Residents of this divested neighborhood are leaning on block clubs, community gardens and more as they fight for better mental health resources and social services.
By Lauren Pious
People attend the Juneteenth Freedom Day block party hosted by City Motivators on the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue in Chicago on Saturday, June, 22, 2024. (Joel Angel Juarez/for City Bureau)
Plans are brewing on the far South Side as Parnell People — the block club that comprises the 8700, 8800, and 8900 blocks of South Parnell Avenue — works to build trust and community on its quiet corner of Auburn Gresham.
Juneteenth celebrations honoring the end of chattel slavery in the United States filled the block this past summer with laughing children, families enjoying a meal and activities such as face painting and basketball. The sidewalks are freshly restored, and there is an active neighborhood group chat, revealing a glimmer of the optimism the members of Parnell People have for the area.
Despite this optimism, Auburn Gresham face several challenges: poor mental health services, difficult living conditions and sparse access to nutritious food.
The majority Black neighborhood also lacks accessible, well-funded cultural spaces where community engagement, wellness and Black history can be shared between generations, they said in interviews with City Bureau.
These conversations echo what South and West Side residents told City Bureau last spring: that a lack of affordable, accessible mental health resources and social services make it difficult to cope with such challenges.
Exposure to violence and unrest and a lack of healing space stunts anyone’s ability to live in the present, said Valerie Goodloe, president of another Auburn Gresham block club on the 8600 block of South Carpenter Street.
Goodloe believes there are different phases of life including existing, survival, and living.
“Most Black people don’t get out of the first two phases. And that’s stressful,” Goodloe said. “How many days do we wake up and not think about being Black? How come we just can’t get up and start thinking about having a good day? How many days do we have to just have a good day?”
As they push for better resources, neighbors are creating their own spaces for mindfulness and healing, residents told City Bureau.
Often, it begins with grassroots organizers.
Jacqueline Harris attends the Juneteenth Freedom Day block party hosted by City Motivators on the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue in Chicago on Saturday, June, 22, 2024. (Joel Angel Juarez/for City Bureau)
On the surface
Several Auburn Gresham neighbors and community leaders said it’s difficult for residents to find time to care for themselves, and to find resources to support their livelihoods and mental health needs.
Folks can be “pretty desperate,” said Moses Williams, executive director of Stein Learning Gardens at St. Sabina, a neighborhood community garden and education center. “They're trying to get their basic needs met. They may not have the energy or capacity on the day to day to think about trees. They’re like, I want a job.”
Nearly 20% of Auburn Gresham residents are looking for work, compared to about 8% citywide, according to Chicago Health Atlas, a database co-managed by the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. About 93% of the neighborhood’s residents are Black.
Residents there are twice as likely to have a disability as compared to residents living in the Chicago metropolitan area, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. The median household income in the neighborhood is just over $40,000, compared to around $71,000 citywide, CMAP data shows. One-third of Auburn Gresham households earn less than $25,000 per year.
The neighborhood was greatly affected by redlining and other racist housing practices of the previous century, which led to disinvestment over many decades. Crime is also an issue, with Auburn Gresham logging the third-most homicides and eighth-most violent crimes out of 77 community areas in the past year, according to city data.
Jacqueline “Jackie” Harris, president of Parnell People, knows these struggles well. She has advocated for gun violence prevention and other solutions for years, seeking to maintain a safe environment for her son and neighbors.
Harris has also been aware of the block’s need to curate a place of peace and have space for all age groups to express their feelings, she said.
In her role as block club president, she plans to start a community garden, where locals can host intergenerational programs and feel safe, physically and emotionally.
"When I was 20, my sister was shot and killed,” she said. “My mom didn't consider getting us mental health [support]. And years later, it definitely affects us. People need to come up with ways to talk about it, to deal with anxiety [and] life.”
Hernan Worsham works outside the entrance of the Black on Black Love Community Garden in Auburn Gresham. (Valerie Goodloe/Provided)
Block by block
The patchwork of changes enacted by individual block clubs can create stark contrasts from one street to the next.
One mile west of Parnell People’s block, woodpeckers hammer away at the few trees that line the 8600 block of South Racine Avenue. A small bleached animal skeleton rests in pieces only a block away from a community garden.
Community institutions dot Racine — pillars of health, play and resources towering over the road. Murals and African Adinkra symbols — among them, Dwennimmen spirals representing ram’s horns standing for strength and humility — embellish this main stretch.
In Auburn Gresham, there are as many churches as there are city blocks, but too few accessible, high-quality grocery stores. Men seek shelter from the sweltering sun in the shadow of Racine Food Wine Spirits, but there is no cool indoor place for them to gather.
Just two streets over from Parnell People, at West 88th Street and South Lowe Avenue, butchered, decaying trees line the curb. Mice and sewage permeate the unlit alleyways. Not a single child is playing in the summer heat. Many residents have lived near one another for over a decade. They want to connect with each other more, but they’re not always sure where to start.
In contrast, a few blocks away, Goodloe’s block club has been around nearly five years, and signs of their work are sprinkled across the neighborhood. Through the nonprofit Women In Need of Discovering Own Worth, which Goodloe co-founded, she helped start the Black on Black Love community garden, which continues to host seasonal celebrations, voter outreach events and peace marches.
Since the community garden began, the “block is a lot cleaner,” Goodloe said.
A group of children once trashed the garden, but after talking with their parents, Goodloe encouraged the kids to clean up after themselves, she said. She made it a point to explain to them that it’s a space for everyone, and that the youth “need to learn to care for their space,” Goodloe said.
