'True rabble-rouser' YWCA Metropolitan Chicago CEO
Nicole Robinson on Sue Bailey Thurman and the state of Chicago Chicago-born and raised Nicole Robinson has been CEO of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago since January. In this Women’s History Month interview, she discusses the structures and systems Chicago needs for its residents to succeed, and also Sue Bailey Thurman, who traveled to India with her husband to meet Mohandas Gandhi, 20 years ahead of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent civil rights movement. by Suzanne Hanney & Cora Saddler
COVERSTORY
StreetWise: You grew up on the South Side of Chicago, raised by a single mom. You know what it is like to use food stamps and to wait for a housing voucher. You were a product of Chicago Public Schools and DePaul University for both your undergrad finance and your MBA degrees. What worked for you that could help more people of similar background to succeed?
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Nicole Robinson: As a single working parent, my mom was smart, resourceful and pretty resilient. She had a small circle of people whom she could turn to help raise both my brother and me. That circle of people included my grandmother Lueavery Partee, who migrated to Chicago from Arkansas and would settle in the Roseland Heights community near 95th Street. My grandmother would watch us after school and on weekends. Our circle also included girlfriends turned Godparents, co-workers from the hair salon where she worked, neighbors who informed her if we left our neighborhood block and warm-hearted passionate teachers who understood that a good education and love could co-exist. The library would become my de facto after-school program, where I could explore ideas and places outside of my neighborhood. Everyone in our circle whether relative, neighbor, librarian or teacher, contributed to my growth and development. These were the people who fostered my imagination and invested in my future. So when you ask what worked for me – it is the circle of people my mom exposed us to who would regularly tell us that we were beautiful, that we could achieve anything and that this world is a big place where we can be seen and heard. Chicago’s schools, libraries and parks worked for me.
Today, what I think we have is a failure of structures and systems, because my experience in Chicago shouldn’t be one of the few. Our structures and systems should be designed to ensure that every single person who walks any block in Chicago neighborhoods is able to reach their absolute full potential. The experience should be as trauma-free as possible, where basic needs are met without judgment. They should be set up with a set of framework tools. The sad reality, is, that they aren’t. I’d say that my mom and now, my nephew, continue to be sources of inspiration for me. My mom is in her 80’s and has a big imagination, is super opinionated, follows politics and has policy ideas on how to make our world better. My nephew, who is 21, has a big heart and is thoughtful and earnest as he navigates the world with autism. Both of them are in a constant state of exploration – so for me “reaching your full potential” is inclusive of everyone young, old, differently abled, BIPOC. It’s everyone. So enough already of the narrative about exceptional heroes and heroines? That’s right. We need to change the structures and systems so it’s not so hard for people. They need to bring the insight into schools and then, they need to be able to expose young people to spaces and give them an opportunity to dream. Kids should not learn under the worst circumstances,
