City in Sound; Lower North Center

This is Jack Angel with City in Sound. These are stories out of Chicago, City of All Things, among them 33 settlement houses. These are the young settlers. The children at Lower North Center, a few blocks north and west of the loop on Sejuic Street. This is one of the city's turbulent areas of change where the old population has moved out and a new population comes surging in. The great challenge of change is to change it for the better, lest it succumb to the worst. This is the purpose of Lower North Center, one of 33 settlement houses or community centers maintained by private funds for an acute public need. Namely to preserve the heart of our city by reaching

the heart of its people. None of the settlement houses would concede that the work is undertaken in places of blight but rather in areas of progress. Such is the story of Lower North Center. We're here at the place called Lower North Center. Also here is Mr. Mark Battle who will tell us what Lower North Center means and what he does about it. Lower North Center is a settlement house or community center that aims to provide a place for people to help each other become better citizens, I suppose is the easiest way to describe it. Whereabouts in relation to the loop is it? It's located on the near north side at the corner of Oak and Sejuic which is ten hundred north. This is one of the city's many settlement centers is it Mark? This is one of 33 settlement houses which are members of the Chicago Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers. Well now you're in the middle of a large housing project here.

Do you just serve the housing project or do you go into the community beyond? We go into the community beyond the housing project as a matter of fact the service area that we are charged with serving extends over to the Sal Street on the east and holstered on the west. Do you have any idea how many people are involved in this market? About thirty thousand. Thirty thousand people in the settlement program are just in the area. In the area. In the area. Now is the purpose of this just to give these people something to do to perhaps keep them off the street or keep them out of trouble? Or is there something more fundamental behind it? There's something much more fundamental. What we really hope to do is strengthen the family life in the community and strengthen the community life itself. Thus making a better place for families to live. Well now we're such an ambitious program and must cost a lot of money. You have a fine headquarters here and you have a staff that we will be talking to along. Who pays for this? Well frankly part of the budget for operating this program comes from the

community fund of Chicago. The other part of it comes from the contributions of private individuals and through the efforts of people themselves who live in the community. Well in any event it isn't to publicly subsidize. No tax money whatever. No tax money. But you have to make a dollar go a long way don't you? Mark I notice that most of the people in this area, this particular area and in this project are Negro. Is this an exclusively Negro operation? No it isn't. In the area the population breakdown is about 80 % Negro and 20 % other groups including Spanish speaking, Italian, some Old German stock, Nisei etc. Now do they all participate in your program? They all participate in our program and one way or the other. I suppose it would be idle to say that there aren't any tensions but how does integration of that nature work out? Well historically this area has been one where people have lived together with differences for many years.

At the moment with a vast new population group having moved in there are some tensions. But I think our experience has been most of the people want to live peaceful happy lives and our job is to help them do this in this community. So we work at resolving these tensions. In other words there is great promise and great hope. Tremendous we think this is going to become one of the most stable and one of the happiest communities in Chicago. Tonya you're a teenager what do you do here at the settlement center? I'm a junior counselor further summer and also I try to help out with different groups. What groups do you help with? We used to have a cooking class and another girl and I but now we don't have it anymore. So this summer I was helping with the little children in the summer farm. Little children in nursery? No this seven or eight year olds. Do you find this work helps you? Yes. It helps you understand most of the problems that you would run in and usually you wouldn't understand. Make it happy?

Yes. The lady to my left here is a adult education director for the lower north center. Her name is Miss Nancy Shan. How do these adults educate Miss Shan? Well actually it's education for us to work with them. They have many things to offer but particularly perhaps they give us some insight in what the needs of a community of this kind is. With these insights we can help bring in some resources to help them acquire skills for jobs, for coping with family problems such as nursing and nutrition. Language skills and also with the cooperation of the Board of Education courses for the eighth grade diploma and we hope other courses which will help them just gain knowledge in the next years. What are some of the courses that you teach? I don't teach them directly. We bring in skilled people on the assumption that we want to offer is the best that can be given in quality. We have nurse from the Red Cross teaching home nursing. We have first aid instructors. We have registered teachers for

the eighth grade diploma preparing people for eighth grade diploma. We've had registered people home economists teaching nutrition. University of Illinois political scientist teaching local government. Your classroom is right here in the settlement center? Yes that's right. Do you have pretty good facilities? So these are outstanding. CHA has provided in this particular housing project this building which includes recreation facilities and an exceptional gym. And many rooms which can be divided into classrooms are used for larger social events. Well adult education of course is one of the key functions here. We all learned that since we came. Why would you say it's so tremendously important? It's my belief and I think it's rapidly becoming the belief of administrators and teachers in the city and in the country that we reached children. We begin to understand and cope with problems of a society perhaps with the children but through the parents and the adults who help form these

children. There isn't enough time or is there enough staff in the country to cope with the problems but there are enough adults. Once they understand their families and their community better they themselves can cope with their problems. So actually you're interested in reaching the children through the adults? We're interested in helping a community and the adults are essentially the backbone of a community. So you just told me that you're Jerry Johnson and how old did you say you were? 11. 11. You're a big fella for 11. What do you do going for weight lifting or something? No. What do you do here? I go to the gym. I play in the gym. Is this a good thing? It's good. I'll lead a how old are you? I'm 14. You're just kind of entering your teens. Yes sir. And they tell me they enrolled you in the charm school? They did. Well that certainly has taken good effect. The many girls interested in that here?

