Stewards of the block proposal

Jacobs Heritage Foundation

Proposal for Stewards of the Block Pilot Program: Training in Youth Development and to Establish a Youth Leadership Council for The Chicago Greater Grand Crossing Community

Submitted by Nathaniel Morgan/Founder 6926 S. Dorchester Chicago, IL 60637 www.jacobsheritage.org manworkin@hotmail.com Project period: March 2014 – March 2015 project area: Chicago Greater Grand Crossing Community Project summary: The aim of the project is to develop and train a quality group of teens to be productive in their community and transition youth into members of leadership.

The project also aims to train & develop adult/youth partnerships and to develop job created atmosphere for our youth.

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Contents Executive Summary.........................................................3 Mission statement Company information Target Audience Statement of Problem......................................................4 Solutions Objectives.........................................................................5 Establish adult/youth collaborations......................5 Adult/Youth chart...................................................6 Youth Leadership Council......................................7 Develop and implement job creativity...................7 Youth Development workshops.............................9

Plan of Action....................................................................10 Monthly outlook Job creativity Dorchester's Playlot................................................10 Ambience Dinner-Massage.....................................11 Community gardens Grand Crossing Community Gym

Identifying Customer Needs (milestones)........................11 Organizational identity Youth Empowerment And Engagement Identity.....12 Most Common Identifiers from Adults Identifications in Society Marketing concept..................................................13 project management Budget

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Executive Summary Mission Statement To produce violence reduction strategies and prevent a repeated relapse into criminal or delinquent behavior in at risk youth through the five aspects of positive youth development: learning, connecting, thriving, working, and leading.

To create and mentor a Youth Leadership Counsel for selected underprivileged communities, to recruit and train available parents as mentors, to mentor teens from adolescent to adulthood Our purpose is to teach youth through individual empowerment toward selfimprovement in personal, social, academic, vocational and economic skills which would nurture a positive growth in spirituality, responsibility, education, work relations, and family structure.

Our goals is to effectively modify behavior patterns, increase young adult’s ability to create jobs and increase young adult’s wiliness to serve their communities collectively; to observe and document the strengths and positive attributes in our youth through casemanagement; to direct those strengths and attributes toward youth leadership in our network of activities.

Our objective is to establish an active presents in underprivileged communities for our programs to function and be self-sufficient.

Company We are a 501 c 3 organization registered in the state of Illinois. Our service is a broad over view of implementing youth development to underprivileged communities.

Our collaboration consist of community organizations, community residence and high school students in the Chicago area.

During our conception, we have researched some nationwide documented youth needs assessments and solutions that works for our youth. Our research have driven us to duplicate some solutions with some of our own additions for our youth where there is a need to do so. Our intervention with this proposal focuses on our future intentions for our communities, our families and our livelihood.

Target Audience The Greater Grand Crossing Community in Chicago is our target audience. This community consist of 3 and a half square miles and was documented by the 2010 census to have a population of 32, 602 people. Also, the demographics for 2010 was 0.55% white, 97% black, 0.06, 1.19% Hispanic and 0.06% Asian.

"Chicago Demographics Data"

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Statement of Problem Here in Chicago we see a needed assessment for youth of all ages, as there is a needed assessment in communities around the country. “There is overwhelming evidence which constantly mount up in where and how youth spend their time outside of normal school hours. After school hours should have an important implication in youth development. On the negative side, estimates suggest that more than 7 million children in the United States are without adult supervision for some period of time after school. This unsupervised time puts youth at risk for such negative outcomes as academic and behavioral problems, drug use and other types of risky behavior (Weisman & Gottfredson, 2001).”

We must not exclude the summer months where more time is given to our teens that puts them more at risk were negative outcomes can become fatal in most cases as we watch a increase in violence during our summer months as the daily peer-pressures of teens is not fully addressed.

Unemployment There have been growing concerns about youth unemployment across the country. Teen unemployment is at a record high, and every summer in Chicago there is a dire concern about the raise in violence soon after the school season ends, and unemployed teens embrace their idleness of time.

