WTTW Journal; What's Out There for J.R.?

<v J.R.>Yeah. <v Kim Anderson>They get self-esteem, they get acceptance. <v Kim Anderson>They get the male bonding, which they don't get at home because the men are not in the <v Kim Anderson>families that often. Everything they should be getting in a family, they're getting on <v Kim Anderson>the street. That's why it's so hard to pull 'em off. <v Announcer>Next on WTTW Journal, what's out there for <v Announcer>J.R.? <v Joe Montegna>Good evening. I'm Joe Montegna. <v Joe Montegna>Tonight's WTTW Journal is a part of Chicago Matters. <v Joe Montegna>A three year programing commitment by WTTW and the Chicago Community Trust <v Joe Montegna>to explore those issues most critically affecting the quality of life in our community. <v Joe Montegna>The focus of this second year is the child. <v Joe Montegna>The documentary you're about to see has set out to try to answer a simple <v Joe Montegna>and troubling question. <v Joe Montegna>What can we do as a community to help the growing number of children who are leaving

<v Joe Montegna>their homes unprepared to lead independent and productive lives? <v Joe Montegna>We looked at this by exploring what's out there for one 11 year old boy <v Joe Montegna>named J.R. and discovered there are an awful <v Joe Montegna>lot of J.R.'s out there. [music] [song: Sadeness performed by Enigma] <v Joe Montegna>50 percent of the youth in this community did not finish high school. <v Joe Montegna>And those statistics were true in the year that J.R. <v Joe Montegna>was born. There's certainly no better today. <v Speaker>Than the opportunity for J.R., you know, just to run out his front door <v Speaker>and have all the other kids waving at him as he runs by is gone. <v Speaker>Ya know, He's living in half of a war zone. <v Speaker>J.R. is like a lot of kids in a lot of neighborhoods and a lot of the suburbs uh J.R.

<v Speaker>wants somebody to know that he doesn't have <v Speaker>anything to do this afternoon. <v Speaker>What to do um for children like J.R.? <v Speaker>It's difficult to say what exactly we could be doing. <v Speaker>If the agencies can come together so that we can put our resources together and help <v Speaker>all the J.R.s In this community. <v Speaker>Then we're giving them some positive choices. <v Speaker>Would would make J.R. unique is that he does have a special kind of potential that you <v Speaker>could recognize. <v Nelly>I don't think J.R.'s really bad. I just think he's just misbehaved. <v Nelly>I don't think none of my kids are bad. Just terrible sometimes. <v Nelly>My real concerns for J.R. <v Nelly>Quite a few. <v Nelly>One that he would be gangbanging. Two that he would be into theft. <v Nelly>School. <v Nelly>You don't know how he thinks because one minute he could be so gentle <v Nelly>and then the next minute he can be so unpredictable.

<v Nelly>There's a lot of me in J.R. <v Nelly>Boy, you better knock that radio down. <v Nelly>Angel, go tell J.R he got two seconds to lower that radio. <v Nelly>Now. <v Nelly>And tell him to come here a second. I gave him the garbage bags, look at where they're at. What's <v Nelly>right by your feet? <v Nelly>Did you do what I told you? <v Nelly>If I hear that radio loud, one more time it's gonna fly out the window. <v Nelly>Remember how the other day that stereo flew? <v Nelly>Well, I see more J.R. in my brother. <v Nelly>Stubborn and angry because, like, he looks like Junior. <v Nelly>Junior's been in jail most of his life. <v Nelly>Jalia Conconi, whatever. <v Nelly>He's very smart, good looking. <v Nelly>That's been his home. <v Speaker>Look he's scared, watch. <v Nelly>Put that stupid cat down. <v J.R.>Why you don't like the cat? <v J.R.>It's such a nice cat.

<v Nelly>I was raised around animals alot. <v Nelly>Basically, I like animals. <v Nelly>They cheer you up, I guess. <v Speaker>The only thing that she don't like is um kids. <v Nelly>Yea, that's why I got four of yous, right? <v Speaker>Mhm. <v Nelly>Oh, I don't like you. <v Speaker>Nope. <v Nelly>Why? <v Speaker>'Cause you don't let us play Nintendo. <v Nelly>Oh, I don't like you 'cause I won't let you play Nintendo? <v Nelly>That makes a lot of sense. <v Speaker>Mommy, but one thing. <v Joe Montegna>There's just no way to sum up a family. <v Joe Montegna>You'll always fall short of the truth, for every family is as unique and complex <v Joe Montegna>and unpredictable and frustrating and inspiring as the individuals who make <v Joe Montegna>it up. This is J.R.'s family, and in this sense <v Joe Montegna>it is no different. <v Joe Montegna>J.R.'s mother is Nelly. Her nickname is Flocka, which means skinny. <v Speaker>Here dummy. I'm talking to you, Rosie. <v Nelly>Yeah. What did I tell you about that last night? <v Joe Montegna>She is loud and tough talking and quick to anger and slow to trust and <v Joe Montegna>she'd be the first to admit she'd made some mistakes in her life.

<v Joe Montegna>But it's obvious she loves her children and has dreams for them. <v Nelly>What do you want from me? What do you want? <v Joe Montegna> J.R.'s father is called Ivid. His real name's, Iran. <v Joe Montegna>That's J.R.'s name too. <v Joe Montegna>J.R. stands for Junior. <v Joe Montegna>Iran has also made some mistakes. <v Joe Montegna>His relationship with Nelly has been stormy and he ran around a lot. <v Joe Montegna>But a car accident three years ago robbed him of his legs and forced him to stay home <v Joe Montegna>and think about his life. <v Iran>I didn't realize I was too wild, to be always goofing around with my friends and didn't <v Iran>pay no attention to my family. Now that I'm home more often, now it's been kinda hard to <v Iran>get adjusted again. <v Iran>Ya know, contact with him and get him back to where which the way it really supposed to <v Iran>be. <v Nelly>No, I didn't. I didn't trust, Ivid. <v Nelly>And I still don't tell Ivid everything. <v Nelly>Tired. It's too hard. <v Speaker>Come on, stay still! How do you expect me to comb your hair if you're moving all around

<v Speaker>like a nut. <v Joe Montegna>The turmoil affected everyone in the family. <v Joe Montegna>The two girls, Lillian and Rosie and the younger brother, Angel. <v Joe Montegna>But the strongest reaction came from the oldest son, J.R. <v Joe Montegna>Who is failing in the neighborhood public school and attracted to gangs. <v Nelly>Usually people that know him, see only the sweet side of J.R. <v Nelly>People that they really know him knows his rough side, his angry side, <v Nelly>his stubborn side. <v Nelly>His family wasn't all there at one time. <v Nelly>And now that they are, it's too hard for him to adjust. <v Nelly>And his father's accident had a lot to do with that. <v Joe Montegna>Everyone who knows J.R. Believes he is at a fork in the road, wavering <v Joe Montegna>between two very different worlds. <v Joe Montegna>One is the turbulent world he lives in on weekends when he's at home with his family in <v Joe Montegna>Humboldt Park. <v J.R.>Use your gloves man, you'll be warm in there. <v Joe Montegna>The other's the more orderly world that Nelly sent J.R.

