Building the Path over Spring Break

The last week of March brought the start of our Harambee CItybuilders semester during Chicago Public School's spring break. We had two crews hard at work- one on our tuckpointing site, and one continuing our partnership with Neighborspace and completing another phase of the renovation of Children's Garden of Hope. We lucked out with some manageble weather- and were so excted to get back to work. 

Our Harambee Citybuilders had several new apprentices to train and all of our youth got back into the groove of setting scaffolding, grinding out old mortar, and tuckpointing for a homeowner on the 1000 block of Drake Avenue. We were delighted to have three long-time Harambee apprentices return to us: James, Mariah and Josiah all who are now available for after school programming. It was an incredible blessing to have their experience as we added several new apprentices for this spring semester. 

Our garden crew did a great job with some minor demolition, spreading mulch, building raised beds, and then filling them with wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil. We enjoyed special guest helpers from the neighborhood from time to time, and also had the privileged of having InterVarsity students from UCLA join us on Tuesday afternoon. 

Being Holy Week, Anthony led us in devotions considering Jesus as the curse breaker. Our youth can give ample evidence of the presence of the curse of sickness, death and toil- as simple as the difficulty in our daily work to the tragedy and trauma they have known. Easter was exactly the reminder we all needed- that our work to restore houses, or gardens, our neighborhoods or our relationships is not in vain as Jesus brings restoration into all those places that will have eternal impact. Continue to pray for our apprentices as they work hard and learn to hope for lasting restoration. 

Famous Stars Build the Path

During January and February a special group of our middle school Peacebuilders with the help of a dedicated volunteer named Debbie, committed themselves to a special project of creating products and showing their teachers at Cameron Elementary some much needed pampering. 

Debbie mentored these four girls through the process of branding and brainstorming products they could create that would be appreciated by their hard working teachers. They named themselves the "Famous Stars" and printed their logo on matching sweatshirts they wore when they presented teachers with their gifts: face scrub, homemade lotion and brownie mix in a jar.

For 6 weeks, they found so much excitement in being able to create something that would express their gratitude to their teachers, and their excitement has spilled over causing them to dream even bigger. While our mentor Debbie's time with them was limited because she has left Chicago for a bit, our youth are looking forward hoping to continue what they see they have just started and use all they have learned. 

They have had great conversations on what it looks like to welcome new girls into their special group and how they can possible earn money from creating high quality products. They are envisioning ways to show gratitude to neighborhood moms this Mother's Day and our staff is jumping right in to respond to their excitement and praying for a special female volunteer who would like to work with these young ladies in the next phase. We are so excited they have been exposed to the early work involved in entrepreneurship and are developing a dream that is drawing out their passion- and even modeling for the little ones in their schools the importance of gratitude for all those who help you walk along the path from cradle to career and along with these Famous Stars, I'm excited for what's to come. 

Michelle Johnson, 
Director of Apprenticeships and Communication

Build the Path this #GivingTuesday

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Celebrate #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving on November 28th by hosting a mini-fundraiser on Facebook to support the work of R CITY! This #GivingTuesday the Gates Foundation is teaming up with Facebook to boost the impact of charitable giving to approved non-profits.

Here are some details from the Facebook giving website!

  • Timing: Donations to nonprofits made through Facebook’s charitable giving tools on November 28th will be matched up to $50,000 per nonprofit or $1,000 per fundraiser or donate button, until the $2 million in matching funds run out. The match will begin at 8AM EST (5AM PST).
  • Fees: Facebook is also waiving processing fees for every donation made to nonprofits on #GivingTuesday. Fees will be waived for all of #GivingTuesday, regardless of when the match runs out.

What that means for us:

  • Supporters interested in giving to R CITY this Holiday Season can double their gifts (up to $1,000) by donating EARLY on November, 28th through a Facebook donate button.
  • Supporters can invite their friends to give to R CITY by hosting an online fundraiser through Facebook.

Want to get involved?

Hosting a fundraiser on Facebook only takes 3 easy steps!
**Note: Anyone can do this anytime- not just on #GivingTuesday

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Questions? 

Contact Michelle Johnson, Communications Director: michelle.johnson@rcitycdc.org

Kenneth Hartung Memorial

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Celebrating the life and legacy of Ken Hartung, R CITY is thankful to receive memorial gifts in his honor. Directed by Ken’s granddaughter Elizabeth, R CITY seeks to glorify God by building a path from cradle to career. The resilient youth served by R CITY are overcoming great adversity, including violence and economic hardship within their Chicago neighborhoods.

Ken entered the world of work at age 5, plowing the fields at his family’s farm in Kansas and working his way through college cleaning the stadium. R CITY is honoring his legacy of determination and grit by establishing a memorial fund within our youth apprenticeship program. Donations given in Ken’s honor will pay stipends (cost: $36,000 annually) and provide transportation (cost: $20,000) for R CITY youth ages 12-18 learning the career of tuckpointing, a masonry skill.

These stipends not only benefit the youth, but their families as well, often making a difference in times of crisis. Practicing their trade through community service, these youth provide free tuckpointing services to low-income homeowners–many widowed–who would otherwise have no means to repair their homes. Until transportation is available, the apprentices are walking significant distances to work sites each day–many after a long bus ride from school.

