NeighborScapes

I’ve made no secret that I’m a huge fan of Bremen Youth Services.

I first discovered BYS while at the United Way, where they are the Youth Services programming darlings of the South and Southwest suburbs of Chicago. Natively of the Southland (”Bremen” represents Bremen Township, from Harlem Ave. to the West to Western Ave. to the East, and from 135th to the North to 183rd to the South), BYS delivers youth services in a way that is loving, familial, and encourages independence, excellence, confidence, and drive in its graduates. What’s more, the BYS model encourages graduates of each level of programming to be mentors for younger participants and find mentors among the older graduates.

What I like most about BYS is that it has a strong feeling of family. With “parents” as counselors and case managers, and “siblings” among other participants, as well as “grandparents” among the various senior services that cohabitate the BYS properties, BYS provides a stable, engaging environment and cultivates a sense of home, perhaps moreso than the participants can find in their own homes.

NeighborScapes is trying to do the same thing, and, consequently, is partnering closely with BYS. Our mission is to create a “cradle through college covenant of care”. This means that, for the child who comes to our camp, there is a fun, loving environment in which they can grow and thrive. For the older child, there is a stable, whimsical place for them to gradually earn independence and responsibility. For the tween, there are mentors and guides in venturing into adulthood. For the teenage counselor or Civic Leadership Corps member, there is someone, usually me but also Esther Massie, Darlene Kaboose, or Jay Readey, who will teach them what they will need to know as they seek college experience or full-time jobs. For the older Civic Leadership Corps, there is guidance in finding housing, jobs, cars, what they will need to become independent. I look to Jay for training in becoming the kind of community organizer I’m itching to be, and opportunities to grow according to my own skill but driven by my own ambition; I look to Esther and other NeighborScapes leadership for life advice about juggling both a personal life and a work life, when the two continually threaten to merge. And while I’m not as familiar with the mentorship relationships and networks above my head, they are leaving strong evidence of their existence.

NeighborScapes, like Bremen Youth Services, is a youth services organization that is trying to be family-like. However, we need to be stronger than family-like. We have promised a “cradle through college covenant of care”. We will be a family who will support you in difficult times. We will be a family with whom you can grow and prosper. We will offer you opportunities you cannot find anywhere else. We will leave no opportunity unexplored, no chance not taken, to bring you resources and provide for you. And we will always, always love you.

I’m going to switch up the usual “end every blog post begging for money or volunteers or something” pattern I’m falling into. Bremen Youth Services badly needs donations- they have built a new facility 2/3 of the way before running out of money, and unless they finish construction, they will have a 2/3-built facility sitting behind their run-down one as a Roxaboxen village rather than a real home. Go visit their website. Go leave a donation. And attach a note to it, addressed to Don, telling him to keep up the good work.

Chris Furuya is the program coordinator for NeighborScapes, a volunteering, community organizing, and civic leadership nonprofit located in the South suburbs of Chicago. Her twitter handle is earthangelNS.