<v Joe Montegna>to live in during the week with Father Larry Craig and two other boys <v Joe Montegna>at Assumption Church. <v Rev. Larry Craig>What do you think would happen to you if you stayed at home? <v J.R.>I probably be like in a gang. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Well, why? You don't have to be. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Why would you think that would happen? <v J.R.>'Cause everywhere I go there's a gang. <v J.R.>Well, not everyone, but like in the neighborhood when I move there's a gang sign. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly fears the wrong turn could take J.R. <v Joe Montegna>toward the same dead end she saw her brother go down. <v Nelly>I see him probably in jail or probably buried, ya know, if he were to take that road. <v Nelly>It's the only two places, you can go. <v Nelly>Is jail and buried. <v Joe Montegna>It's a critical point for a child only 11 years old. <v Joe Montegna>And many people are concerned about J.R. <v Joe Montegna>and which way he'll go. <v Joe Montegna>Although the decision will ultimately be his own. <v Joe Montegna>We all play a part in it, for in a real sense the choices for a kid coming <v Joe Montegna>out of a troubled home, and there are increasing numbers of them, depend largely

<v Joe Montegna>upon how we all answer the question, what's out there <v Joe Montegna>for J.R.? [music] <v Joe Montegna>There are many ways to describe J.R.'s neighborhood. <v Joe Montegna>To politicians, it's the 26th Ward, to police <v Joe Montegna>the 14th District, the Postal Service calls it 6 0 6 <v Joe Montegna>4 7, the church St. Sylvester's parish, <v Joe Montegna>Chicago's communities map calls it Logan Square, its <v Joe Montegna>neighborhoods map, Humboldt Park. <v Joe Montegna>But for the kids like J.R., who have to walk its streets, the only map that matters <v Joe Montegna>is the one they carry in their heads, which tells them where the gangs are. <v Speaker>Every kid that lives in these boundaries, faces the same thing. <v Speaker>And you have a choice. You either in it or you're not. <v Speaker>And if you're not in it, then got to be very, very careful as to where you go.

<v Nelly>The first thing he's going to bump into is gangbangers and they know J.R. <v Nelly>and J.R. Looks up to them. He thinks it's cool. <v Nelly>He's a kid, what does he know? <v Speaker>He's 11 years old. He knows exactly what he's doing and what colors he can wear, what <v Speaker>colors he can't, depending on where he's at. <v Speaker>I tried to believe that I haven't lost control, but in reality, yes, I have. <v Speaker>[police dispatch] Sargeant 14 [inaudible] we got shots fired at 21 North Richmonds over by the <v Speaker>church. <v Joe Montegna>In reality, it is a whole community that seems to have lost control. <v Speaker>While you're dealing in the 14th District with a very, very busy district, it's calls <v Speaker>for service or monumental. <v Speaker>Out of 135 gangs in the city of Chicago, at least 49 operate out of <v Speaker>our areas. And uh they're some of the most violent also within the city. <v Speaker>[police dispatch] We have a disturbance, gangs on the street, 1500 North California. <v Speaker>These gentlemen here stopped a guy in the street started arguing with him.

<v Speaker>One of the guys pulled a club, they started threatening him with gangs. <v Speaker>We just came off the train station and those two opposition gang members and uh and <v Speaker>they came to settlle right here. You know, they wanted to fight. <v Speaker>They want to fight. They want to fight. I'm not in that. I'm not gonna get in their <v Speaker>problems. <v Joe Montegna>The problem is their problems on gang turf become <v Joe Montegna>everyone's problems. <v Speaker>I dropped out about a year ago from Roberto Clemente and uh the <v Speaker>reason why I dropped out is because of the gangs, you know, problem is you know, is <v Speaker>really. Either you got a ride with someone or, you know, either <v Speaker>you wearing wrong colors. <v Speaker>It's not worth it, you know, it's risking your life. <v Tony Martinez>Some of these kids are good kids, but they have like I said before, they have nowhere to <v Tony Martinez>go. And little by little, they get joined in these gangs and they become hardcore. <v Tony Martinez>But as far as we are concerned with the gangs are a bad thing for the community because <v Tony Martinez>the only thing they put into communitie is fear. <v Joe Montegna>In simplest terms, a community is what happens when people communicate.

<v Joe Montegna>Just several blocks from J.R.'s home, you can see what a powerful thing <v Joe Montegna>that can be. <v Speaker>Okay, what corner is this over here? <v Oscar Bosch>We're at Evergreen and Washington probably, you know, one of the hottest corners of the <v Oscar Bosch>city right now. A lot of drug dealing. <v Oscar Bosch>All the kids in the gangs were hanging around. <v Speaker>So what happened? <v Oscar Bosch>Well, a few of us got together and we set up the lights, catch 'em across the street. <v Oscar Bosch>So I'm here to shine all over the street and it got to where the police came around and <v Oscar Bosch>some 'em wherever they were hanging around at and they don't hang around here no more <v Speaker>So nobody likes to commit crime under a spotlight. <v Speaker>The police can't solve the drug problem at all, but we can move them out of a <v Speaker>neighborhood with the cooperation of people of that neighborhood. <v Joe Montegna>Gangs may seem like a remote subject to some an urban or a minority <v Joe Montegna>problem not relevant to their lives. <v Joe Montegna>But in fact, gangs are just the most dramatic illustration of what happens <v Joe Montegna>when community breaks down and children begin forming their own institutions to <v Joe Montegna>meet their needs.

<v Joe Montegna>When kids are better organized than adults, you end up with a Lord of the Flies kind <v Joe Montegna>of society. And this is what is happening in large tracts of Chicago <v Joe Montegna>and increasing segments of the suburbs for the forces that contribute to the <v Joe Montegna>breakdown of the community, do not honor municipal lines. <v Joe Montegna>[music] [Song: Make Some Noise performed by Fast Eddie]. <v Joe Montegna>A year ago, the Elmhurst YMCA started a Friday night dance which has attracted hundreds <v Joe Montegna>of teenagers from throughout the area. <v YCMCA Worker>Also, no fighting. If there are any fights. <v Joe Montegna>A growing concern at these dances is how to deal with gangs and fights. <v Joe Montegna>On this evening, a gang did show up and cast a pall over the dance floor <v Joe Montegna>for a while. One gang banger tried to pick a fight with a local youth who was wearing <v Joe Montegna>the wrong colors. <v Speaker>You fucking staying here, shit's gonna fucking start here alright. I'm not fucking having anything in here. <v Joe Montegna>They were escorted out without incident.

<v Joe Montegna>And the dancing resumed. But a point was made. <v Joe Montegna>It doesn't matter where a child lives, if he's not getting clear and consistent <v Joe Montegna>signals from the adults around him, he's going to be confused. <v Joe Montegna>J.R. is a case in point. <v Nelly>He thinks he's tough. <v Nelly>I talked to him today about wearing green and black and oh, I don't always wear green and <v Nelly>black. That's all he wears up here is green and black. <v Nelly>That's the Cobras around here. <v Nelly>So when he comes over here, I don't want to see him with no green and no black. <v J.R.>I don't even worry about it. I just put on clothes but <v J.R.>she thinks I'm trying to be in a gang. <v Nelly>Because the way you act. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly is trying to keep J.R. out of gangs, but she herself was once in a <v Joe Montegna>gang and still has a lot of the street in here. <v Nelly>We got shot at here living here. <v Nelly>Remember? <v Speaker>Yea, I remember. I got shot, right there. <v Nelly>I've be taking my kids in [shoom]. <v Gitano>I got shot in my butt coming from my girlfriend's house. <v Speaker>Have you lost any friends? I mean, have you got, have you lost?

