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| Blocks Together |
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Some days, as Delores Collins walked to work, she would kick needles into the sewer so kids wouldn't step on them. Her Chicago neighborhood was "a tough area, with lots of drugs and gangs." Then George Goehl from Blocks Together (BT) showed up at her door and invited her to join the CCHD-funded neighborhood group working with residents to improve the community. |
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Founded in 1993, BT meets with police and local aldermen to advance its goals of ridding the streets of drug dealers, prostitutes, and the violence they bring. At the BT meetings, residents can report trouble spots anonymously, without fear of reprisal from the gang leaders in the area. Delores was particularly concerned about the 1,600-student school that some of her six children attended. She volunteered there as a parent attendance officer, following up on truant students. Now Delores works there part-time as she studies for her General Equivalency Diploma with the help of her daughter, who is president of BT's Youth Council. "Every time I took a job outside the neighborhood, my kids' schoolwork suffered and they acted up," she says. "What better way for my kids to get a good education than for me to work there?"
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