Saving the children, the pieces of gold
We must protect the children, says Maria Padilla, because each is a piece of gold.
Behind her stand the mothers in the bright yellow vests they wear to walk their children safely home.
Police officer Rafel Yanez recalls the death that led him to form the youth center – all volunteer, all self-supported, all out in its dream to be a place for a kid to go to escape trouble and to see a good day in Chicago.
Alden Loury, publisher of the Chicago Reporter, explains why he lives in the Chicago neighborhood where he grew up, the neighborhood with problems but the neighborhood where others do their best to make it a place where he wants to live.
And each came back to the theme that We Are Not Alone – No Estamos Solos.
This is the theme of our project to unite the black and Latino news media to tell the other story about communities facing violence. The story about the work done block by block day by day to make life better; the positive, hopeful story people need hear.
The press conference e by us and the Back of the Yards Council this week at St. Michael’s gym was jammed. Five sets of TV crews. Anchors from WVON. Reporters from La Raza and Nuevo Siglo and bloggers and youth media and more who want to share in this historic effort for Chicago and maybe the nation.
It was a soul nourishing start to a month long effort that will need everyone’s help. If you can write a story, plan an interview, record a video, or do whatever reaches the public, please join in with the rhythm of the campaign.
If you have a story we need to tell, tell us and we’ll make sure it is heard.
Go to our facebook page, look up We Are Not Alone – the page marked by the black and brown hands intertwined. Check out the stories and please sign up and invite your friends. Click on the software badge on the page if you do something and put it on your work so we can link to it online. Let us know if you want to help out in any way. We need the energy to create the buzz to get this going.
Seventy years ago when a young organizer named Saul Alinsky helped get the Back of the Yards Council going, they marveled at the ambition.
Steve@chicagoistheworld.org; 312-369-7782
Written by Stephen on November 11, 2010
Filed Under: ETHNIC MEDIA, We Are Not Alone - No Estamos Solos
Tags: anti-violence, Back of the Yards, community action, ethnic news media, Saul Alinsky
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