<v Speaker>Yeah, I lost a friend. <v Nelly>Yea, we lost friends. Plenty of them. <v Nelly>I think we've lost more friends than what we got left. <v Gitano>That we all love and miss. <v Nelly>I'm not ashamed of it because it helped me to be strong. <v Nelly>Not that I'm saying it's right. <v Nelly>But back then, it was kind of way different now. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So that was a good part of Nelly's life, though, in general. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She had some bad moments with it, of course, but she still remembers some of the people <v Rev. Larry Craig>that she used to hang around, she still sees them. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And uh you know, so she's she can't help but say stop. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And so he's gonna see that in the house, which is a tremendously attractive <v Rev. Larry Craig>thing for a kid like J.R. <v Joe Montegna>The police tell you the gangs have increasingly become economic enterprises <v Joe Montegna>involved in the highly lucrative marketing of narcotics. <v Joe Montegna>Although many of the gangs today are, in fact, run by adults from prison, their survival <v Joe Montegna>depends upon the constant recruitment of youngsters. <v Julio Matias>They know whether or not you've got one parent at home.

<v Julio Matias>They know whether or not you got two parents at home. <v Julio Matias>They know whether or not you're on public aid, they know whether or not you're failing in <v Julio Matias>school, they know whether or not you're a run away, they know whether or not you you you <v Julio Matias>break curfew violation every night, they know whether or not you been shoplifting, you <v Julio Matias>been caught. So they have a pretty good background on you. <v Joan Costello>You know, the gangs are very organized about their recruitment. <v Joan Costello>They're very systematic. And whether you're recruiting for a gang or for Harvard <v Joan Costello>University or for IBM, you know, you have a strategy and you recruit. <v Joan Costello>And if you're a recruiter, you know what you're after. <v Joan Costello>I don't think we compete very hard as a community. <v Joe Montegna>The fact is, despite the obvious dangers and parental warnings, <v Joe Montegna>many kids like J.R. continue to join because the gangs are satisfying <v Joe Montegna>some of their most basic human needs, needs not being met <v Joe Montegna>in their families. <v Kim Anderson>They get self-esteem, they get acceptance. <v Kim Anderson>They get the male bonding, which they don't get at home because the men are not in the <v Kim Anderson>families that often. Everything they should be getting in a family, they're getting on <v Kim Anderson>the street. That's why it's so hard to pull them off, because that pull is just too

<v Kim Anderson>strong. It's human nature. It's things that everybody needs. <v Rev. Larry Craig>J.R. is enchanted as many kids his age are in those neighborhoods, <v Rev. Larry Craig>and he sees kids on a corner who are openly representing <v Rev. Larry Craig>gangs and fighting and that's that's exciting for a kid that age. <v Joe Montegna>The other place that kids needs might be met, the community at large <v Joe Montegna>is also failing them. <v Speaker>For a lot of kids gangs become the only community they <v Speaker>really know about and uh, you know, it has been said many times <v Speaker>people have a need for a sense of roots, a sense of belonging and something larger <v Speaker>than their immediate family. And gangs do offer that at at a fair price, <v Speaker>but they do offer that. [music] [Song: Sadeness performed by Enigma] <v Joe Montegna>Humboldt Park is one of Chicago's most beautiful parks. <v Joe Montegna>Not so many years ago, it was a bastion of community, a place safe enough

<v Joe Montegna>to sleep in on a hot summer night. <v Joe Montegna>A place kids could go to learn important lessons about healthy competition <v Joe Montegna>and teamwork and the rules of the game. <v Joe Montegna>Humboldt Drive runs through the center of Humboldt Park. <v Joe Montegna>The rules neighborhood kids like J.R. <v Joe Montegna>Learned here today are of a totally different order. <v Joe Montegna>There may be no more pathetic expression of the breakdown of community than the fact <v Joe Montegna>that to thousands of children this drive is not an artery but a wound. <v Joe Montegna>The dividing line between the city's two major factions of gangs. <v Joe Montegna>A gangbanger from the west side of the park:. <v West Side Member>Especially summer, summer nobody calls a lot of shooting going on right here. <v West Side Member>My friend, he got killed right over there in the fieldhouse, in the barhouse back there. <v West Side Member>They shot him. I don't want to be part of it now, but <v West Side Member>I'm in it. <v Speaker>It's hard to get out.

<v West Side Member>It's too late. Yeah. <v Joe Montegna>A rival gang banger from the east side of the park: <v Gitano>That's the bor-we call that the borderline. In the summertime, sometimes <v Gitano>we'll walk over there to our side and they'll be on their side, Hey what's up man, what <v Gitano>you, ya know? A little argument and all you hear pop-pop-pop. <v Gitano>All of this is all gangs, other teenagers fighting other teenagers over <v Gitano>a block. Sometimes you just get sick and tired of it. <v Joe Montegna>The Humboldt Park Field House is on the west side of Humboldt Drive, which means <v Joe Montegna>only kids from the west side feel safe enough to go to it. <v Joe Montegna>Like many public institutions, the park today is being held hostage <v Joe Montegna>by the gangs around it because J.R. <v Joe Montegna>lives east of Humboldt Drive, even though he's not in a gang, park programs <v Joe Montegna>are practically beyond his reach. <v Speaker>The issue here is that where it falls, if the kid wants to go to the library <v Speaker>that's on the east side but lives in west Humboldt Park he could't go to a library to <v Speaker>learn. It's the same thing. It's just wherever it falls.

<v Joe Montegna>The library is about two blocks from J.R.'s home, just around the corner <v Joe Montegna>from Humboldt Park. <v Francisco Arroyo>It just gets they don't know no place to go. <v Francisco Arroyo>They just come in to here because they need to be someplace safe. <v Francisco Arroyo>And it's really sad. <v Joe Montegna>Last summer, a teenager shot several innocent children when he chased <v Joe Montegna>the rival gang banger into the middle of a YMCA soccer league. <v John Casey>Thank God he wounded them in the legs because he was shooting down uh and <v John Casey>as a result, we now have to bus these young people all the way over <v John Casey>here to North Avenue and harstad to the new city way so that we can finish the <v John Casey>soccer season. <v Joe Montegna>The Logan Square YMCA, located along a gang border in Chicago, <v Joe Montegna>picks up 35 children each day and buses them across gang turf <v Joe Montegna>so that they can safely attend Y programs. <v Joe Montegna>It's J.R.'s neighborhood Y but even with transportation provided,

<v Joe Montegna>Nelly doesn't feel it's safe enough for J.R. <v Joe Montegna>to go to. The YMCA also employs two former gang members. <v Joe Montegna>In an effort to reach out and help other kids redirect their lives. <v Ray Vazquez>J.R. has an option in life, choices, I believe everyone has choices in life <v Ray Vazquez>and they deserve that opportunity. <v Ray Vazquez>We owe it to 'em as a society and many times because of the lack of resources <v Ray Vazquez>or just not having the right people at the right time. <v Ray Vazquez>Those kids get lost. <v Joe Montegna>The tragedy is only a fraction of the kids who need help <v Joe Montegna>ever make it to the programs that exist, and some do, <v Joe Montegna>even in places like Humboldt Park. <v Joe Montegna>[recorder music] The ones who do make it usually are accompanied by determined adults. <v Adela Molina>I feel there is a lot if you as a parent

<v Adela Molina>go looking. I bring her to Humboldt Park like to music, <v Adela Molina>piano, recorder. <v Adela Molina>But you know, if you don't go looking for well, of course, you're gonna be negative <v Adela Molina>all the time, say, well, there's nothing out there. <v Izzy Garcia>I grew up my whole life in this one whole are. <v Izzy Garcia>25 years in this whole area. I mean, without even really seeing the world, you know. <v Joe Montegna>Izzy Garcia house who broke away from the gang life in the corner when he began working <v Joe Montegna>for the YMCA now sees how limiting that world was. <v Izzy Garcia>You know, it feels like I'm getting out, you know, not like I felt trapped, you know, <v Izzy Garcia>right here on this map this may look big, but believe me, I know that's that's <v Izzy Garcia>a small area. I don't know how they made it look so big on the map but it's very small. <v Joe Montegna>Izzy's world is J.R.'s world. <v Joe Montegna>It may seem small, but the forces that helped shape it are not <v Joe Montegna>and they are of concern to us all.

