Loving Lawndale to Life

Our On the Table focus question was "How can the Church effect
positive change in the surrounding community?" The issues we
identified included a lack of self-respect and community involvement;
the need for more arts and culture programs and the generation gap.
As a result of our discussion, we named our project Loving Lawndale to
Life...through self-respect and civic engagement. We'll have programs
in Arts and Culture; education; health and wellness and civic
engagement.
Our partners are Carey Tercentenary AME Church, Men Making a
Difference and the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP. Carey
Tercentenary will draw upon resources from its ministries. Men Making
a Difference brings experience in mentoring and youth programming.
Chicago Westside Branch NAACP brings expertise in education and
civic engagement.
We expect to reach over 1,000 North Lawndale residents between July
1st, and October 31st. Program activities will take place at Carey
Tercentenary AME Church. We'll have resource fairs; a community
quilt; voter registration; mentoring, and a college fair.
Our project is unique on several fronts. Citizen journalists will develop
marketable skills while documenting our activities on social media,
CAN TV and podcasts. Our two-way mentoring process will include
adults mentoring youth on life lessons while the youth mentor adults on
technology.
We'll know we're successful when we see: stronger relationships
between youth and adults; arts and cultural projects that promote self
respect and community engagement; more positive messaging about
North Lawndale in the media and increased voter registration. We'll
measure our impact through pre and post participant surveys.
In closing, we respectfully request $2,500, which we will leverage with
in-kind donations and volunteers. Thank you for your time and
consideration.