Greg Rivara of the Illinois Department of Employment Security said current state unemployment rates for teens reflect national economic woes. But Rivara said it’s impossible to determine how individual segments of the labor market will fare as the economy recovers.

“One of the pressures for teen employment is the overall unemployment rate — individuals are accepting and seeking positions that they might not normally do in more robust economic times,” Rivara said. “The more we focus on subsets, the more difficult to determine what will occur because we simply have never been in this position.” http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x2022726614/Black-teens-fall-behind-in-job-market

Solutions “On the positive side, young people benefit when they spend time engaged in structured pursuits that offer opportunities for positive interactions with adults and peers, encourage them to contribute and take initiative, and contain challenging and engaging tasks that help them develop and apply new skills and personal talents (American Youth Policy Forum, 2006; Carnegie Corporation, 1992; Larson & Verma, 1999; National Research Council & Institute of Medicine, 2002).”

According to the American Youth PolicyForum, on engaging youth in structured pursuits, we have implemented the five aspects of youth development within mentoring programming. We will also, use a case-management database to document milestones and our progress and other programs such as our Culinary Arts program, Horticulture program. and our RED X Building program.

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Objectives (1) establish adult/youth collaborations (2) Youth Leadership Council (3) develop and implement job creativity Establish adult/youth collaborations As youth prepare to become adults, their roles change: Instead of always being taken care of, they increasingly take care of themselves. While not all youth will assume traditional leadership roles as they grow older (e.g. positions of authority, political titles, etc.), they will all become the leaders of their own lives, a job that demands leadership ability. To be successful as adults, all youth will be required to demonstrate selfsufficiency and initiative, which includes making the right decisions that lead to success.

Furthermore, youth leadership opportunities can give youth the skills that employers most want for their emergent workforce: self motivation, time management, oral and written communication, team work, influencing people, salesmanship, leadership, solving problems, physical skills related to health, and gathering, evaluating, and/or analyzing information. Regardless of the future aspirations of youth, leadership opportunities can help all youth develop the skills they will need in the workforce and for a lifetime of making good decisions.

We have included a chart that describes how our organization will increase the youth ability to be leaders. Consider the chart on the following page. Ranging from low to high, from adult-led activities that merely invite youth to participate, to high-level youth leadership opportunities to transition our youth to responsible tasks. Our youth will grow in levels of control (according to the documented rows on the chart) that will show more participation and give youth more voice, choice, and leadership and at the same time, adult roles change from directing, facilitating, coaching and mentoring.

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Levels of control

Youth-led

Youth/ adult partnerships

Adult-led, with youth consulted

Adult led, with youth interests considered

Adult-led, with youth given token roles or used as “decoration”

Adult-led, with youth as “objects” (passive participants)

Example

Level of decisionmaking

Youth plan, implement, and evaluate a Peer Conflict mediation program.

Youth make all decisions; they may or may not consult adults.

Meaningful roles Level of leadership and responsibilities development and skill-building All roles and responsibilities are developed and carried out by youth. Older youth may mentor younger ones.

Decision-making is Working together at shared. Planning and every stage, a team designing activities All roles and of youth and adults is shared by youth responsibilities are plan, run, and and adults equally. shared by youth and facilitate a youth Differ- ences are adults equally or are leadership negotiated between based on skills and conference. youth and adults. interests.

Adults ask youth what kind of afterschool activities they want to participate in. Youth give input, help plan a small activity, or help run a small portion of the program.

Youth input is sought, but adults make the final decisions.

Youth are provided a chance to be a classroom greeter or help clean up the yard. Classrooms are Some choices are divided into activity offered to youth by zones (designed and adults, but no input developed by adults) is sought. Youth and youth select have little role in which zone they decision- making. participate in.

One youth serves on an adult board, but is given little or no opportunity to voice his/her opinion, no formal vote, and is expected to represent all of the youth in the community.