<v Joe Montegna>In America today, 4 of every 10 black and Hispanic children live in poverty. <v Joe Montegna>And of these, 63 percent never finish high school. <v Joe Montegna>More significantly, half of all children born in America this year will live <v Joe Montegna>in a single parent family at some point in their lives. <v Joe Montegna>Although the breakdown of community affects us all, it's safe to say that nowhere <v Joe Montegna>has its impact been greater than in the family. <v Joe Montegna>And nowhere is American society more reluctant to intrude. <v Joan Costello>We're a unique country in our effort to make the privacy of the family <v Joan Costello>kind of a value beyond all others. <v Joan Costello>And that defeats us a little bit in our creativity in trying to create alternative social <v Joan Costello>arrangements that will support families raising kids today. <v Speaker>Once there was a tree <v Speaker>and she loved a little boy. <v Joe Montegna>The issue is crystallized just across the street from J.R.'s home at a Lutheran <v Joe Montegna>daycare center.

<v Speaker>We've got to figure out and build into the normal ebb and flow <v Speaker>of daily life for kids, nurturing kind of activities <v Speaker>that help them grow. In many ways, it will make them <v Speaker>feel cared about. <v Speaker>While parents are off working. <v Rosemary Bidne>When I was growing up, we had grandma or we had, you know, the supports of an aunt or <v Rosemary Bidne>uncle who could help out with child care. <v Rosemary Bidne>A lot of our families don't have that anymore. <v Rosemary Bidne>There is not grandma or grandpa. There is not Aunti Linda, there's not the extended <v Rosemary Bidne>family to help. So parents are really it's very hard. <v Speaker>Mama I didn't do anything. <v Nelly>Park it. You want me to give you a nice real good reason to cry? 'cause I will. <v Nelly>Cats, dogs, kids. Oh, God. If I don't <v Nelly>beg 'em for them to change those birds they don't do it. <v Nelly>You've got barrettes don't you? You've vuelitas don't you? <v Nelly>Get. <v Speaker>There ain't no vuelita. <v Speaker>[mocking]

<v Joe Montegna>Nelly's life provides an absorbing study of the kinds of problems haunting someone who <v Joe Montegna>from childhood has had to face the world without much love or support from <v Joe Montegna>family or community. <v Joe Montegna>She doesn't whine about it or blame anybody else, but her story does <v Joe Montegna>reveal much about our traditional approaches to helping people in trouble <v Joe Montegna>and why they need to be rethought. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly was born in Humboldt Park 32 years ago and quickly abandoned <v Joe Montegna>by her mother. <v Nelly>That was four months old and to me, it sounded like she did <v Nelly>want any part of me. <v Nelly>That's what I got out of it. <v Joe Montegna>She was raised by her grandmother, who she thought was her real mother until she was 12 <v Joe Montegna>years old. When she learned the truth she felt betrayed. <v Nelly>When I really, really realized it I felt stupid. <v Nelly>You go your own way because you figure you're not good enough for them. <v Nelly>You do your own thing, even if you know it's wrong.

<v Nelly>If they tell you not to look through that door. <v Nelly>The hell with you, you don't care. And you're gonna go look through it anyway. <v Nelly>At least to spite them. Haha you told me not to do this, I'm gonna do it. <v Nelly>That's why I did it. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly's gym teacher at Chopin Grammar School remembers her at that time. <v Larry Arshansky>She was one of the most scrawny young ladies I think I've ever come in contact <v Larry Arshansky>with. However, she had a a voice volume <v Larry Arshansky>that was a 6 foot 5 trucker. <v Larry Arshansky>And those are things that you ordinarily do not forget. <v Joe Montegna>Although her mother had had other children. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly was raised as an only child by her grandparents, old country Puerto <v Joe Montegna>Ricans who had trouble keeping her in line. <v Joe Montegna>Her counselor at Roberto Clemente High School remembers her fondly. <v Margaret Demopoulos>She does stand out because she was kind of different, <v Margaret Demopoulos>a lot older in it in then than her years would make her <v Margaret Demopoulos>out to be. She seemed to have had a lot of experiences in life and

<v Margaret Demopoulos>she seemed to be hurting in a lot of ways that she would never verbalize. <v Margaret Demopoulos>And when she did drop out of school, I was very disappointed because she had potential. <v Nelly>I was pregnant from Lily's father and I wanted to stay home with the baby because it was <v Nelly>the right thing to do. So, and she was mine. <v Joe Montegna>Just before turning 18, pregnant and unwed, she applied <v Joe Montegna>for public aid. <v Nelly>They're saying that I'm not qualified and they left me like four to six <v Nelly>months without any income. <v Joe Montegna>Her grandparents, who were preparing to retire to Puerto Rico, refused <v Joe Montegna>her any help. <v Nelly>They felt like they all said it was a mistake to deal with it. <v Joe Montegna>Feeling abandoned and forlorn with a new baby, no family, and no <v Joe Montegna>source of income. A year and a half after dropping out. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly ended up next door to Clemente High School in the mental health ward <v Joe Montegna>of St. Mary's Hospital. <v Joe Montegna>The victim of a failed suicide attempt.

<v Nelly>OD-ed on a whole mess of pills. <v Speaker>Did you really want to take yourself out of that point you think? <v Nelly>No, I think I was just trying to hurt the people around me more or less. <v Nelly>I knew they weren't gonna let me, ya know, maybe I knew I don't know, 'cause I did a <v Nelly>pretty good job. I almost made it. <v Joe Montegna>She then met, Iran, fell in love and had three more children. <v Joe Montegna>Starting with J.R. <v Nelly>I want to stop the mistakes that they, that I figured they made with me, I won't do with <v Nelly>my kids. Ya know? You know it's there, but it shouldn't <v Nelly>get in the way. Even though sometimes it does but it shouldn't. <v Nelly>It's very hard. You don't come with um instructions. <v Nelly>So, you know, you have to go by hearsay or by what you think it's right <v Nelly>and it's not always right, but it's real hard. <v Joe Montegna>But things didn't get better. <v Joe Montegna>Iran wasn't helping out much in the home and four kids doomed her occasional <v Joe Montegna>efforts to get a steady job or go back to school and get off welfare.

<v Joe Montegna>Then four years ago, Rosie fell from a second floor <v Joe Montegna>window and everything fell apart. <v Nelly>I can not explain if she was pushed of if she just sat or fell, <v Nelly>you know, 'cause little angel was there and he was smaller. <v Nelly>So the house was a wreck because I had been sick and me and Iran know <v Nelly>we're not on good terms. So the police came and Rosie was taken to the <v Nelly>hospital and I went with her and at the hospital I was arrested, was <v Nelly>put under arrest, ya know, for child neglect. <v Nelly>They thought I pushed Rosie. <v Nelly>So from there, they didn't let me budge. <v Nelly>I felt like a failure. <v Nelly>I walked into the house, the kids are not there? <v Nelly>I started drinking heavily, ya know, among <v Nelly>other little things. <v Joe Montegna>Charged with neglect, the children were taken away from Nelly for nine months. <v Joe Montegna>Not everyone thinks this was an appropriate solution.

