1995 – The birth of TARGET Area Development Corporation

Theory of change – The best solutions to stubborn community problems are created within the neighborhoods experiencing the problems. People need to be taught how to gather available resources for community development projects (safety, economic, education). Mostly, everything that is needed is in the community or available to the community.

Course of Action – Researching conditions in the community; working to define stubborn problems; and finding neighborhood-level solutions.

Tools Employed

· Community research (e.g. door-to-door surveys)

· Organizing people (meeting, discussing, planning)

· Develop demonstration projects (SSPRAY, CISAP, 78th St. Gang & Drug Initiative)

2000 – Looking back in order to move forward with more knowledge and experience

Theory of change – Residents can solve stubborn problems but they need to be empowered with knowledge and trained how to lead the process of identifying, researching, and resolving problems that negatively affect the community.

Course of Action – Researching issues that impact the larger African American community understanding the complexities and interconnectedness of issues such as unemployment, low academic achievement, violence, crime, substance use, drug trafficking, recidivism, gang activity, poverty, homelessness, and blight. Working to define the root cause of these stubborn problems and seeking solutions through advocacy for policy changes, open dialogues with public officials, and program development.

Tools Employed

· Leadership development among African Americans (Professional organizing training)

· Commissioned academic and applied research reports on issues that largely affect Blacks.

· Grassroots and direct lobbying and advocacy around African American issues of concern

2005 – Assessing past successes and challenges; rethinking organizational structure, resource management, and board development

Theory of change – Many community problems are fortified and proliferated by unconstructive state, federal, and local policy. In addition, these problems are reinforced through a continuous system of structural racism and the invisible hand of the media.

Employment

A new study on the effects of race on hiring decisions has relevance for current policy debates. Just this past summer, the Supreme Court found that race could be taken into account in the admissions process for higher education, but only within strict limits. Next month, California voters will decide whether to ban almost all collection of data on race. Contrary to the contention of those seeking to end racial consideration in public policy, this new study indicates that racial discrimination is alive and well.

Devah Pager, a sociologist at Northwestern University, studied employers’ treatment of job applicants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by dividing job applicants into four groups. White applicants and black applicants were further grouped into those who presented themselves as having a prior criminal conviction and those who did not present themselves as having a criminal record. (None of the applicants actually had a criminal record of any sort). Except for the differences in race and in criminal record, applicants were given comparable résumés, sent to the same set of employers, and trained to behave similarly in the application process.

The study focused on the likelihood that an applicant would be called back for a job interview. Not surprisingly, whites without a criminal record were most likely to be invited back (34%) and blacks with a criminal record were the least likely (5%). Perhaps most striking, the study found that only 14% of blacks without a criminal record were called back for an interview—less than the 17% of whites that did have a criminal record. (Economic Policy Institute 2003)

Homelessness

· Although African Americans make up les than one in five persons in the region, they account for more than one half of the homeless. (Regional Roundtable on Homelessness).

Drug Use

· African Americans are less likely to use drugs than whites or Latinos. There is no evidence that suggests that the gap in drug arrests relates to a gap in drug usage. Whites are 125% more likely to use marijuana, 181% more likely to use cocaine, 413% more likely to use inhalants, 516% more likely to use LSD, and are also more likely than African Americans or Latinos to abuse alcohol, prescription drugs, PCP, and hallucinogens. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

Arrests

· More than half the city’s drug arrests occurred in six districts, clustered together across the city’s South and West sides. In the seven police districts where whites outnumber African Americans and Latinos, there were 4,243 drug arrests, or 12% of the citywide total. Of those drug arrestees, 63% were African Americans. (Chicago Reporter).

Drug Sales

· Studies have indicated that white youths from 12 to 17 are three times more likely to have sold drugs than African American youth in the State of Illinois. Correspondingly, white youth use cocaine and heroin seven to eight times more often than African American youth. Despite this higher drug use and sales by white Illinois teens, African American youth make up 15.3% of Illinois’s youth population, 59% of youth arrested for drug crimes, 85.5% of youth automatically transferred to adult court, 88% of youth imprisoned for drug crimes, and 91% OF youth admitted to state prison. (Building Blocks for Youth).

Poverty

· Between 1985 and 1995, the child poverty rate decreased for all racial groups in the state of Illinois. Still, large gaps remained between white children and African American and Hispanic children. In 1995, the child poverty rate for African Americans and Hispanics remained higher than for whites: 50% of African American children and 32% of Latino children lived in poverty. (Chapin Hall, State of the Child).

Foster Care

· In 1998, in the city of Chicago, 95% of the children in the foster care system were African American, 6% were Hispanic and 3% were white. In suburban Cook County, 83% of the children were African American, 12% were white and 4% were Latino. In the collar counties, 58% were African American, 31% white and 8% were Latino. (Chicago Reporter).

Education

· Students of color are less likely than white students to meet or exceed state standards either the Illinois State Achievement Tests (ISAT) or the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE). Most significant are the differences in the PSAE, where the average African American student scored 31.8 on reading and 19.2 on math, compared to a 66.1 in reading and 62.8 in math for white students. (Illinois Department of Labor).

Incarceration

· Black males are imprisoned at 57 times the rate of white males for drug offenses; 90% of those incarcerated for drug offense in Illinois in 1996 were black (Human Rights Watch). In 2005, 88.1% of those imprisoned for drug offenses are African American (IDOC, 2005).

It is currently our belief that long-term sustainable solutions must be led by a broad-based grassroots collaboration that reaches across the lines of ethnicity, religions, class, income, and social status.

Course of Action – Relationship building across ethnic lines; creating a broad-based policy agenda; exploring race and class based problem solving; incorporating citywide and statewide grassroots organizing;

Tools to be Employed

· Community & academic research (e.g. door-to-door surveys; commissioned research)

· Creating and joining collaborations and partnerships (focusing on ethnicity, class, and race)

· Alliances with public officials (based on shared agenda)

· Strategic media (Influencing public opinion)