The garden could use more volunteers to help safeguard this cornerstone of the block and to increase “unity, enjoyment, feeling safe and having some peace,” Goodloe said.
To improve fellowship, Goodloe wants to start peace circles, movie nights and healthy cooking classes, she said. What might take more time, she said, is getting people used to seeing these events as tools for healing.
Getting to the root
Auburn Gresham's residents are not alone in their needs or these efforts. Many Black Americans are seeking out alternative ways to heal, in spite of the burdens they face. Among those practices is mindfulness, or being fully present in the moment without judgment. Research shows mindfulness helps calm the nervous system, contributing to better health outcomes.
Those mindfulness practices teach awareness, non-judgment and the act of being present. They create space to connect with oneself, others and one’s environment, offering another form of intentional healing on an individual and collective level.
For example, Philadelphia-based yogi Jasmine Allen teaches yoga as a method to heal from various forms of trauma in Black communities.
Black communities saddled with oppression have also rediscovered the art of intentional communion. In Greater Good magazine, scholar Demond Hill Jr. wrote that practicing “love, storytelling, cooking, and intimacy” reinforces cultural legacy.
In a 2020 academic article, a team of researchers, including from the Chicago area, argued that mindfulness practices can be especially useful to reduce stress and boost overall health.
There are few studies analyzing its effectiveness specifically on Black Americans. Anecdotally, community organizers say they are seeing the effects it can have in real time.
Marlon English spray paints a garden plot at the Black on Black Love Community Garden in Auburn Gresham (Valerie Goodloe/Provided)
In full bloom
Over in Englewood, head west from the 69th Street “L” stop and you’ll find a spot guided by the tagline: “When art and gardening come together, healing happens.”
Earl’s Garden Mae’s Kitchen launched in 2014, buying the empty lot from the city to convert it into a community garden. The group used private funding and donations from neighbors to get started and has since been supported by different funders, volunteers and community members, founder Mekazin Alexander said.
“Our vision is to invest in the Englewood community by beautifying vacant lots that were once eyesores. Empowering residents with opportunities to create green lands, play lots, points of interest, art areas and educational events,” Alexander told City Bureau in an email. “Our mission: To redefine and create a peaceful inspiring venue full of all types of experiences and possibilities for the residents of Englewood and its surrounding communities.”
More recently, EGMK has begun incorporating mental health and wellness into its operations. Alexander also is co-founder of BA NIA, a South Side reproductive justice organization that offers holistic care and a doula certification program to help eliminate health inequities for people of color.
“We are now moving to include our pregnant moms by creating a pre- and postnatal herb garden along with nutritional and healthy eating workshops,” Alexander said. “We are also facilitating and visually documenting monthly healing circles where women and birthing people are able to share their birthing experiences and know that they are not alone in their uniqueness.”
Back in Auburn Gresham, head north on Racine and you’ll find two community gardens maintained by St. Sabina, near West 78th Street.
The central anchor is the Stein Learning Gardens at 7840 S. Racine Ave. There, St. Sabina Academy students plant tomatoes, collard greens and peppers. Raised above the urban soil, these vegetables share a misty calm in the 90-degree heat. Grow baskets that spell “love” serve as a reminder: this is a place of learning about and connecting with nature.
The second garden is also lush with plant life. Raspberries, strawberries and mint send a soothing spray of aromatic joy into the air. Walking through the garden, Williams points to a honeycrisp apple tree, which neighborhood youth planted to honor a friend who died by suicide. To them, it stands for hope, he said.
The Stein Learning Gardens have been a pillar of service in Auburn Gresham for six years. They offer fresh produce, yoga classes, gardening courses, and an environment to learn. Neighborhood residents have received more than 4,000 pounds of produce grown there. The organization also has a Green Rx prescription program in the works to support adults in eight ZIP codes with non-pharmaceutical recommendations from health professionals focused on wellness, Williams said.
Williams and his staff see this work as more than a job — it’s a core aspect of who they are and what they hope to do for their community, he said. And those acts of presence and connection don’t stop with the education center.
“The act of cooking meals for people is the most spiritual I get. It matters,” Williams said. “Scientifically, biologically, what you eat lives in your body for up to five to 10 years. It matters where you're getting food, how it's grown. I don't think there is a more spiritual thing that you can do than grow somebody else's food, or in some cases, cook it for them.”
The following resources offer options for community gathering and healing in Auburn Gresham and other nearby South Side neighborhoods.
Parnell People
A block club focusing on violence prevention, youth upliftment initiatives, elder support and neighborhood beautification to build trust and foster community. 8800 S. Parnell Ave., Email, 8800 South Parnell Avenue Block Club on Facebook
Women In Need of Discovering Own Worth
Along with its Black on Black Love Community Garden, this nonprofit organization seeks to aid and enrich the lives of women and girls through multimedia projects, community collaborations and other programs. 8616 S. Carpenter St., Website; Black on Black Love Community Garden on Facebook
Stein Learning Gardens at St. Sabina Church
Park of the church campus, this garden and education center offers community programs that encourage a healthy lifestyle and provide access to fresh and affordable produce. 7840 S. Racine Ave., 773-729-4918, Website
BA NIA Inc.
This reproductive justice organization offers education, advocacy, direct support and career development for birthing people and the extended community. 312-973-7321, Website, Instagram
Earl’s Garden Mae’s Kitchen
This Englewood-based organization buys vacant lots from the city and turns them into gardens, play lots and spaces for art and education. 6914 S. Perry Ave., Facebook
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