Adults organize and run an after-school program. Youth are invited to attend.

No real decisionmaking power.

Youth have no decision-making power.

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High

High

Youth have medium to high levels of responsibility. The significance of the activity is medium to Medium to high high. Youth help define and create choices with approval of adults.

Responsibility is low and the level of meaningful involvement may be low as well. Adults decide if, how, and when the youth participate.

No meaningful role provided. Youth participate primarily so adults can say they have youth present.

Youth are not given any meaningful roles. Adults provide services to youth.

Low

Low to nonexistent

Nonexistent

Youth Leadership Council Youth are shaped by the environment in which they live. At the same time, they have a tremendous capability to influence the health and well-being of that community, and given the opportunity, they can provide it with a positive shape and direction.

Because of this, three central elements of success emerge for programs that engage youth to embrace leadership in their community while building safer a community.

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First, programs in which youth actively contribute to the design, execution, and leadership have a higher degree of sustainability and success.

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Second, an understanding of local contexts and culture allows experienced program organizers to tailor approaches appropriately.

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Third, holistic approaches that incorporate the social, political, economic, and legal needs of youth will target immediate and long-term needs.

Youth need to feel ownership over the process of their guided efforts.

Nevertheless, “Community safety” implies social inclusion; the process of creating safe communities should consist of broad participation and community buy-in, and youth must take part in pinpointing issues and devising solutions. The election of the members of the council will go through a community campaign trail and the council will be a eleven member council listed on page thirteen.

Develop and implement job creativity Young people should be actively involved in activities that will expose them to and offer the opportunity to practice not only the actual skills needed for a particular career, but also the work readiness skills needed to find and maintain employment according to 2002 report by Ferber, Pittman & Marshall.

The City of Chicago located in Cook County is a dense, urban population that is home to 2.7 million citizens that make up the 5.3 million in the upper northeastern section of the State of Illinois, County of Cook. In an urban area of such proportion, it is a human right to have suitable work opportunity. Suitable work is also important for care of self and families. The City of Chicago has been hard hit in job creation particularly youth age 16-21. The lack of work for our youth population has become a linchpin to the mounting violence in our urban areas.

Many juvenile delinquent behaviors not only have to do with lack of parental responsibility but lack of work opportunity as a rite of passage to adulthood. The City of Chicago youth have been virtually excluded from the workforce particularly AfricanAmerican and Latino at risk youth. In fact, “America's young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they've got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job. It's important for their future, and for America's…America's youth can't wait for Congress to act. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment."— President Barack Obama

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Our job creativity's primary purpose is to meet the President’s challenge by developing life and work skills in an innovative learning and working environment. The program identifies and includes a fraction of the 2.9 million (DOL, 2012) Illinois youth that will enter the labor force this year. The implemented job concepts mentioned in the proposalwill combat, intervene and prevent youth violence by targeting and enrolling youth to get involve within designated metropolitan areas of the City of Chicago, County of Cook that includes South Shore, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn and AuburnGresham.

Regarding the culinary arts program, the purpose is to elevate our youth to receive their culinary license, and obtain a sanitation license through city guidelines while gaining knowledge to work in customer service and restaurant management.

Nevertheless, our job creation efforts will allow youth to gain experience and certifications in the field of work related activities we have set forth for them.

Our program uses an innovative approach that is different from other solutions to solve juvenile delinquency and stem the tide of violence or risky behaviors. Our programs motivates youth to become directly involved in addressing self-empowerment through the five aspects of youth development. Businesses can accept the President's callto-action choosing at least one of the following three pathways to employment for lowincome youth: a) Life Skills: Provide youth work-related soft skills, such as communication, time management and teamwork, through coursework and/or experience; b) Work Skills: Provide youth insight into the world of work to prepare for employment; and, c) Learn and Earn: Provide youth on-the-job skills in a learning environment while earning wages for their work.