I think so. Do they have a charm course for boys? I don't think so. And when those fellas look mighty charming. Well you've had a good time here aren't you? Yes I have. Do you live in the project or in the neighborhood? In the neighborhood. You have a lot of fun here? Yes I have. Lots of fun. Mr. Barber Bradshaw, you're referred to as a counselor now. Who do you counsel? My services are available to anyone in the community who comes in with a problem. Any kind of problem? Any kind of problem. And my major job is to refer the people after listening to the problem to the correct agency. So this is another function of the settlement center? Yes. And this is something evidently quite new and hasn't been tried by very many community centers. But we felt that there was a great necessity with 2 ,500 new families. Yes. What's the most common problem that you're consulted

on? Money. And what can you do about it? Well there's various things that there are gaps. But there are various things you can do depending on the type of problem. Wellfare is a frequent referral that I make. And the biggest problem comes when people fall in between the available services. Sometimes the Salvation Army can help these people out. If there are newcomers in the city and can't qualify for welfare. But we have people who just don't earn enough to meet all of their various problems and who can't qualify for welfare because they are employed in meeting and earning more than a minimum standard. And when this happens we have developed our own community loan fund to help people under these circumstances. Well how about the principle of people helping themselves? Does that figure in here? Is this a good idea really to see people and they say we need money and you

say okay we can give you some? This helping themselves is basic to our community loan fund which we have. In the first place it's raised from the people who live in the project here primarily. And we're just about to have a fund drive and ask every family here for a quarter. And this in a sense is people helping themselves. Then the people who borrow from the fund are under an obligation to repay so that it isn't a gift or a handout. It's a loan. When you certainly must enjoy it here I know you do and you certainly reflect it. How did you get into this kind of work? I'm a sociologist and I never thought I'd do social work but here I am. Well a sociologist can end up anywhere in society. That's true. That's true. Thank you. Thank you. Well I know you serve in your reputation and it's a good one and your name is Ted Derrickot. I suppose theodore might be more proper but what in the world do you do here?

Officially I'm known as the Director of Community Services Project. A grant supported project by the Emma Swartzwork Foundation. My work is aimed at improving conditions in the community. Is that a tough job? Yes. I understand that you actually go out and try to get some of the people here jobs in the neighborhood. We are concerned, or better I should say, law and law center is concerned with finding jobs for people who live in our service community. The center has been able to help some people who find jobs. I would say the principal difficulty we have is that many of the people who are interested in finding jobs do not have skills to sell.

You try to develop those though don't you, your adult education program? An effort is being made through the adult education program and in cooperation with the Board of Education City of Chicago to develop programs that will help to raise the level of the people in the community and help them to develop skills to sell. How does integration work here Mr. Derrickot? Honestly no. We feel that our community is reasonably well integrated. Our experiences begin probably at about 1942 with the establishment of the Cabrini Homes, the low road type of homes which was at one time the best integrated public housing group in the city of Chicago. From this beginning we feel that a

community atmosphere exists which favours a continued growth of integration. I am very interested to know something about the International Club here at the Lower North Center and Maryland Washington here is an official of it and spokesman for it. Would you tell us a little bit about it? The International Club, we try to bring better understanding about different races. We have a group of people, we have all races, we have Spanish people and we have Mexican, we have Puerto Rican, Negro and the White. That's here at the center here? Yes, this is at the Lower North Center. What do you do? Well we bring movies about other countries and we also have programs and we conducted a survey in the community to find out exactly what the people was interested in in this community. Does this International Club you feel help the harmony of the project and the community? Yes, I think so. Do you get together and talk over your problems? Yes,

we do. We also render a program. What kind of a program would that be? Well we got outdoor activities, we had planned a picnic. In other words to get the various races and groups together, that's the main idea. That's the main idea. How do you get together? Is it harmonious and active and happy? Yes. And you think it's a fine idea? Yes, I think it's a good idea. Well you're Mr. Juan Díaz. That's how you pronounce it? Juan Díaz. Now do you live in the settlement here or do you live in the neighborhood? Yeah, and neighborhood. And are you a Puerto Rican of extraction? Yeah. Are there many around here? Yes, we've got a lot of probably kind of happen. Do they participate in the program here pretty well? Well, not so good. Do you think they should? Would you like to have them? Yes. Yes, because they are a little lazy, you know. Well, current we

