Summer Benefits Build the Path
Summer in the city. Even for our kids living amid Chicago's violence, summers are filled with happy memories. Pickup games and playgrounds. Ice cream from a truck. Sparklers and fireworks. Splashing in the open fire hydrant spray. Family barbecues and birthday parties.
And yet we know that while our kids experience so many of summer's quintessential childhood memories, they face its shadow side as well. Playgrounds they've been warned to avoid. The constant question of "fireworks or gunshots?" Evenings too dangerous to play outside. Birthday memorials that should have been parties. And for our teens, an awareness of the cost of living--rent, food, clothing--and the weight of finding a way to earn it.
Summer, with both its light and shadow sides, is right around the corner. And R CITY's response--your response--is right around the corner as well.
This summer, over 120 youth will engage at R CITY. We'll push swings and tie-dye t-shirts with 50 children in Dreambuilders.
We'll play ball and process trauma with 30 junior high mentees in Peacebuilders.
We'll build scaffolding and teach tuckpointing and practice working with 40 teen apprentices in Citybuilders.
It will cost $135,000 in salaries and supplies and stipends, and every penny will be worth it.
To earn this, we're using one of the best things summer has to offer: the sun. On June 24*, we'll gather on the terrace overlooking a sparkling Humboldt Park lagoon for happy hour and dinner. We'll laugh, eat, drink, and be inspired, and we'll find a way in our common generosity to make summer bright and beneficial for these 120 youth.
Will you join us--and bring a friend? Come take a moment to celebrate your own #summerbrightandbeautiful, and to make one equally brilliant for Chicago's youth.
Click below to RSVP or to give your gift today.
* Are you a Minnesotan? Your benefit is August 1. We can't wait to see you there!
Ozinga Field Trip Builds the Path
At each level of of our programs, it's a delight to expose our youth to careers in as many fields as we can. Last month, our Citybuilders Apprentices from both Dreambuilders and Harambee spent a Friday they didn't have school on a field trip to Ozinga's Chicago Offices.
It's easy for our youth to think of the construction industry through the narrow lens of bulldozers and cranes (although this was overwhelmingly their favorite thing to see). They saw career paths with so many different levels of education required- from dispatch managing logistics and customer relations, quality control, management and research & development- from high school only all the way to PHD's. It was so good for all of us to see how every talent and skill was used to make the whole team function.
I love being able to share with our teens how their skills and passions can come together in such a diversity of career paths- and that even though every employee we met had a different story, the character traits that make them successful are the same: a care for their work, paying attention to details, caring about safety, striving for their best- all traits they work on every day in their apprenticeships at R CITY. Thank you for all you to do help us build this path for our teens and giving them the opportunity to develop all those positive traits.
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
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
Questions?
Contact Michelle Johnson, Communications Director: michelle.johnson@rcitycdc.org
Kenneth Hartung Memorial
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.
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.