As a new school year begins, R CITY would like to thank the many interns and staff who blessed our community this summer. Bryanna, Jesus, Sanrenity and Zarriona all brought dedication and expertise that built up our programs and inspired our youth!
Every February, R CITY honors one person who has been heroic to the work of R CITY. Awarded at the Black History Celebration, R CITY's Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions recognizes an individual whose work has been integral in the success of R CITY. This year's awardee is Pastor Antoine Taylor.
A published author and educational consultant, whose work with R CITY extends back to its beginnings, Dr. Rivera conducted research through R CITY's very first programs and was integral during our founding. She continued her investment in 2020 as a board member and joined the staff of R CITY serving as the Director of Strategy, Research & Partnerships from 2021-2023.
Dr. Rivera exemplifies the absolute best of OUR CITY and we are honored to celebrate our 2024 recipient of the Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions.
In January 2024, I will step out of the Executive Director role, remaining with R CITY as Finance Lead to continue managing R CITY's grants and finance. At that time, the Executive Director role will be filled by the magnificent Charnesha Collier. She will be supported by myself, our board of directors, and Michelle Johnson, Director of Administration. This role is the culmination of years of leadership development for Char, who began as a youth in the Harambee program. Having served as R CITY's Director of Programs for the last year, Char has shown herself to be an excellent leader for both staff and youth. It is my great honor to place the role I love so much in her hands.
At R CITY our mission is to bring the BEST of our city to build a path for families to walk from cradle to career to the glory of God. As we prepared for our very first Black History Showcase, we knew it would be a great evening to celebrate our beautiful children and youth but also, we didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to celebrate and honor some of the VERY best of R CITY whose contributions support our youth, our programs and our community, and this year we had the immense privilege of bestowing our first Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions to Phaedra M. Leslie from ALL Construction.
R CITY is thrilled to announce new support from the Chicago Community Trust! This year, the Trust's commitment to Addressing Critical Needs led them to release a funding opportunity entitled Addressing Critical Needs: Promoting Wellbeing.
Through many obstacles, R CITY has experienced a year providing a second home for remote learning, modifying programs for our youth in Print Shop and getting our Harambee teens back into the "grind" of work. As we are already preparing a summer full of fun for our kids, it's been a blessing to look back before we forget all the GOOD we've experienced!
R CITY is thrilled to welcome Dr. Y'Shanda Rivera as the newest member of our directional team, serving as Director of Strategy, Research, and Partnerships. In this role, Dr. Rivera will lead R CITY in setting goals and tracking achievements: important work that equips us to press forward for the good of our youth and tell our story more effectively to funders. She will also facilitate partnerships with churches, organizations, businesses and government entities, fulfilling the first phrase of our mission: "to bring together the best of our city to build a path..."
This year we faced--and overcame--unprecedented challenges together. In the midst of unending obstacles, people from all across our nation and from the heart of our community came together to make things happen. This year, again and again, we shifted directions and pivoted to respond to the needs before us. In each pivot, we looked to find creative ways to love our families, overcoming each new obstacle however we could. Here is the story of those pivots and the unprecedented year of 2020.
To all who joined us this year, we hope you enjoy R CITY's 2020 Annual Report. The victories within it are ours to celebrate together.
We are celebrating. Even in this new year that has proven its difficulty in its first days, we are celebrating. And you are the reason we're celebrating, because at year-end, you gave $83,805. It's an incredibly wonderful total that lets us enter this new year of challenges ready and with the resources we need.
On Harambee work days they entered the building, signed in and had their temperature checked and we would ask how school was going. Too often their responses were not marked by confidence.
Despite their frustrations and discouragement, we were so thankful they got out of the house to come to River City. There was clearly something life giving in completing physical work when so much of their daily lives were spent online.
This school year, R CITY Art Shop decided to take on creating a mural in our neighborhood. It was the perfect activity to do safely during the pandemic allowing us to be creative outdoors. We knew what we wanted to do and we had our idea ready but we didn’t know where we could bring our idea to life. When Lori, one of our students, found out that we needed a place to do a mural, she asked her landlord if we could paint on a wall in the backyard of her apartment building and luckily, the landlord agreed to let us do it.
During our weekly staff meeting, we shared how for much of our day we felt like the stereotype of a “shushing” librarian. We witnessed teachers creatively tackling so many problems, but knew part of our we had a unique opportunity to bring joy to their physical world, since it was such a privilege to be together. We discussed ways to increase joy in our days, we implemented incentive plans, and brainstormed safe ways to enjoy Halloween.
