Austin Weekly News 080421

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Vol. 35 No. 31

Housing nonprofit gets $100K County grant

August 4, 2021

austinweeklynews.com

Also serving Garfield Park

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Hot dogs d pics from f around Chicago, pages 18-19

Time capsule project captures West Side youth’s pandemic lives The Once Upon a Time Capsule art project allows kids space to reflect on how the pandemic has affected them By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter

West Side kids ages 9 to 12 are getting an opportunity to capture and preserve their personal experiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the Once Upon a Time Capsule art project. The project is the brainchild of philanthropic programs developer Stacey Gillett and urban planner Stephanie Hodges, who felt that kids’ experiences during the pandemic weren’t getting as much attention as adult experiences. They teamed up with several museums, nonprofit organizations and government institutions to reach out to as many parts of Chicago as possible. On the West Side, they worked with West Garfield Park’s Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Rd. Throughout July, groups of kids who attend local summer camps got a chance to make time capsules using kits. During the last event held July 27, 14 kids gathered at Legler to make time capsules. Families could also pick up kits at some libraries and return them by Aug. 12. There was enough demand to exhaust Legler’s supply of capsules and library staff said they were glad to see kids express themselves. See TIME CAPSULE on page 8

PROVIDED

HE’S GOT SKILLS: A worker focuses on a task at a city manufacturing company. Workforce trainings are being offered to manufacturing firms in seven TIF districts through a partnership between the city and the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center.

Training program to help small manufacturers grow workforce Small companies in seven TIF districts are eligible to participate

By PASCAL SABINO Block Club Chicago

Some small manufacturers can enroll employees in a free job training program to help them deal with the pandemic. The workforce trainings are offered to manufacturers in seven TIF districts through a partnership between the city’s planning department and the Illinois

Manufacturing Excellence Center. The trainings will “help small- and medium-sized manufacturers become bigger, faster and more efficient,” said John Bradarich, director of affiliate relations for the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center. The program will be especially valuable for businesses that have had their operations disrupted by market shocks caused by the pandemic, Bradarich said.

S W E N LASH! F

Many small manufacturers have either lost money over the pandemic “or their margins are so razor-thin that if a machine goes down for a day” they could face closure, Bradarich said. The training programs will teach business leaders and employees best practices for how to “come out of the pandemic and know how to handle it,” he said. See MANUFACTURERS on page 14

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