Helping Roseland, With Assist From Washington

From the front porch of her Roseland home, 80-year-old Annie Jones witnessed summer returning to the far South Side neighborhood earlier this month – young boys on bicycles circling the block, flowers blooming in her yard, and the sound of gunfire in the streets.

“It scares me when my great-grandson rides his bike past the street corner, because then I can’t see him from the porch anymore,” said Jones, the legal guardian of 12-year-old Kristopher. “We need a program that can keep the little boys out of the gangs, away from drugs, and get them to stay in class. It’s like the Wild West around here these days.”

A longtime Roseland homeowner, Jones is one of many residents who hope the ailing neighborhood will be among the winners in the second round of federal Promise Neighborhoods grants awarded by the Department of Education to schools and social service providers offering programs to help children in poor communities. At a time of widespread federal spending cuts, the initiative’s budget has been tripled – rising to $30 million from $10 million in 2010.

The social services organization SGA Youth & Family Services applied for the grant for its Roseland Children’s Initiative. A comprehensive “cradle to career” program modeled after the celebrated Harlem Children’s Zone in New York, the initiative has sought to provide support for children and families by coordinating existing social services from birth through college.

SGA officials estimated that $7.5 million will be needed to fund the initiative’s first five years of operation. They have raised $2.3 million so far from public and private donors, including $1 million from Joseph Pedott, the creator of the Chia Pet who was helped by SGA programs as a youth.

The initiative fell short in its first bid for a promise grant, in 2010, when none were awarded to any Chicago communities. But organizers are optimistic about their chances this time. PolicyLink, a non-profit research and advocacy organization, is helping SGA with its bid –the only Chicago applicant chosen for such aid. And Geoffrey Canada, president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, attended a kick-off rally at Fenger High School earlier this month that buoyed optimism for the project.

But some suggest that the mission to revitalize Roseland to its mid-20th century glory days, when the community was marked by its vibrant shopping district, manicured lawns and tidy homes, will require more than the prospect of a federal grant and an endorsement from the subject of the “Waiting for Superman” documentary.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), who represents the area, said he is hopeful the Roseland Children’s Initiative will succeed. But he expressed concerns that an injection of federal funding would create new programs, rather than bolstering existing social service providers and neighborhood public schools devastated by city and state budget cuts.

“I’m always excited about an initiative that has the possibility of reducing crime and creating jobs, but I do have some reservations about outsiders who come in and say they want to save the community,” Beale said. “We have organizations that have been on the ground for years, making a huge impact in the community, so why reinvent the wheel?”

Susana Marotta, SGA’s president, understands the wariness, especially when existing social service providers are hampered by a lack of funding. But she said other SGA-funded programs have been running in Roseland for years.

Earlier this year, SGA hired David Patton, a family counselor who was raised on the South Side, to manage the initiative from a storefront at 10924 S. Halsted St.

“Of course, it takes trust and time to show that we will be around in Roseland for the long run,” Marotta said. “Whether we get the grant or not, we will continue with our projects in the community.”

Evelyn Randle-Robbins, the first-year principal at Curtis Elementary School, said she also is skeptical when outsiders drop by her office with promises to resurrect the struggling pre-kindergarten through 8th grade school. At Curtis, 98 percent of the 474 students are from families living in poverty, and a recent SGA study found that roughly half the children do not feel safe traveling to and from school.

“Typically people come into our school, and they want something from you,” Robbins said. “In the case of the SGA, they asked, ‘What do you need?’ and ‘What kind of programs would you like to start?’ I started listing off all the programs and clubs that would benefit our students, and they took it all in, and said, ‘OK, we’ll see what we can do.’”

SGA agreed to pay the salary of a full-time social worker at Curtis – a request that was at the top of the school’s wish list after budget cuts forced the school to share its social worker with another city school.

At nearby Fenger High School, which is still reeling from the 2009 videotaped beating death of student Derrion Albert, Assistant Principal Tosha Jones said officials are “ecstatic” about the possibility of a Promise Neighborhoods grant.

“There’s not one initiative that can totally alleviate a community’s problems,” Jones said. “But when everyone comes to the table with their resources, putting them all in the same pot, we can start to see change happening.”