News
The Washington Park Neighborhood Association received an unexpected “special delivery” when Alderman-elect Willie E. Cochran, third from left, showed up at the group’s regular March meeting.
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If isn’t often that the goal of a training session is to have participants asking more questions at the end than the beginning. But that was the mission of the director of policy for the Chicago Rehab Network, as she completed a recent training on “Understanding Policy and Legislation” in Washington Park.
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Dr. John Awah's decision to build the three level Korle Bu Medical Center at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Garfield Blvd., in Washington Park, is one that will likely benefit the underserved community. He is also looking to partner with St. Edmond's Redevelopment Corp., the NCP lead agency for the neighborhood.
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The Washington Park Neighborhood Association and St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corp. kicked off phase two of a leadership training program. The Nov. 18 session was timely, given Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic games and what it could mean for the neighborhood.
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Community Heroes are individuals who offer their passion, strength and talent to improve their neighborhoods, benefiting people who may never know them by name, but who will reap the rewards of their work. The Community Heroes for Washington Park are Murray T. Johnson and Greg Brown.
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Washington Park is promoting St. Edmund's Commons Townhomes, which would transform vacant lots to the sites of affordable rental townhouses and a base for local renewal efforts, as part of the New Communities Program's Community Investment Portfolio.
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About 1,600 people ages 16 to 65 turned out for a resource and job fair recently hosted by Mainstream Living to connect area residents with jobs – or the skills to find a job.
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The Washington Park Neighborhood Association (WPNA) held its second “Unity in the Community” rally on the steps of the Church of the Good Shepherd. The rally was planned to help bring the neighborhood together. The Washington Park Baby Dolls performed at the rally.
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The Indiana Terrace Tenant Organization was joined by St. Edmunds Redevelopment Corp., the Washington Park Neighborhood Association and others to support a young woman headed to college with a promising future.
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Centers for Working Families (CWF) offer a new twist on improving the financial well being of low-income working families. Rather than concentrating solely on employment services, the CWF model adds financial counseling, tax preparation assistance and public benefits screening to boost a household's economic health.
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St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corp. will hold its annual Washington Park Block Festival on July 22, on 61st Street between Michigan and Indiana.
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Youth wrote their wishes on homemade paper and hung them in a "wish tree" on June 1 as part of South Chicago's series of "Art Attack" events.
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An estimated 800 people of all ages turned out July 23 to participate in the Washington Park Neighborhood Association's annual Unity in the Community Block Fest.
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The Washington Park Neighborhood Association (WPNA), established in March 2005, provides the neighborhood with a resident-driven organization created through collaboration with business people, religious leaders and community stakeholders.
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NCP lead agencies that had piecemeal web sites – if they had them at all – spent the fall uploading content to the New Communities Program server in preparation for launching stand-alone web sites in early 2006.
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Participants in the Washington Park planning process agreed that strong schools are the key to success for the neighborhood and its young people.
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Washington Park residents joined their brethren from around the city in May to see area leaders present the comprehensive Washington Park quality of life plan to Mayor Richard M. Daley and Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation.
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St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corporation has rehabilitated nearly 500 rental apartments in eight developments near the agency's south side offices.
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Eighty leaders of South Side social service and community organizations came together in late June to identify common issues and plan for improved collaboration and resource use.
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More than 500 people — including Mayor Daley, 11 aldermen and other city leaders — celebrated the release of Quality-of-Life Plans for the 14 neighborhoods in LISC/Chicago's New Communities Program.
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An article in the July issue of the American Planning Association's Planning Magazine says "neighborhood planning" has often been done without much involvement of the neighbors themselves, instead being a function of city hall, a private developer or a powerful local institution. The New Communities Program tries to break that tradition by involving local residents in a structured "quality-of-life" planning process.
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An estimated 1,000 people of all ages turned out on a hot Saturday, July 24, to participate in the Washington Park Resident's Association Annual Block Fest.
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Employers with more than 1,500 positions to fill will be on hand at 20th Ward Alderman Arenda Troutman's 2004 Annual Employment and Resource Fair.
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Citizen-planners working on quality-of-life plans for their neighborhoods had better be careful what they ask for. Denise M. Casalino just might make it come true.
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Lead agencies and local partners launched 23 projects in the first half of 2004, using $450,000 from LISC/Chicago's New Communities Program. Most grants leverage other funds from private and public sources.
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The largest grassroots neighborhood planning effort ever organized in Chicago was at its midpoint in early August 2004 as 10 communities engaged in quality-of-life planning.
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This is not rocket science. It's harder than that. You build a better rocket by applying the laws of science and nature, physics and chemistry, propulsion and aerodynamics. Building stronger neighborhoods is trickier.
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What would happen to a neighborhood if 30,000 people up and left? The Washington Park community began wrestling with that question in 1990 after decades of population loss left large swaths of its housing stock boarded up or gone altogether.
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LISC/Chicago's staff met with top officials of the Chicago Police Department on Feb. 5 to brief the department on the New Communities Program and suggest ways to build broader neighborhood partnerships around crime and safety issues.
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Certain topics keep coming up in NCP planning sessions, suggesting that neighborhoods might learn from each other as they address common issues. Here's an unscientific summary of what people are talking about at this early stage in the planning.
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Nobody said it was going to be easy. As more than 1,000 residents have come together in eight neighborhoods to begin quality-of-life planning processes, the first lesson is that planning is a complex and sometimes uncomfortable undertaking.
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To anyone who knows Chicago, it is a daunting list. The 16 neighborhoods in the New Communities Program face some of the most vexing issues in urban America. Abandonment. Gentrification. Racial change. Redevelopment of public housing. Disconnection from the mainstream economy.
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It took nearly 10 years of give-and-take negotiation, but St. Edmund's Meadows promises to be worth the wait. It's the latest undertaking of St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corporation (SERC), the church-based dynamo leading the revival of the Washington Park neighborhood. It's also the first time the Chicago Housing Authority has sold apartments to a not-for-profit for rehab.
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