Senior Stories | A Collaboration With Quinn Center

This past fall, our mentees collaborated with Quinn Center to highlight the stories of seniors in our community. Our partnership with the Quinn Center and seniors was to amplify community members’ voices. Maywood is an inter-generational community and TFD values the stories of those that have built the community up. Our mentees learned about an earlier Maywood and those that have lived here for decades. We brought in 4 community members to tell us about their journey in the Proviso District and how it has impacted them, as well as what future they hope for. Here are their stories.

Mazell Skyes

Martha Minich

Lynessa Greer

Alice Ocrey

check out some behind the scenes from this film project:

Building Cities | Alt Chicago

Photo Credit: @amieisfan

On Saturday February 12th, our mentees reimagined their communities with Jon from Alt Chicago. The mentees were given three different prompts and building blocks to reimagine and rebuild a new society. They were split in two groups of 5 where they had amazing dialogue about recreating our communities, justice system, and health care system. Each group focused on ways to recreate a better world by providing resources and dismantling the current systems that are in place. When reimagining communities, mentees provided them with equitable and sustainable resources to end food deserts, bring awareness and multiple buildings dedicated to mental health services, and the arts.

Towards the end of our day with Alt Chicago, our mentees sat and shared a meal and constructive dialogue on the issues within BIPOC communities and how Alt Chicago’s mission is to serve as a liaison between communities and opportunities, an ambassador for the neighborhoods they serve and a connector between partners, bringing intentionality to every step in the process.

Our time at Alt Chicago was a a great way to see how our youth can serve as liaison between communities and opportunities. We can’t wait to partner with them again!

Photo Credit: @amieisfan

Black Panther Event

Photo Credit: Ross LaSalle

On October 15th at the Fred Hampton House, people from all across Proviso Township celebrated the 55th anniversary of the Black Panther Party. This event was hosted by The Hampton House, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Akua Njeri. This event was not only to celebrate the 55 years of the party but also to unveil the new “People’s Bench”(the refurbished Hampton family bench), official Little Free Library, and the updated Community Fridge & Pantry via ribbon cutting ceremony.

The hopes for the new space is to teach the younger generation of the impact of Fred Hampton’s life and legacy had and continues to have in Maywood, the Proviso District, and American History.

The collective of organizations involved included Save the Hampton House, Black Panther Party Cubs, Best of Proviso Township, Engaged Berwyn, Suburban Unity Alliance, Maywood Fine Arts Association, Immanuel Lutheran Church and No Child Goes Hungry.

We sent a spring mentee, Ross LaSalle to document this event through photos and video. What an honor it was to be a part of such an inspiring ceremony. We can only hope to continue to grow in our partnership with The Hampton House, and Fred Hampton Jr.

“It was inspiring and amazing being in the presence of such historical black individuals.”

- Ross

Photo Credit: Ross LaSalle

Peace Garden Cleanup

The Interns put their photography and film skills to the test at Maywood’s Peace Garden, created by Barbra Cole. They captured the hard work of the community as they worked to restore the Peace Garden for summer. The Interns also tracked the progress of a potential mural collaboration with the Firehouse! Thank you Ms. Cole for the invitation!

Thank you Mariah, our Intern, for taking these magnificent pictures!

MEET OUR INTERNS

I’m excited to share we pivoted to an internship/mentorship program. Due to low winter enrollment, it made me take a deeper look at how we can offer our creative workshops in a way where parents, caregivers and teens could see the value in what we are teaching them!

When we experience challenges, I do my best to approach it through an asset lens. I began asking questions like: How can we challenge the starving artist narrative? How can we get parents/caregivers to see the value in letting their teen participate in our programming?

That’s when a paid internship/mentorship concept was born. We are in an essence doing the same thing, but are being more strategic. We are training 5 teens in the areas of photography, film, brand identity, social media strategy and more, while partnering with businesses and organizations in the community. So that our interns can learn to collaborate and gain real world experience as they grow their portfolios….all while getting paid.

Getting paid was a necessary decision if we truly want to be an organization that believes in equity, in which, we consider the needs of our community and actually help to create solutions for those needs.

We are excited for our first paid 12 week internship and can’t wait to see where it goes!

So friends, I’m excited to share our very first cohort of interns with you!

You can learn more about them HERE!