NY at-risk child plan comes to Far South Side

After he arrived Saturday for a visit from New York City, renowned educator Geoffrey Canada saw hope in the broken blocks of Roseland and in the South Side school near where 16-year-old Derrion Albert was beaten to death less than two years ago.
The scene of boarded-up houses, rampant poverty and streets beset by gang violence reminded Canada of New York’s  long-troubled Harlem neighborhood, which he helped transform during the 1990s, making his “Harlem Children’s Zone” a national model for urban education reforms.
If it could be done in Harlem, it can happen in Roseland, Canada told an audience of about 100 gathered to hear him speak at Christian Fenger Academy High School, where Albert attended.

“It’s not like we could do this in Harlem and there’s something so different with what you’re all dealing with here that you can’t do the same thing,” Canada told the group of teachers and community organizers.

“Nobody’s coming to do it for you,” Canada said. “If you all don’t do it, it won’t get done.”
The message was just what organizers at the SGA Youth & Family Services hoped the residents of Roseland would hear.
The nonprofit organization is launching its own “Roseland Children’s Initiative” that is modeled after Canada’s project in New York, an effort the South Side group’s leaders hope will nurture Roseland children “from cradle to career,” while combatting gun violence and gang activity.
“It’s almost identical,” said Roseland Children’s Initiative project Manager David Patton.
“There’s going to have to be a stand that men have to take to take back their communities.”
On Saturday, audience members clapped for Canada when he drew from his own upbringing in a poor family living in The Bronx section of New York. He recalled having no money to get to a dentist to treat his rotten teeth and being distracted in the classroom after peers threatened him.
The students who live in Canada’s Harlem zone always have access to a dentist, and can participate in anti-obesity and mental health programs, in addition to attending safe, extended-day schools that encourage parental involvement, he said.
“This is about what decent people do,” Canada. “We provide those services for young people because you know what? They’re our kids.”
Patton, 49, said he grew up poor on Chicago’s South Side, where he also raised seven children. He said watching the gangs and gun shootings permeate neighborhoods throughout the years moved him to take the helm of the Roseland project.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “We want to tackle the issues.”
On Monday, Patton and his staff will open an office at 10924 S. Halsted Ave. The group hopes Roseland families with a range of needs – from job searches to social service resources -- will drop in, he said.
“We are there for the long haul,” Patton said