The city needs more spaces for young people to connect and support each other. The best ones are spearheaded by the young people they’re meant to serve, organizers say.
By Monique Petty-Ashmeade
Teenagers paint their shoes as part of a youth program at Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch, Chicago Public Library’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch in Chatham on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (Talia Sprague/for City Bureau)
Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch Library is where things happen in Chatham.
It’s where Jahmal Cole began My Block My Hood My City (MBMHMC), and where Chicago teacher Melody Farmer has long tutored students. It’s where many Chatham neighbors find resources for mental health, jobs and community.
Chatham resident Lashanta G. visits the library frequently printing out lists of mental health clinics and resources for community members in need.
“Just because someone has mental health issues don’t mean they don’t understand. Sometimes they just need the person to show initiative,” she said.
But the library is only one space. Chicago desperately needs more like it.
Jonathan, age 13, creates a drum track during a youth music program at Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch, Chicago Public Library’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch in Chatham on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (Talia Sprague/for City Bureau)
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg first coined the term third spaces to describe physical places outside of home, work and school where people can connect in the late 1980s. Its popularity began to surge more recently, with Google searches skyrocketing particularly in the past year.
Third spaces such as the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch Library — which are free, accessible and engaging — are critically important to forming a community, according to an article from Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health. And they’re increasingly vanishing in Chicago and perhaps across the country.
Efforts to develop new third spaces through city initiatives such as the Public Outdoor Plaza (POP!) program has spawned developments ranging from basketball courts to gardens in Chicago neighborhoods. POP! Program developments include Chatham’s Mahalia Jackson Court located on 79th and State Street. But organizers say the best third spaces and programs — like the activities found in the public library — are spearheaded by the youth they’re meant to serve.
Jabari, age 13, (left) and Dalkotah, age 13, (right) record a vocal track at Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch, Chicago Public Library’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch in Chatham on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (Talia Sprague/for City Bureau)
The Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch Library underwent construction in 2018 and reopened the following year, offering renovated modern design to the community. One of its newest additions was a YouMedia digital lab for teens, a project sponsored by several private donations through the Chicago Public Library Foundation.
While Farmer believes the programs offered at the library branch are sustainable, she also believes they remain hidden gems in the community, with word of mouth being the main way to garner engagement.
“We get kids from Ruggles, we got kids from Dixon,” Farmer said, naming two nearby elementary feeder schools. “Even though they are on social media, kids that need help with homework, parents don’t know where to go,” Farmer said. “By word of mouth, we still get the word out.”
Students may be more likely to check out a program if they hear about it through their teachers and peers, Farmer said.
“The relationship is a disconnect,” Farmer said. “I think adults need to reach out to the kids and say, ‘What do you like to do? How can we engage you more?’”
Putting the impetus on adults is a start, but those adults also need to remember that when students are facing a lack of secure housing, transportation or sense of safety, those primary needs might outweigh their ability to seek out community.
“I look at the totality of the whole thing,” she added. “It’s not [that] kids don’t want to talk to you. It’s like, well, if I’m hungry, and I’m trying to figure out where I’m sleeping at night, I’m not really concerned about engaging.”
The double dutch group, Jumping Juniors, perform at the opening ceremony of My Block My Hood My City’s Downtown Day on July 13, 2024. (Max Herman for City Bureau)
Many young people in Chatham and other South Side neighborhoods face heavy social issues at a young age.
After moving to Chatham in 2006, Cole began to notice how the everyday function of his community was out of order. He remembers his times of being younger and ordering food through a bulletproof glass and even how this ‘normalcy’ leaves a generational impact.
“My daughter knew what a helicopter was before she knew what a butterfly was — I’m not joking,” Cole said. “In my backyard in Chatham, you can see helicopters everyday at four o’clock.”
Cole formed My Block My Hood My City in 2013, looking to engage youth with their own communities and invite others to better understand the diversity of the city. Initiatives such as the Explorers Program, invites young people to participate in events like Downtown Day, a designated day where youth are provided gift cards and access to the city’s cultural monuments, restaurants, businesses and venues. The program’s goal is to bridge the gap between youth and their exposure to the city’s Loop.
Gregory Keith Porter points out The Wrigley Building to youth from the community service agency, UCAN, during My Hood My Block My City’s Downtown Day on July 13, 2024. (Max Herman for City Bureau)
The organization also has offered youth-led neighborhood tours for the past five years.