<v Jerry Stermer>That's such a stupid response in that what we ought to do is fix <v Jerry Stermer>the window, work with the mom about safety issues and <v Jerry Stermer>and and see if we can't keep this family on <v Jerry Stermer>the road to to to a safer environment, not pour <v Jerry Stermer>all our money into ca- taking kids away from from families. <v Jerry Stermer>I mean, we've gotta re-think this thing. <v Jerry Stermer>Broken window child falls out, fix the window. <v Joe Montegna>Madeline Garcia, Nelly's assigned caseworker from DCFS <v Joe Montegna>the state's Department of Children and Family Services, remembers thinking <v Joe Montegna>the first time she met Nelly. <v Madeline Garcia>Why me? Why did I get stuck with this case? <v Madeline Garcia>This is not going to be an easy case to work with. <v Madeline Garcia>And Nelly was not going to make my job easy. <v Madeline Garcia>At the very first moment, she informed me that um people <v Madeline Garcia>were not going to tell her what she had to do, and if she felt she needed to do it, she <v Madeline Garcia>would do it. And if not, then it was just children's tough luck

<v Madeline Garcia>and our tough luck. And the other thing I believe that she was trying to tell me is that <v Madeline Garcia>she's had about enough of people coming into her home and <v Madeline Garcia>um trying to tell her what she needs to do. <v Joe Montegna>As part of the process of winning her kids back from the state, she was required to <v Joe Montegna>attend parenting classes at Association House. <v Joe Montegna>In the 10 years she had been out on her own, Nelly had given birth to <v Joe Montegna>and lost custody of four children, lived in some 20 different homes, <v Joe Montegna>become a case number in the huge bureaucracies of the departments of public aid, <v Joe Montegna>mental health, Children and Family Services and police. <v Joe Montegna>She was surviving, but the future did not look promising. <v Joe Montegna>And despite the efforts of a string of well-intentioned but essentially forced and <v Joe Montegna>fleeting interventions by professional social workers, frustrating for everyone involved, <v Joe Montegna>she and her family appeared doomed to continue to fall through the <v Joe Montegna>cracks.

<v Kim Anderson>These people have been agencied to death, many of them from the day that they were born, <v Kim Anderson>there's not, you can't change 15 years in 15 minutes. <v Kim Anderson>And that's usually the longest amount of time that we have with these families. <v Joan Costello>We have more and more assumed that things will be done by paid professionals. <v Joan Costello>And, you know, people connect with other people is not not never anything we're gonna do <v Joan Costello>for kids that's enough unless there are people there willing to connect. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly was one of the lucky ones. <v Joe Montegna>While many continue to fall through the cracks of a social service system that is itself <v Joe Montegna>so fragmented that it rarely can see the family or its members as a whole. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly had found somebody willing to connect with her and her family, somebody <v Joe Montegna>to trust, and that made all the difference. <v Madeline Garcia>I think what what happened was that um Father Craig was available. <v Madeline Garcia>I think that Father Craig has been um a very important <v Madeline Garcia>person in her life. [music] [Song: Peace Prayer sung by Father Craig] <v Madeline Garcia>He's been the one that has been able to get Nelly to focus and to do

<v Madeline Garcia>what she needs to do. It's not easy and not even for Father Craig, I don't think it's <v Madeline Garcia>been easy. <v Joe Montegna>Father Larry Craig entered Nelly's life when her brothers were sent as children to the <v Joe Montegna>Audy home, Chicago's juvenile detention center, where he had served as chaplain <v Joe Montegna>for many years. He had been in touch with Nelly since she was 15, <v Joe Montegna>had given her frequent counsel and support, and in many ways became the father <v Joe Montegna>she never had. <v Nelly>Pretty much I got myself straight thanks to Father, he helped me out a lot. <v Nelly>He's the only person that really knows or has talked to me or has helped <v Nelly>me, and really doesn't expect anything back. <v Nelly>You know, just some courtesy. <v Joe Montegna>Rosie, who was not seriously injured, had been sent with Angel to separate <v Joe Montegna>foster homes after the accident, but the court sent Lillian and J.R. <v Joe Montegna>to stay with Father Craig, who had first taken J.R. <v Joe Montegna>into his home, when J.R. was five years old. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I knew the family and uh at that point, his uncles, one had already died,

<v Rev. Larry Craig>had been released from prison to die, had a tumor, and the other one was in prison <v Rev. Larry Craig>at that point. And I had known them all their lives. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And I knew where this was likely to go. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That's the reason we took that intervention. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So I it wasn't a surprise to me that he would be that he could be incorrigible. <v Nelly>J.R., go get it. <v Nelly>That a way. <v J.R.>Man why you hit me for, old lady? <v Speaker>Mommy, you're so uptight. <v Lily>That's not funny, you don't love me. You're not a loving parent. <v Lily>Get away from me. <v Nelly>Damn, say it but don't spray it. Pig. <v Lily>[laughing] I didn't spit on you. <v Nelly>J.R. give me the umbrella. <v Rev. Larry Craig>It's not that she doesn't love 'em, ya know, but her house is real loud. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Her grandmother used to yell at her all the time.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>Used to hit her with brooms and all that stuff. But if you get the kids together, they'll <v Rev. Larry Craig>all tell you that. Their mothers all throw these chanclas at them that are <v Rev. Larry Craig>like sandals and the oth- and all of their mothers know how to do this. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And it's not big, aggressive, tattooed ones, you know, it's all of 'em, the little quiet <v Rev. Larry Craig>ones. They can throw these sandals around corners, they can get you from 30 feet and <v Rev. Larry Craig>they'll tell you each one of the boys when we get them together and they laugh about it. <v Rev. Larry Craig>They've all be chancla-ed at some time in their life. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And it's a common experience. It's the way they were raised. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That's what I say about values. Is that wrong? <v Rev. Larry Craig>Ya know, they don't think it's wrong. You know, the state would say, you know, you hit <v Rev. Larry Craig>him like that and that's abuse, but none of the kids think it's abuse. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So there's a real subjective thing involved in this and the way we judge their families. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And in Nelly's case, there's no question that she loves these kids. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She doesn't always express it appropriately. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She doesn't always know what's the best thing for them. <v Rev. Larry Craig>But, you know, if if I were to call her now and just say, Nelly, J.R. <v Rev. Larry Craig>just was in a little accident in school, she would be down here. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She may not you know, you can't be sure when she's gonna be awake or any of those things