all. That's a sort of a common melody I think. What do you do here? Do you take adult courses? No. I'm trying to make an organization here in a... ...sendemic church. Yes. Yeah. What we call a Spanish picking club. And you work through the settlement in that? That's right. We are trying to make a little organization. It's still a little bit too. We hope that you grow up. But it's all a part of making it a better community. Oh, yes. Yes. That's why I'm trying to make a better community out of here. Tell me this. Do you run into any problems? Why? Because you're a Puerto Rican and somebody else isn't? Well, I guess that's... My sister probably has a problem with some Puerto Rican guy, too. Yes. I don't know why. Maybe that's in your approach. Well, maybe. Yes, certainly. A friendly, affable person.

Well, I feel all right. I've been about five years into his neighborhood. I have no complaint. Now, you've told me that your Mrs. Cicero Smith and Mrs. Smith, I'm very anxious to find out what your part is in the center. Well, I instruct the adults and the teenagers with sewing. With sewing? That's right. How do they take the sewing? Isn't that kind of a lost art? No. I think it's very good now because so many people, especially for this neighborhood, have so many children. It's a wonderful thing for them. It's helping them to stretch pennies. Yes. Are you a professional seamstress? Well, some people consider that. I certainly have a competent look, aren't I? Well, thank you. And I know that you do wonderful work because I've heard it. Do you have... How much are offered to do us? What's your connection here? Well, I'm the vice president of the Fatty and Social Club. And I think I wanted to know what ever became a Saturday night, didn't I? Yes, and I said it would be closed on Saturday, so

we have dances for the adults. What do you call it Friday evening? Well, we meet on Friday evenings and the... That's the adult night down here in the Senate. And they come down to Friday's around eight o 'clock and we were open to around 11, 11, 11, 30. What happens during that time? Well, some play cards, some dance. And we have another adult lounge to have the television in it and half -asset and some of the way to bring down records and play them in their adult lounge. Okay. What's this got that some of the places along Well Street and Division around here haven't got? I think it got a more wholesome madness here. No drinking, no drinking. They tell me the religious feeling is strong here, is that true? Yes, it is. My wife, she belongs to this center. And she also has a Club of St. Domics where she ran bandages for the Cancer Society. Well, we hear a lot of what the project and what the center has done for the teenagers. Do you think it's doing a comparable job for adults? Yes, it is. And we expect a lot of you to turn out next month when we start a fall program. Certainly, we wish you well. All right, thanks a lot. I'd certainly like to meet you. What's your name, ma 'am? My name is

Great Shrewd Henley. Good Shrewd Henley. Yes. And just what do you do here at Lower North? Well, I attend the sewing classes here. And I also attended the home nursing. I had two courses of the home nursing. You're an adult education. Yes, that's right. I think I just talked to your sewing teacher a minute ago. Mrs. Smith, yes. And she's a wonderful teacher. Matter of fact, this outfit I made in the sewing class. That's right. Yes, sir. And what did you describe it for us? Well, this is a chameleon for the jacket. And it's the first garment I made. And of course, when I started to make this, I never sold it in my life before. But Mrs. Smith is a teacher that really makes you so. And I've made three dresses and two skirts. And I'm very proud of this center. And since I've been attending the center, I have a different outlook on life and a different view. And I just hope this center will continue, because we really have a wonderful time. And it's a nice place to

come. And the home nursing, I had two courses, and I had an opportunity to take care of a patient. I just volunteer freely. And it really helped me to be able to take care of the sick and take care of my children in my home. Well, you have children. I have two girls. Do they participate here? Oh, yes. My two girls have belly and tap dancing here. And the little one took piano lesson from Mr. Moore. And I also helped Mr. Moore a little while last year with the piano. You're with the children. Well, I know all parents have problems with doing the link and see. The temptation is there, of course, with all parents. Yes. Do you find the center helps out in that way? Well, yes, it does, because it keeps the kids off of the street. And coming to the center, it gives them something higher to look to other than just out in the street plane. And they have a wonderful, wonderful activities here. And this is a wonderful place for this community. Wonderful, because sometimes there is no loneliness like the city. Where the people come and go in

separate lives, in separate places. And an apartment wall can be a fixed barrier. And a new life can be a bad life, with the good of it lost somewhere or misplaced in cold apathy. You begin with the good in people. And you draw it tight together. And you know that a good city must take its strength from good communities. That it cannot afford a bad one is the abiding principle of the settlement house. Determined that its people find themselves by finding each other. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer, whose recordings here have imprinted. City in sound.