COMMUNITY
GARFIELD PARK
Chicago, IL
OUR COMMUNITIES
Our Founder, grew up from childhood to adult in the Garfield Park area of Chicago. After graduating from John Marshall High School, she was able to land a few retail jobs and took on a second job a local pharmacy where she had worked during her high school years. After being robbed at gun-point in the pharmacy, she decided that the only way that she could help her community was to first help herself. With the support of her mother, she made the decision to move to Los Angeles at the request of one of her friends who told her about all of the job possibilities. This leap of faith, launched the marketing career of our founder that has elevated her to executive level positions in major companies to entrepreneurship. She has returned to this community that helped shape her into the leader she is today to help the youth and young adults realize their potential, while inspiring them to go for their dreams! "Although there is still a high level of crime and poverty in the beloved community where I grew up, I want our youth to know that there is still hope and they are not forgotten", say's Siri Hibbler, Founder of the Club NO Youth Program and Field of Dreams Visionary Center, Inc. In addition, to being a serial entrepreneur, Siri is also a film-maker, television producer, motivational speaker and Minister.
HUMBOLDT PARK
Chicago, IL
West Humboldt Park is the area west of Sacramento Boulevard. Many residents on this side of Humboldt Park are low-income working class residents. The area used to be known for high crime, but that has declined by little in blocks adjacent to the park since the gentrification is moving westward. West Humboldt Park is known as the rougher part of the area as crime continues to be going on in this area, gangs are still relevant as the Latin Kings and Vice Lords are known in this area. Though in conventional terms the Humboldt Park neighborhood has been considered between Western Avenue, Pulaski Road, North Avenue, and Chicago Avenue where the majority of the Puerto Rican residents lived, the area west of Pulaski until Kenton Avenue is considered West Humboldt Park as well, and has a larger Black population with Puerto Rican and Mexican populations as well. Though Blacks and Hispanics are quite integrated in the neighborhood, areas north of Grand Avenue are more Hispanic, while south of that street are more black. The neighborhood also has one of the largest numbers of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, especially areas immediately north and west of the actual Humboldt Park itself, though they only make up half of the Hispanics in the neighborhood.
AUSTIN AREA
Chicago, IL
Austin is plagued with crime, drugs, gang activity, and violence. Austin suffers from a number of problems plaguing poor inner-city communities across the United States and is known as one of the most crime-ridden areas in the city of Chicago. Per capita violent crime rates in the neighborhood are high by Chicago standards, and much higher than the national average. The Eisenhower Expressway, which passes through Austin and neighboring West Garfield Park, makes for a lucrative drug market. Convenient access by automobile makes the west side a popular location for suburbanites looking to buy drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Due to numerous infrastructure and transportation problems, the neighborhood took to a white flight in the mid-to-late 1960s for better conditions in the surrounding suburbs. Although there are some stable pockets in Austin, the majority of the neighborhood is poverty-stricken and crime-ridden. Because of this, Austin is tied to drug dealing, and murders are not infrequent. In 2015, the Chicago Police Department recorded 50 homicides in the Austin neighborhood, making the area the highest in homicide-related incidents in Chicago. By the Chicago Tribune (Crime in Chicagoland Page) the Austin neighborhood ranked 11th out of 77 Community areas in Chicago in violent crime, 25th among Chicago community areas in property crimes, and 5th out of 100 for quality of life crimes.
Once a wealthy neighborhood (1890 - 1950's), the poverty resulting from the loss of thousands of jobs due to restructuring of industries from the 1960s to the 1980s meant that money was not available for property maintenance. Houses were abandoned and thousands of structures were leveled during this time. Much land sat vacant until the building and real estate boom of the 2000s. Due to these factors, the total neighborhood population dropped from 124,937 in 1960 to 41,768 by 2000.
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Jonathan Kozol devotes a chapter of Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991) to North Lawndale. He notes that a local resident called it "an industrial slum without the industry." At the time, it had "one bank, one supermarket, 48 state lottery agents... and 99 licensed bars."
According to the 1980 census, 58 percent of men and women 17 and older had no jobs. In 1986 the Steans Family Foundation was founded to concentrate on grantmaking and programs in North Lawndale.
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In the 1990s, the foundation noted signs of revitalization, "including a new shopping plaza and some new housing" associated with Homan Square, stabilization of the declining population, and a rise in new residents, mostly Hispanic. They constituted 4.5% of the population.
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According to Charles Leeks, director of NHS, North Lawndale has the greatest concentration of greystones in the city. In late 2004, the City of Chicago enacted "The Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative" to promote the preservation of the neighborhood's greystone structures
NORTH LAWNDALE
Chicago, IL