<v Rev. Larry Craig>at her house. But if she thinks there's something wrong, she is here. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And of course, she doesn't she can't respond. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She doesn't what to do when she's here, but she'll be here. <v Nelly>Go get me my black purse. <v Angel>Kiss my butt. Mommy, I said that to Lily, not you. <v Nelly>No no Nintendo for two days now. <v Angel>No, come on, Mommy, but Lily was bothering me. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Disciplining, signs of love, how do you show affection? <v Rev. Larry Craig>How do you be consistent and disciplined? <v Rev. Larry Craig>She never saw that. No one ever taught her. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And so even today, she's weak in that area. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So it's an undeveloped area but we all have undeveloped areas of our personality. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Hers tend to make her less functional because her main job is <v Rev. Larry Craig>raising a family. And those are the areas that she's weak in. <v Rev. Larry Craig>In other areas, she isn't. If you see her <v Rev. Larry Craig>helping somebody present themselves to welfare, she can be very good. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Very impressive because she knows all that stuff. <v Rev. Larry Craig>She can take a person who can't express himself well and do that for them.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>She can help a lot of times, help other people with their problems. <v Rev. Larry Craig>But she has trouble with her own problems. So in some areas she has grown and that's how <v Rev. Larry Craig>many of us have done it. We mature on some levels and other levels we don't. <v Joe Montegna>J.R. now lives during the week with Father Craig and three other boys in the rectory <v Joe Montegna>of Assumption Church on South California and goes to a Catholic school <v Joe Montegna>in Pilson. <v Nelly>It's real different, it's real different. <v Nelly>Father's culture is calm and collect. <v Nelly>Mine is screaming, loud, ya know, I guess the drinking and everything too, and also and ya know the way we were raised. So he was confused. <v Rev. Larry Craig>There's <v Rev. Larry Craig>no question that he'd be confused, but he doesn't talk about it. <v Rev. Larry Craig>This is like night and day. These are two completely different lifestyles. <v Joe Montegna>Iran also felt confused about J.R.'s going off to live with another father. <v Iran>He's my son. And usually he's used to see him every day in my house. <v Iran>But in other ways I feel better because, you know, it's uh I wouldn't say it's a <v Iran>better relationship. He's been since he was small he's always had that relationship with

<v Iran>father. He had more confidence, you know. We just uh what I'm tryin' to do is <v Iran>trying ya know bring him back towards where can have conference with me. <v Iran>So until I break that barrier, that's in between us, you know, just let it slowly. <v Iran>But it's working out okay. <v Iran>It's better than being around this neighborhood anyways really. <v J.R.>So he's trying to be around now. <v J.R.>My mother told me they like least give him the chance to prove that he's <v J.R.>our father. <v Joe Montegna>It is Sunday night and J.R. <v Joe Montegna>is getting ready to return to Father Craig's and thinking about his life. <v J.R.>She thinks I might turn into a gangbanger. She probably wouldn't care even if I did. <v J.R.>Father Craig, he cares for me and he just wakes us up and gets us to school. <v Joe Montegna>Father Craig is a busy man. <v Joe Montegna>He's pastor of Assumption BBM Church. <v Joe Montegna>He serves 780 families and also oversees Colby House, <v Joe Montegna>the prison ministry he started to further the work he has been doing for almost 25 years <v Joe Montegna>with youthful offenders.

<v Joe Montegna>He loves J.R., but he feels frustrated because J.R. <v Joe Montegna>has not yet been honest with him about his feelings. <v Joe Montegna>And without honesty, it's hard to trust him. <v Joe Montegna>We're real close to sending J.R. home for good. <v Joe Montegna>Everybody that meets him on our turf likes him. <v Joe Montegna>On the other hand, when you live with him, you realize that he hasn't bought in <v Joe Montegna>to this value system so that you're not sure what <v Joe Montegna>what's most important to him. Is this really who he is when he's here or is he really the <v Joe Montegna>way he is at home or is he not sure? <v Nelly>It scares me. <v Nelly>'Cause I don't know how to handle J.R. <v Nelly>and a part he doesn't want to come back. <v Nelly>There is, ya know, this part where he wants to stay, but then there's this <v Nelly>other part that says, I want to be here so. [beeping] <v Joe Montegna>It's just after 7:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. <v Joe Montegna>And Father Craig is helping J.R. and his roommates, David and Hosea, get <v Joe Montegna>ready to go to school.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>Let's go, let's go, let's go. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Come on, you guys you gotta take the bus today I got to minister. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Hurry up. You know where the clothes. Coats are in my room, Hosea, J.R. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Don't forget gym stuff, Hosea. Gym shoes. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Don't wear anything stupid, huh. <v Rev. Larry Craig>What your gonna embarrass me in school? Oh, that's <v Rev. Larry Craig>great. Take 'em right out of that dirty laundry. Now you can't wear these things. Are you nuts? <v Rev. Larry Craig>You know, if Nelly lived here, everything would be fine. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You know, we'd both go nuts, I'm sure. <v Rev. Larry Craig>But everything would be fine because I would control her life. <v Rev. Larry Craig>But the important thing is for her to get those controls internally so <v Rev. Larry Craig>that she controls her life because she wants to. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And that's what we're trying to do with J.R. and Hosea and David. <v Rev. Larry Craig>They're the most likable kids in the world, but what if I turn my back on him for a <v Rev. Larry Craig>second? They're destructive and they have to get like <v Rev. Larry Craig>every kid to the point where they control themselves, where I don't have to be there. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Are you sure these fit you?

<v J.R.>Yeah. I wore them last night. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Yea well if they fall off in gym class it's gonna be a riot. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Look at this. Look at this spelling stuff on the bus here. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Oh, J.R. are you missing something. <v J.R.>My glasses. <v Rev. Larry Craig>We'll put your glasses on. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He needs, well, as soon as he's out of here, they're off. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He won't wear 'em. And when he gets to school they won't be on. See then he's cool. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You know, See I can dress him up like that because when they're with a priest everybody <v Rev. Larry Craig>expects the to look dorky. See but when they're on their own, then they have to be that. <v Joe Montegna>Father Craig helped buy eyeglasses, not just for J.R., but for everybody <v Joe Montegna>in Nelly's family. <v Joe Montegna>He also pays for J.R., as well as Nellie's other children, to attend Catholic schools. <v Joe Montegna>The tuition coming out of his own modest salary. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Ya know we got a game today too. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Come back on the bus. Come back immediately on the bus 'cause we leave at 3:30. <v Kids>Okay. Bye. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Bye. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Too much. He can be deep. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He Can be sensitive.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>He can care about people. <v Rev. Larry Craig>But still, he has trouble with school. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He doesn't like school. School's not a big value in his social group, <v Rev. Larry Craig>and that's always a problem. We found that with a lot of our kids that are in trouble <v Rev. Larry Craig>school is that that's where it happens. <v Rev. Larry Craig>If they're good in school and they're tied into the school in any way, either <v Rev. Larry Craig>academically or socially or sports wise. <v Rev. Larry Craig>They generally don't get in trouble. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That's just how it happens. And in his case, because he has that thing <v Rev. Larry Craig>about school not liking it. And he's already a year behind. <v Rev. Larry Craig>See then that's a worry for us. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And then values, you know, when the kids were little and they used to play games, you <v Rev. Larry Craig>know how kids play pretend games. What you gonna be when you grow up? <v Rev. Larry Craig>And you wanna be a doctor and lawyer and all that kind of jazz? <v Rev. Larry Craig>Well, he was, he was sitting there and he wanted to work in a cardboard box factory. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So that's kind of his goal for life. Well what the heck kind of goal is that? <v Rev. Larry Craig>So you don't have to have a lot of school to be putting together cardboard boxes. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So school was just not important to him. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And then there is there's a lot of emotional kind of upheaval in the family.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>There's been a lot of trauma. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And he's picked up this. He's never been real good at expressing his feelings. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That's the main problem that we're having right now, that he uh you can't get <v Rev. Larry Craig>him to say what he really what's going to what he really feels. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And that's a real dangerous element. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You can experience a lot of bad things in life, but if you're able to talk about it with <v Rev. Larry Craig>somebody, um you can get through it. <v Rev. Larry Craig>If you're not talking, ya know, then we don't know. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And I think that's one of the reasons why we're worried about where he could go. <v Rev. Larry Craig>All right. So let's go do some layups. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Listen carefully to me when I'm yelling to you. <v Joe Montegna>The junior team from J.R.'s school is playing in a basketball league at St Agnus. <v Joe Montegna>Father Craig coaches J.R.'s team, and although it <v Joe Montegna>consumes a lot of time, he doesn't know how to stop. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I feel guilty all the time that they're growing up not knowing any kind of skills 'cause <v Rev. Larry Craig>no one ever showed him how to play. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So there's a chance for me to spend some time with them. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And then these other kids, they had a coach and then he he only lasted a week or two and