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Youth development workshops Youth Development is a process that prepares young people to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences which help them gain skills and competencies. Youth Leadership is part of that process. In order to control and direct their own lives based on informed decisions, Youth Development and Leadership need to be included as core components of transition programming for all youth, including youth with disabilities. http://www.ncwd-youth.info/youth-development According to the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD), there are five aspect of positive youth development we plan to implement in our workshops. Those five aspect are: learning, connecting, thriving, working, and leading.

Learning: Positive basic and applied academic attitudes, skills, and behaviors characterize the area of development known as learning (Ferber, Pittman, & Marshall, 2002). Often, this is as simple as giving young people the opportunity to use the skills they have acquired in school or other training programs in a different context. Youth should be encouraged to develop not only a higher aptitude for academic achievement, but also the ability to approach learning with a strategy for achieving success.

Connecting: Refers to the development of positive social behaviors, skills, and attitudes (Ferber, Pittman, & Marshall, 2002). Relationships with elders, peers, supervisors, family, and other community members commonly influence these behaviors, skills, and attitudes. The level to which a young person has developed in this area will also dictate how he or she continues to build varied relationships later on in life.

Thriving: Attitudes, skills, and behaviors that are demonstrated by maintaining optimal physical and emotional wellbeing characterize the area of development known as thriving (Ferber, Pittman, & Marshall, 2002). Not only must a young person have intellectual and social competencies to achieve success in adulthood, but he or she must also have the wherewithal to maintain his or her physical and emotional health at its highest level. Thriving is the optimal relationship between physical and emotional wellbeing, as determined by each youth’s particular circumstances and range of abilities.

Working: Positive attitudes, skills, and behaviors around vocational direction characterize the area of development known as working (Ferber, Pittman, & Marshall, 2002). Young people should be actively involved in activities that will expose them to and offer the opportunity to practice not only the actual skills needed for a particular career, but also the work readiness skills needed to find and maintain employment.

Leading: Leading is the area of development that centers on positive skills, attitudes, and behaviors around civic involvement and personal goal setting (Ferber, Pittman, & Marshall, 2002). Youth who are civically engaged in a positive manner, willing to participate in public activity, and able to navigate the civic arena are likely to become adults who participate in civic upkeep. In this case, the term “civic� can refer to an entire city, a neighborhood, a community, and anything else that implies public environs.

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Plan of Action Monthly outlook November 2013: Online promotions of organization, free web magazine & newsletter December 2013: Recruiting for volunteers starts for programs and workshops January 2014: implemented dated for Dedicated Mentor Programming February 2014: Community flyer goes out to Grand Crossing Community & Riverdale, IL March 2014: Start date for mentor program for Grand Crossing Community/horticulture April 2014: Acquire 2 vacant properties in Riverdale, IL for center/ restaurant May 2014: Promoting RED X Building project / Chef Culinary Arts Program June 2014: Appreciation month / Acknowledgement of milestones July 2014:Organizing Chef Culinary Arts Program for Grand Crossing & Riverdale, IL August 2014: Assessments for more work related programs and youth initiatives September 2014: Appreciation month / Acknowledgement of milestones October 2014: Youth Leadership Council campaign begins November 2014: Evaluation month for all programs December 2014: Appreciation month / Acknowledgement of milestones January 2015: Votes are tallied & recorded/ winners of the council announced @ summit February 2015: Youth Empowerment Summit March 2015: Appreciation month / Acknowledgement of milestones Job creativity Dorchester's Playlot The Dorchester's Playlot is a place where moms can bring their kids to allow their kids to enjoy while moms watch in comfort. There is a monthly cost per child. We plan a tree house to be five feet off the ground with city code structure and children safety guidelines. There will be a soft grounded structure, 2 bubble jumps a tunnel city and swings plus more.

We will offer beverage and snacks. Colored bands will change once a month with the playlot name and address printed on them for the purpose of entry into the lot according to paid membership. Stewards of the block members will learn and help build our playlot and also train in customer service, management and children safety guidelines.