One of the 2024 tours was organized on Juneteenth. Upon arrival, community members huddled outside of North Lawndale’s Green Tomato Cafe as they greeted guests who were both excited and curious to explore and learn the history of the area.
To ensure intergenerational connection, visitors were paired with MBMHMC youth tour guides who spoke about their favorite areas to meet with friends, their excitement and woes for college, and why they loved landmarks like the neighborhood corner store.
To Nathaniel Viets-VanLear, the senior director of operations at MBMHMC, it is important to allow youth the platform and space to show off their neighborhood and invite others in to better understand them.
“It’s important for youth to be able to tell their own stories. Our young folks know the neighborhood better than most people,” he said. The places they decided to tour “are the modern gems of the neighborhood, the places they choose to invest their time and energy in.” he added.
One of those spots was the North Lawndale corner store Douglas Park Dollar & Food on Kedzie Avenue. VanLear spoke affectionately of the shop, calling it a space for mentorship, free snacks and communal care that has served generations.
“That kind of caretaking happens behind doors that we can’t always see as adults. It’s really important that young folks provide that gateway into what’s really happening, Viets-VanLear said.”
The generational gap felt between youth and elders has been a blame game, where it often pins youth in a corner and labels them as disobedient or unproductive, Viets-VanLear said. Mentorship is seen as a solution, yet even then, youth’s needs are still silenced.
“If you’re a new role model, you’re supposed to get in front of a group of young people who are … being forced to listen to you, and you’re going to tell them about themselves and you’re going to teach them things,” Viets-VanLear said. “And all of a sudden, they’re going to be like, ‘Ah, you’re right! I’m going to change my ways!’ As if that’s worked for you!”
Instead, young folks need space to build together and check in with one another about issues big and small, he said.
“Youth mentorship is most effective when paired with peer mentorship,” he said. “Building space for young people to not only talk to each other, but share really what’s on their hearts and minds in a way that feels [like it’s] for them and ideally led by them.”
Malaysia, age 12, paints her shoes at Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch, Chicago Public Library’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch in Chatham on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (Talia Sprague/for City Bureau)
These models have empowered the lives of young people in this city and have provided a gateway for many of them to see what is possible in their lives and communities when they are heard.
Iyanna Hood of Greater Grand Crossing joined MBMHMC in late 2020, when she was a freshman at North Lawndale charter school, DRW College Prep. With many students being forced to adjust to online learning and little to no in-person activities with their peers, Hood’s school helped students find ways to connect with each other through sending weekly emails of clubs and activities in the city that were there to support youth. MBMHMC was one of those opportunities, , she said.
She was able to participate in the group’s activities for the first time in 2021 after pandemic restrictions were relaxed.
“The Explorers program helped me, because when I first met everyone, I was very shy. I didn’t have the confidence to speak to a lot of people,” she said.
Through the Explorers Program, Hood got the opportunity to grow closer to fellow youth through events like sailing on the Chicago River and decorating people’s houses for the holiday season.
“The more time I spent with them, I felt like these people really wanted the best for me and truly want to see me succeed,” Hood said.
While getting youth to engage is a matter of listening and providing the activities that students are interested in, at the root, it is about establishing trust with youth.
“Don’t try to sugarcoat anything — just be honest with us,” she said. “Because [we] know when people are there just for a check and not care about what we’re thinking or how we feel, so having an adult there who actually tries to engage with us [and] build those bonds that really helps to get people coming back.”
Hood began attending Illinois State University last fall, studying business and music. Looking back at her four years of high school, it’s clear how being part of a youth-led organization made a difference.
“I think that really impacted me,” Hood said. “Looking back at how I changed so much — now I’m finding my voice.”
Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch Library might be where things happen in Chatham, but for people like Hood and Cole — it’s where things are just beginning.
RESOURCE GUIDE
Many students are introduced to MBMHMC through their Explorers Program. The program is free of charge for students who want to be involved with activities running from October-May during after school hours. Transportation is provided for students as well. Educators can sign up to have their schools sponsored.
For Chatham, Auburn Gresham, and Greater Grand Crossing residents, the library offers weekly events for youth through YOUMedia, in addition to free sessions with certified teachers to help with homework and study skills. Sessions are available online 5-7 p.m. Thursdays, and in person Monday-Thursday afternoons and evenings.
STOP’s youth-justice program organizes at Hyde Park Academy High School, and offers mental health and community services to area youth throughout the school year. The program uses a restorative justice framework and centers youth mental health in their spaces. Programming is open to students throughout the summer where training is provided.
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