<v Rev. Larry Craig>then he pulled out. So they had the uniforms, the league and all that stuff and they <v Rev. Larry Craig>didn't have any coach. So they they leaned on me to take <v Rev. Larry Craig>it. But the experience is really good for them. <v Dr. Jack Raba>The most important thing here is to stop them from scoring. <v Joe Montegna>Dr. Jack Raba, who went to Quigley seminary with Father Craig, <v Joe Montegna>he now is medical director of the Cook County Jail and coaches the other team. <v Dr. Jack Raba>I see what happens when there aren't structured programs for children, especially young <v Dr. Jack Raba>boys in the neighborhoods in Chicago and the kids that don't make it end up being under <v Dr. Jack Raba>my care at Cook County Jail. [whislte blows]. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Alright, come on, David, come on. <v Dr. Jack Raba>Looking at the 10 years of coaching that we've coached, maybe 140, 160 boys <v Dr. Jack Raba>and so far only one has ended up in jail. <v Dr. Jack Raba>And I don't think you could show that for the rest of the neighborhood. <v Dr. Jack Raba>I think it just stands out that this group, once they get to our level and we can keep <v Dr. Jack Raba>them for a few more years. Most of these will stay out of trouble. <v Dr. Jack Raba>Some of 'em go on to college. And the only kids that I know in this neighborhood that

<v Dr. Jack Raba>have gone on to college were students that Larry, Father Craig or I coached at sometime <v Dr. Jack Raba>during the course of their grammar school times. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Don't look for the shot, okay? They look for the man. <v Rev. Larry Craig>If there's no man and you get a shot, take the shot. <v Rev. Larry Craig>The rest of your game is fine, okay? Now watch what they're doing. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You're doing fine, Dave. Nice play, huh? You're doing fine. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I think you would see if you watched them play, how much they like this, ya know, being <v Rev. Larry Craig>out there in a structured setting and uh with referees <v Rev. Larry Craig>and all that stuff. It's the first time that any of these three <v Rev. Larry Craig>boys have been on a team. <v Rev. Larry Craig>So it's, ya know, that makes it even more important to 'em. <v Dr. Jack Raba>Come on, Lyle, wake up. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Alright, don't admire yourself J.R, get on defense. Get up here. <v Dr. Jack Raba>I'd rather spend a little time working with kids in neighborhoods and children such as <v Dr. Jack Raba>you saw today at Providence. Maybe some of them won't end up in Cook County Jail because <v Dr. Jack Raba>of some of the efforts that volunteers like myself have done. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Congratulations, to all you guys. Nice job.

<v David>So you put divided by? <v Rev. Larry Craig>Yeah, it already was divided by and then you inverted it. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You turn this one upside down and then multiply it. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Isn't that what you're doing? <v Rev. Larry Craig>If this meatloaf burns, buddy, it's gonna be because of your subtraction. <v Joe Montegna>When the kids come home after the basketball game, they start their homework. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Oh yeah, and, you know, you know what you're supposed to be doing? <v Rev. Larry Craig>How many paragraphs? More or less. <v J.R.>Like 8, or 8 or 7. <v Rev. Larry Craig>What's a paragraph? Paragraph's about this long? <v Rev. Larry Craig>Alright. <v Joe Montegna>Father Craig is torn over what to do about J.R., his poor performance <v Joe Montegna>in school and his refusal to talk about the things that most bother him. <v Joe Montegna>Make Father Craig wonder sometimes if he's made any progress at all. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And because of that, it's hard for me to continue to live with him, because what foresee <v Rev. Larry Craig>is five years from now, I foresee this guy trying to drive my car, see? <v Rev. Larry Craig>Crashin' my car up, you know, bringing girls to my house. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You know, who knows what's going to happen and that foreseeing that makes me real

<v Rev. Larry Craig>nervous. But, you know, there's three kids that live here and <v Rev. Larry Craig>Hosea is kind of in the middle, too. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He just can't make up his mind whether this is what he wants to do. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Although, he seems a little closer than J.R. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And the third one, David. This is where David wants to be. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And once they decide this is where they want to be and this is how they want to live. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Then everything changes. With David, I have confidence in him. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I know that he'll be driving my car when he's 16 if he's still here. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You know, I I trust him to go places. I know he's doing what he says he's gonna do. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And if J.R. can make that jump. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And the question for us is is it too late for him? <v Rev. Larry Craig>It may well be. <v Rev. Larry Craig>In the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. <v Rev. Larry Craig>It's one of the only times we're really on an average day do we get to see each other <v Rev. Larry Craig>because they're in school and they do their homework and they do their homework and <v Rev. Larry Craig>they go to bed. And I have appointments and I'm not around. <v Rev. Larry Craig>[chanting/singing] <v Joe Montegna>After dinner, Father Craig and the boys attend a special service, one of a series

<v Joe Montegna>of Novena's Assumption church held to pray for peace in the Persian Gulf. <v Joe Montegna>[chanting/singing] After the service, J.R. <v Joe Montegna>And the other boys returned to the rectory to finish their home. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He just told me that the other day, he says, I want to come back here for my future. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Pfft, I said, your future, you know? <v Rev. Larry Craig>What, kid, you know, that age is thinking about his future, ya know, but he he thinks he <v Rev. Larry Craig>has to and that's that's an unfortunate sign. <v Rev. Larry Craig>And I know David's worried about that, too and Hosea. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That they believe that they could live in their houses, but they really <v Rev. Larry Craig>wouldn't do as well in school if they stayed there. <v Rev. Larry Craig>That's kind of sad, you know, because that's an internal control thing again. <v Rev. Larry Craig>You want it you want to believe that if they lived in a tent, if they wanted to, they <v Rev. Larry Craig>could finish. <v Rev. Larry Craig>J.R. <v J.R.>Yes? <v Rev. Larry Craig>What are you doing? <v J.R.>I'm cleaning out the soap. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Get out of the shower, man. You're gonna shrivel up into a prune.

