The Final Blog of the Northwest Side Group 2010

How many times have you turned on the television lately and seen numerous advertisements for the candidates of the recent election? On these advertisements candidates spent billions of dollars simply to attack their opponent. What if all that money was used to support tutor/mentor programs in different neighborhoods? To create more awareness on this issue, letters to the elected leaders on the need for funding and success stories on the programs would emphasize the need.

Upon researching the Northwest side of Chicago, we found that many of the centers were funded by the government with a small percentage of private donors. This showed us how important that government funding is to these programs. While government funding is very important, there are many regulations on how this money is spent. Private donations can be used for anything the center feels is necessary.

In order to get more active supporters in these programs, elected officials could supply more incentives to the private donors and volunteers. These incentives could include tax-deductions, proof of involvement, and inclusion in the program.

Our advice to the next group of students writing these blogs, would be really getting involved in the research. It is important to take an interest in what you are finding and keep an open mind through it all. The next focus for the group should be continuing these programs, volunteering and spreading the knowledge.

How Are These Programs Being Funded?

In Logan Square, 2/3 of the centers get government funding (mainly from Illinois Department of Human Services). The other center, Logan Square Boys and Girls Club, is funded by fundations and private donors. Christopher House is mainly sponsored by U.S. Cellular and also gets funds from the Secretary of State Office. This closely compares to Metro Achievement Center which is mainly funded by Walgreens- another bug corporation. Metro was one of our service trips destinations last week.

 

In Humboldt Park, both centers have many ways for private donations. SELF has a partnership with the Chicago Public Schools and others in the community. El Centro Nuestro is associated with a private company- United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

Albany Park’s few centers are mainly funded by the community and private donors. Since this is a higher-income area, it makes sense that alot of their funding comes from the community.

Tutor/Mentor Programs

This week, we researched the tutor/mentor programs on the Northwest side. The results throughout our three areas varied greatly. In Humboldt Park there were 7 centers with tutor/mentor programs. The Chicago Youth Center, Centro Nuestro and The SELF: Sembrando El Futuro were two of the 7 center researched.  The SELF center works along side of Juvenile Justice Diversion program which is referred by the Cook county Juvenile court CAP police station that places children in the centers rather than having to go through criminal prosecution for some children. Both of these centers offered many services for bilingual students. This is a common factor between all our areas, which is understandable after researching schools last week and the demographics of the neighborhoods. Logan Square has three tutor/mentor programs, and two of them emphasize the ESL program. Specifically, Christopher House and Logan Square Neighborhood Association work with the bilingual students. Lastly was Albany Park – which came up with no centers strictly working with children. Many private tutors were found during researching this area.  The Albany Park Community Center offers tutoring for children but mainly aimed towards adults. It is possible that the students get tutored inside their personal schools. This could relate to the fact that Albany Park is a higher-income neighborhood compared to Humboldt Park; which is an area of lower-income households. Another similarity is that Logan Square and Humboldt Park are in need of volunteers in their facilities. Even though there are many differences between our neighborhoods in the Northwest side, there are still similarities in the programs they provide.

Education in the Northwest Side

We were happy to see that the schools with the websites had emphasized parent involvement. They encouraged parents to attend events, get involved, and be a part of their children’s education. They do this by making the website easy to navigate and posting events on a public calendar.

Another thing that we have noticed is that majority of the students that attend the schools in the Northwest side of Chicago, were of Hispanic descent. In Albany Park, Asian students make up almost 1/3 of the student population. There was also a large population of African-American students that attend the schools.

While trying to find this information about the schools in these areas we ran into a problem. For many of the schools there was a great lack of websites offering information. Making a website would allow potential future students, parents, and donors to contribute to the community.

The New Group Takes Over the Northwest Side

The last group did an amazing job introducing the Northwest Side, so we will try to continue in their footsteps to provide more information about these great areas.  We will be expanding on the information about Humboldt Park, Albany Park, and Logan Square.  We chose to research this area because we are originally from the Northern suburbs and Indiana.  So far, we have been to Cabrini Connnections and the youth center in Bronzeville.  We enjoyed both site visits and now we will be able to share our experiences and also compare these sites to other tutor/mentor programs in the Northwest neighborhoods.  We are really looking forward to learning more about these areas and to further educate our readers.