Gifts may be given online via debit/credit/EFT here or mailed to River City Community Development Center / P.O. Box 51468 / Chicago, IL 60651. Checks should be made to River City Community Development Center with memo to Hartung memorial. For information on donating stock or other types of gifts, please e-mail the directors.

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Join us at Boathouse Cafe to Build the Path

2017 has been an exciting year at R CITY and we are delighted to invite you to join us at the Humboldt Park Boathouse Cafe for an evening to help us build the path for our youth to continue walking from cradle to career to the Glory of God.

Sunday, June 25,  4 PM- Cocktails  5 PM- Dinner

Come and CELEBRATE a beautiful year!

The 2016-17 school year brought over 130 children and youth through our after school enrichment programs.  Families were supported, youth were mentored, children were embraced into an incredible web of support- we are grateful to so many who made this happen.

Come and GIVE toward a beautiful future!

Beginning this summer we are thrilled to announce the expansion of R CITY with the addition of Harambee Chicago teen apprentices. As we build the path from cradle to career, our teens now have the exciting opportunity to learn the masonry skill of tuckpointing. Teens will earn an educational stipend while receiving real-world job experience by providing this costly service for our low-income neighbors in need.

Spring at R CITY

At R CITY, our hearts are very, very full, reflecting the abundance of the year we have had so far with our beloved young people in Humboldt Park. And it’s only April! Here are some key highlights from this year so far.

Ultimate Battle, which is R CITY’s how-much-HW-can-you-do-in-20-minutes competition, is now equipped with *prizes*.The “league leaders” in Homework Points, Helpfulness Assists, and Behavior Fouls are looking forward to their hard-earned field trip! Can you sense the excitement?

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We added a new enrichment class–coding–and crowdfunded to purchase shiny new Chromebooks. We’re getting them all set up and ready to kick off Code Combat ASAP.

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Large group sessions received a theatrical boost with a new skit series surrounding a troubled but lovable protagonist “Snake Eyes,” whose adventures have sparked sympathy and an eager crowd of fans. Among them are our music class students, who authored a song reflecting his encounters with the world’s darkness and light.

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Finally, plenty of goofiness to go around.

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Of course, we couldn’t have done all this without your support! At the beginning of this year, we set a goal of 100 new gifts of $30 monthly, and we’re over 1/3 of the way there! Use your resources or relationships to join us in Building the Path!

Quattro Development Builds the Path

One of the greatest joys of working at R CITY is to build relationships with our supporters and hear stories of why they choose to invest in our young people. The following conversation features Rob Walters from one of our business donors, Quattro Development.


What does Quattro Development do? 

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Quattro Development is a retail development company started in 2007 by Rob Walters and Mike Liyeos. We purchase well located properties across the country, construct free standing and multi-tenant retail buildings on the properties and lease them to national retailers such as Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, Vitamin Shoppe, Mattress Firm, and Starbucks. We have developed over 60 properties in 17 states. Quattro Impact was set up as a vehicle for Quattro Development to invest a portion of its profits in organizations and people that Quattro’s founders wish to support.

Why support R CITY? What is your interest in the program? 

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The investment started with a belief in Brandon Green and that God had called him to River City Community Church and that he would be used to build a bridge between the existing church and the neighborhood that the church was moving into.  As time has passed and I have met many of the kids that benefit from the R CITY programs my desire to support the organization has only deepened.  I acknowledge a group of amazing kids who are in need of love and support and I have seen how R CITY is uniquely situated to provide this.  My dream is that the kids who benefit from the programming will go on to be leaders and agents of change on their own rather than statistics.

Any words you have for other businesses not yet engaged? 

A relatively small investment can go a long way with R CITY because there is virtually no overhead.  An investment in R CITY is an investment in the mental, emotional, and spiritual life of great kids that are lacking many of the resources that many of us take for granted.

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Anything else you want to add? 

I believe that if each neighborhood in the city had one or two R CITYs in it so many of the problems with crime, unemployment, and poverty would shift. As a business owner I benefit from what Chicago has to offer but also feel a responsibility to make the whole city “the best city in the world” and not just certain parts.  I believe that West Humboldt Park will be a better place because of R CITY.

Thank you again Quattro Development for building the path with R CITY! For more information on the great work Quattro Development is doing, visit www.quattrodevelopment.com


To discover how your business can help build the path, e-mail our director.

Harmony Health Plan Builds the Path

On February 27, 2017,  WellCare Health Plans, Inc. on behalf of its subsidiary Harmony Health Plan, Inc., disbursed $18,000 in the form of 13 micro-grants to community-based organizations. These micro-grants will support nonprofit organizations that provide crucial social services around transportation, behavioral health services, and youth programming.

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For a small, new community-based organization, micro-grants increase capacity for existing programs and create possibilities for new ideas and ventures. “Thanks to Harmony’s support, River City Community Development Center will now be able to provide the youth of West Humboldt Park with holistic after-school support to help set them on the path for a healthy and successful future,” said Elizabeth Galik, executive director at River City. “We are so grateful for Harmony’s investment in the incredible youth of our community and, by extension, the future of our city.”