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

Mental Health Intensive | Week 2

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

We recently started our Mental Health Intensive at TFD! This is a four week program designed to give access to mental health resources as well as support for the youth within our community. One of our 3 pillars is Mental health and we feel that it is very important to share our stories and normalize the topic of mental health.

The first week of our program was virtual, but this past Wednesday we were able to finally meet in person! Kathy of kathykhang.com led us in breath-work during the first half. During our time with Kathy, we are able to focus on the space and the present moment and clear our minds of unnecessary thoughts. The second half of our day consisted of Erika Aguirre & Erika Luna from Oasis Project teaching different coping skills. We first discussed challenging experiences, our feelings behind them, and how we managed those situations. Afterward, we moved to stations with different objects to help cope with overwhelming feelings of stress. There were things like painting, journaling prompts, play dough, sand, scented lotion or candles, essential oils, and much more. Erika & Luna explained the purpose and benefits of each of these things and allowed each person to try out these out to see what helps!

We can’t wait for the next two weeks! Thank you to our facilitators for coming together to help make this possible.

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

MARCH FOOD DISTRIBUTION

Today our interns were able to put into practice all that they’ve been learning so far. Photography and social media! Knowing these 2 skills is vital in today’s society…especially when it comes to building one’s brand. Today we partnered with our food coalition to document our monthly food distribution.

I can’t believe today was our one year anniversary since we started this food coalition, and to date we’ve been able to provide over 30k meals to our neighbors. How amazing is that?!?

Check out some behind the scenes of our interns in action:

The gallery below are photos taken by Ross one of our interns. He also edited them in Lightroom. It’s amazing to see all of the growth our interns are already experiencing!

HOW WILL OUR NEIGHBORS EAT?

We live in a food desert...so my first thought was...”How will our neighbors eat?”

A pressing challenge that we face everyday, not just in the midst of COVID-19, however, it has only exacerbated our food insecurity.

I posed this question on Facebook, and my friend, Randall, from Best of Proviso NP, commented stating that he was planning something. I immediately told him that I was in, and even offered up the firehouse should we need a location.

Well, on Thursday we hosted a food drop off, where we received 180 frozen meals from HOJO , where we organized and hand delivered the dinners to those most in need.

Then on Saturday, we received another donation from HOJO, who dropped off 10,000 pounds of food along with other donations from PP4H, and more. We met at God’s Heritage Church’s parking lot to disperse bags of food for our most vulnerable. Cars were lined up before we were even open, and before we knew it we were out of food. The need is great so we are planning and strategizing on what else we can do to support our local restaurants, and our most vulnerable. Between the pickups, deliveries, and 150 bags of food that was prepared for the elderly, we are estimating that 250 families were served.

I’m so grateful to have been a part of this movement with other organizers, churches, and non profits...and of course our volunteers and donors too! I’ll keep you informed as we continue to plan and strategize for the next food drive up, and more!