, knew everybody’s mamas.

We help out by looking out for these kids.” – Ron Bouyer

Parent volunteer on bus route

1. CTA bus pick up scheduled at dismissal

Parents & Community members School leaders Chicago Police Department

Safe Haven

Chicago Transit Authority

Safe Haven

Chicago Housing Authority City Council Members Church leaders

2. Walking schoold bus 2. “Keepin’ it Real” and “Officer Friendly” education in elementary school

Middle School

3. Safe Havens such as schools, churches, libraries, businesses, etc. which have been deemed safe and where children could go to wait for someone to pick them up, while receiving adult supervision by a vetted community member who has undergone a background check

3.

Safe crossing

4.

Volunteer parent patrol

High School

4. Adults or parents who live in the neighborhood must perform the bulk of the work: • 2-3 to lead “walking school buses” to take kids from a meet-up spot to school and back • 2-3 to ride on public transit, particularly buses, during peak times (before and after school)

3.

Safe crossing

• 2-3 to wear crossing guard attire and ensure safe crossings, stand guard on troublesome corners

Safe Haven

3.

Safe crossing

4.

Volunteer parent patrol

Elementary School

Committed to Greatness

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