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Ambiance Dinner-Massage Here at Ambiance Dinner-Massage we serve a dinner entrees and give our customers a shoulder, back and neck message of their choice first. Our service is fashioned for the working class getting off work and the evenings with relaxation on their minds. An ambiance setting is displayed for comfort and society will have those few work-a-bees who would love our atmosphere before and after work. We will get communities views and ideas to enhance our networking.

Community Gardens We plan to create two community gardens for educational purposes of growing herbs, vegetation and maintaining healthy living. Creating these gardens will also help our green thumb youth who are interested in volunteering and learning. Most volunteering efforts can result in employment for our community gardens.

Grand Crossing Community Gym The community gym intentions is to be a 24 hour facility with sponsorship from sports authority. We will do a survey on the needs of the community pertaining to health, convenience of the facility, juice bars and gym member cost that will support the organization.

Identifying Customer Needs (milestones) Looking at the community at large we see that community organizations has the authority to embrace leadership and to not only embrace it, but mobilize the community for a greater cause for change. Therefore, lets explain how we will identify the needs of our customers whom are the youth, the parents and our society. Our identifiers are the profiles that we will be documenting as milestones in our endeavors during the course of our pilot program.

Organizational Identity •

Becoming more focused on the true needs of the youth they serve.

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Having programs that are more relevant for the youth.

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Widening their impact, as reflected by increased program attendance.

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Absorbing the unconventional thinking of youth, which can lead to solutions that adults may not have thought of.

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Stimulating greater ownership of the program by the youth (and ownership by the community).

Growing potential new leaders and workers who come from the communities they serve.

Using their youth as positive role models for other youth.

Gaining new resources and support as youth reach out to their parents and other adults.

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Youth Empowerment And Engagement Identity •

Gaining skills they will need in order to become successful adults.

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Creating new relationships with adults and peers, further connecting them to their community and enlarging their support network.

• • • • • • •

Gaining a better understanding of the community and its diversity.

Acquiring a more positive stature in the community.

Gaining a better appreciation for adults and the multiple roles they can play.

Beginning to see their own potential as limitless.

Beginning to view the world, and their ability to affect it, in a positive way.

Feeling needed and useful.

Feeling enhanced power, and self esteem.

Most Common Identifiers from Adults •

Feeling a stronger connection with the youth their program serves.

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Gaining a better understanding of the needs of youth.

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Feeling a renewed energy for their work,

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Experiencing improvement in morale stemming from youths’ spirit of flexibility and playfulness.

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Gaining an expanded resource base so that they no longer feel “responsible for everything.”

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Identifications in Society The development of future leaders who feel ownership of the society they will grow to inherit.

A new pool of adult volunteers who want to serve the community.

The ripple effect of youth lending energy and spirit to community efforts, which inspires other youth to participate in the community in positive ways.

Youth who are more likely to vote, given an increased sense of empowerment and civic engagement.

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Marketing concept Social media, email and print magazine will be promoted on a continuous basis throughout the targeted zipcodes: 60619, 60620, 60621, 60637 Project Management Program directors, facilitators and coordinators consist of a host of volunteers.

Youth Leadership Council will consist of: 1 president 1 vice president 1 head administrator with 4 assistance 2 community awareness personnel 2 events and activity coordinators

Budget Table 1: Requested items and funds for initial programs.

Implementations Mentoring program Culinary Art Program RED X Building program Horticulture/Community Gardens

Cost $15,000.00 $375,000.00 $24,854,540.00 $28,000.00

Dorchester Play-House

$325,000.00

Ambiance Dinner-Massage

$550,000.00

Grand Crossing Community Gym Transportation Office equipment Media center Incentive program Total

$325,000.00 $100,000.00 $8,500.00 $22,000.00 in-kind $26,603,040.00

Most cost for implementations are one time cost which includes property cost, rehab cost and wages and incentives for youth workers and staff members.

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