<v Rev. Larry Craig>You got this door locked, come on. If I had never known him, he might, most likely would <v Rev. Larry Craig>not have finished high school. Might not have gone to high school and would probably be <v Rev. Larry Craig>ya know, sittin' on the front step drinking beer, if not involved in crime or something. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Now, wouldn't it be wise to find a middle ground between what <v Rev. Larry Craig>I would like to see for him as any parent would for their children and what might have <v Rev. Larry Craig>happened? So if we have a more realistic goal, if I can get J.R. <v Rev. Larry Craig>to finish high school, that doesn't seem like much of a goal in this society, <v Rev. Larry Craig>but it's a very big goal in a neighborhood where 75 percent of the kids don't finish high <v Rev. Larry Craig>school. If he could finish high school and get a job, if <v Rev. Larry Craig>he could relate to other people, you know, so what if he doesn't go to symphonies, <v Rev. Larry Craig>you know? What if he doesn't get heavily into sports? <v Rev. Larry Craig>What if he doesn't have white walls and hang plants in his house? <v Rev. Larry Craig>If he can at least be basically happy and have accomplished that minimal <v Rev. Larry Craig>amount of things and it maybe his kid will finish college

<v Rev. Larry Craig>and go on. You know, that's that's how we're thinking now. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I'm trying to adjust to that because my my inclination as a parent, you know, <v Rev. Larry Craig>is you want the limit. <v Joe Montegna>You don't have to wander very far from J.R.'s House in Humboldt Park to see that <v Joe Montegna>for many kids, having somebody in their life like Father Craig has <v Joe Montegna>made all the difference. <v Carl Harrington>Most of the children in my neighborhood that I grew up with are either out of jobs <v Carl Harrington>or on some sort of drug. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Someone made a difference in the life of Carl Harrington. <v Rev. Larry Craig>As a teenager he helped design, draw, paint and write poetry for this <v Rev. Larry Craig>mural, which is just around the corner from J.R.'s house. <v Rev. Larry Craig>It was created in the summer of 1979, the year J.R. <v Rev. Larry Craig>was born and the International Year of the Child. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Working on it brought profound changes in Harrington's life. <v Carl Harrington>After the mural, I was not satisfied with going back to the lifestyle

<v Carl Harrington>I was used to. Therefore I sought employment and I got hired <v Carl Harrington>as a messenger of the law office. <v Joe Montegna>Harrington, who still works for the same law office now as a paralegal, <v Joe Montegna>recently graduated from Chicago State University and is on his way to Kent <v Joe Montegna>Law School. <v Carl Harrington>Working on this mural made me realize that <v Carl Harrington>I uh can do anything that I wanted to do, so as long as I applied myself <v Carl Harrington>and made an effort. <v Joe Montegna>Artist Jon Weber oversaw the mural project. <v John Weber>For many of these young people, it might have been the first major thing <v John Weber>that they had actually seen successfully through to completion. <v John Weber>Now, I don't think there's anything that builds success better than success. <v Joe Montegna>Someone made a difference in the life of his, Esmagde Cristia, <v Joe Montegna>commander of 250 officers in the 14th Police District. <v Joe Montegna>An Hispanic police officer taught him when he was a teenager that all doors

<v Joe Montegna>were not closed to him just because he was growing up along Division Street with a <v Joe Montegna>Spanish accent. <v Esmagde Cristia>It was amazing because, you know, in those days when this officer was speaking to me, <v Esmagde Cristia>he also had a Hispanic accent. <v Esmagde Cristia>And that was always one of the complexes that I had. <v Esmagde Cristia>I was afraid to to move forward and challenge things, but <v Esmagde Cristia>I realized that he had done it. So I went after it and I hope I could do <v Esmagde Cristia>the same to other kids. <v Joe Montegna>And somebody made a difference in the life of Alfonso Ortiz. <v Alfonso Ortiz>Bobby Corriveau at that time was one of the Puerto Rican's older blood champion. <v Alfonso Ortiz>He told me to come over here and I start coming here and I liked it, <v Alfonso Ortiz>which is good about it is no drug, good discipline. <v Alfonso Ortiz>You feel good, important. You go to pages, everybody says hi to you. <v Alfonso Ortiz>This Ortiz the Golden Gloves champion. Oh he won't let, they rod you, and you want to do <v Alfonso Ortiz>more and you want to do more and the kids in the neighborhood they want to be like you.

<v Alfonso Ortiz>They want to be fireman. <v Alfonso Ortiz>There's as a matter of fact, three years ago, I trained about 20 kids here. <v Alfonso Ortiz>Nine of them are firemen right now. <v Joe Montegna>In some ways, J.R. is lucky. <v Joe Montegna>There are thousands of kids just like him out there. <v Joe Montegna>At the same fork in the road, who don't have anybody caring or pulling for them to <v Joe Montegna>go the right way. The critical question for us as a community is <v Joe Montegna>what can we do to help all of our kids thrive, especially <v Joe Montegna>those who may not be getting everything they need at home? <v Joe Montegna>What does it take, in other words, to produce a healthy human being? <v Speaker>The kid needs one other human being who invests <v Speaker>no holds barred who believes in that kid, and who'll stick with that <v Speaker>kid. And the best chance is a parent <v Speaker>but somebody else can do it. <v Joe Montegna>Simply put, what we have to do is find more ways to increase

<v Joe Montegna>the chances for kids coming out of troubled homes to make contact somewhere <v Joe Montegna>in their lives with caring adults. <v Speaker>It could be a minister. It could be a playground leader. <v Speaker>It could be a drama teacher. It could be a choir leader. <v Speaker>These are all possibilities. And in some communities, we don't have that and we have to <v Speaker>provide the kinds of um opportunities for kids where <v Speaker>we may have to, in effect, make up for it. <v Joe Montegna>Will, J.R. end up being a success story. <v Joe Montegna>There are some hopeful signs. <v Joe Montegna>Nelly registered for classes at St. Augustine College this spring and is taking courses <v Joe Montegna>toward her high school degree. <v Joe Montegna>She wants to be a social worker and get off welfare. <v Speaker>How did you find out about this school? <v Nelly>My girlfriend comes here. <v Joe Montegna>After more than two years of waiting, Iran finally headed back to the hospital to <v Joe Montegna>be fitted for a prostheses. <v Nelly>Maybe things will change after he gets his leg. <v Nelly>Maybe you know he can handle it better. <v Joe Montegna>Most importantly, Iran and Nellie are communicating better

<v Joe Montegna>and trying to pull more together. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I think it's more that the parents aren't always able to assure the kids that they really <v Rev. Larry Craig>still do love them and not to worry about this. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Be secure because we really still are tight. <v Rev. Larry Craig>Because, look, it has been 12 years. <v Rev. Larry Craig>I mean, we may be yelling at each other and everything, but we've been doing this for 12 <v Rev. Larry Craig>years and we always come back to each other and we don't have anyone else seen. <v Rev. Larry Craig>See, that's never happened where they've gone off and lived with somebody else, it's <v Rev. Larry Craig>uh stormy, but it's steady. <v Joe Montegna>Things are looking up for the younger kids. <v Joe Montegna>Rosie, unlike her older sister, Lillian, is getting into the Girl Scouts. <v Joe Montegna>And despite the threats, he's going to send him back home for good. <v Joe Montegna>J.R. is still living during the week with Father Craig. <v Nelly>J.R.'s Got a better chance than us right now. <v Nelly>See, J.R.'s chances would be depending on him because he's getting opportunities <v Nelly>that none of us ever had before. <v Nelly>He's getting a chance. He's getting a different horizon, okay?

<v Nelly>He gets people to talk to who wants to talk to, but he won't. <v Rev. Larry Craig>He shows signs that he's making the jump and then some signs that he's not and <v Rev. Larry Craig>so I can't honestly be sure whether he's going to pull out of it or not. <v Joe Montegna>Out of all this one thing is clear it <v Joe Montegna>is not just J.R. who's at a fork in the road. <v Joe Montegna>It is J.R. It is Iran. <v Joe Montegna>It is Nelly. It is the entire family and <v Joe Montegna>it is the community. <v Joe Montegna>Because what's out there for J.R., in a real sense, <v Joe Montegna>is what's out there for us all. <v Joe Montegna>[music] [Song: Sadeness by Enigma]