Youth Participate in 6 Week Crossfit Course
This summer, youth from our different sports programs participated in a 6 week CrossFit course hosted by South Loop Strength & Conditioning. The youth learned the proper way of conducting certain exercises and the importance of physical and mental health. The program also motivated them to seek a healthier lifestyle.
“I learned a lot of different exercises every week. Another thing was how to do the exercises correctly, so I won’t hurt myself in the future," said Bryan.
Volunteer Spotlight: Maria
"It is very gratifying to have been able to serve for these many years in my Little Village community. There are many needs here and I am happy to help at any moment"
Maria Delgado is one of our Pan de Vida volunteers. She is known by many in the neighborhood for teaching aerobics. We call her “la maestra”. Maria has been a faithful volunteer for more than 10 years. She may be small in stature, but her contagious energy rivals anyone else on the team. "It is very gratifying to have been able to serve for these many years in my Little Village community. There are many needs here and I am happy to help at any moment," shares Maria about her experience. Maria feels blessed by those who come, even as she is a blessing to others.
La Semilla Returns to In-Person Programming
La Semilla now moved to three days of in-person programming in place of virtual programming. We are so excited to continue serving the youth and their parents throughout the pandemic. We are back to afterschool settings and offer kickback time where students are able to hang out with peers and share about life, homework help, social-emotional learning, bible lesson, and gym/park time for physical activity and team-building skills. It's been so fun to have the laughter and connections back in our space!
The Impact of Mentoring & Coaching
With Baseball underway the young men are conditioning, working together, and playing the game! Xavier has been playing for the Little Village league for four years. When asked what he liked most about the league he said "Every coach, every mentor is loving and open. It feels like a family. Everyone is very close close-knit and easy to talk to."
Working together on and off the field helps build a community. Everyone fighting for the same goal, and wishing the best for all involved.In the future Xavier would like to see more mentors and the continuation of building the family.
GEMS Builds Connections Through Art
Last week the GEMS women, used paint to express the different emotions and situations that the young ladies have experienced. Each canvas was rotated in a circle between each GEM, each girl got to leave their mark on someone else's canvas. As the girls shared, it was a reminder that the GEMS room is a safe space where you can come as you are.
They are a community of women who love and support each other through this journey of life. The young ladies have shared their joys and pains, and it was beautiful because that's what GEMS stands for: empowering young ladies to use their stories of hope, joy, pain, and endurance. Both middle school and high school GEMS did a great job of being honest and open and using some of our values through the activity.
Seeking Healing - Walk With Adam Toledo
As a tribute to Adam’s life, the Walk With Adam Toledo was held on April 18. The walk was community-organized, lead, and attended. With multiple local businesses donating more than 4,000 flowers for the event. Elie Amador, who has been involved with New Life since childhood and now is one of our Pan De Vida Assistant’s said, “I got to watch our huge pile of flowers grow and grow throughout the weekend. Which was a special thing to me as I started to process everything, the flowers became a visual for unity.” She went on to say, “peace is what we want and we are going to get it together”. Hear more about the Walk With Adam Toledo in the video Real America with Jorge Ramos.
We are stronger together and we have to heal together. There have been many different opinions on what actions should be taken to help the healing start on a systematic level. These different viewpoints in the community have been highlighted well in this article by the Chicago Tribune. However, we have seen what proactive violence prevention through street outreach, mentoring, and authentic relationships can do.
We need change that invests first in youth in a way that sees the youth as family, as themselves, and as our future. As Benny Estrada, the director of Street outreach, shares in the article “[Police departments] want to put them in jail and we want to keep them out of jail.” We want our youth to know they have people in their corner, who love them, who will fight for them, and who will walk with them every step of the way. This is our commitment.
Learning to Mourn
This month we lost a friend and classmate. Although she wasn’t a program participant at The Vine, she was known and loved by many in our community and at the Chicago Public School that we partner heavily within the Humboldt Park Community. Jaslyn Adams was only seven years old and her life was cut short by the brokenness and violence that is present in our lives every day. The week following her death, many of our students and their parents needed time to process this deep loss.
The staff at New Life Centers created intentional space each day and then also informally throughout the day for the students to ask questions, share anything and everything on their hearts, and support them through this tragic loss.
Amidst the pain, beauty was born. As the students processed and mourned, one family brought a poster in for everyone to write notes of sympathy. It was a small gesture but brought so much meaning to the week. The poster and balloons were then brought to a balloon release in memory of Jaslyn. Community members shared about her life, prayers were said, and a call to action was given to grow as a community together through this loss.
Please join us as we continue to pray for healing in our community and for sweet Jaslyn’s family.
The Hope Squad
Even though in-person and web programming at Illinois Youth Corrections (IYC), St Charles has been happening during this season of Covid, the partners gathering together hasn’t happened since before Covid. As a means to connect with each other, the Hope Squad recently got to meet over pizza and bowling!
To reconnect, and share stories about the work they have been going at the juvenile prison. We’d like to reintroduce you to the team doing restorative justice programming to incarcerated youth at IYC St. Charles (from left to right):
- Michael Rodriguez from Segundo Belvis Ruiz Cultural Center teaches Latin percussion classes.
- Shaneika Tolliver from New Life Centers is a Reentry and Family Engagement Coordinator.
- Amy Williams from New Life Centers is the Project Coordinator for IYC St Charles Project.
- Joseph Mapp from Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation who leads Peace Circles.
- Andrew Sentamu from Abantu Arts Fusion teaches Art classes
- Nina Lopez from New Life Centers is the Director of Operations
- David Todd from Groomfly Barbers teaches Barber workshops on Mondays
Not present in the photo are Ozivell Ecfors from Ozilamont Photography and Media Solutions who teaches theater classes and the students from the University of Chicago IOP who do the Bridge Writing Program.
They would love the continue to pray for New Life Staff, and the instructors as they mentor, teach and bring hope to the youth in the St Charles juvenile facility.
Adam Toledo, a Letter of Lament
‘“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)
Chicagoland, we failed Adam Toledo, we are failing each other, and we are failing ourselves.
Words cannot express the grief and sorrow we feel at Adam’s tragic death. Our collective grief reverberates through our bodies only beginning to absorb the trauma of a 13-year old boy shot and killed by police. We remember Adam’s life and mourn his death; all through a constant onslaught of hurt, anger, opinions, noise, blame, and guilt. And despite it all, we are left with his loss.
Loss for the Toledo family, our families, our neighborhood, our city, and our world.
Without Adam – a son, brother, student, neighbor, friend, and image-bearer of God.
There is no righting this pain.
We need accountability.
We ask for your accountability where we are failing to love, serve, and protect the young people in our community through our actions and inactions.
We demand accountability of the Chicago Police Department through a transparent investigation and just application of the law.
And we need so much more.
We need time to grieve and mourn.
We need to heal from our trauma.
We need each other.
We need justice.
We need peace.
We need to transform our unjust and racist systems.
We cannot normalize the sin of racial inequity that makes Chicago the city with the largest life-expectancy gap in this country.
We cannot normalize the killings of black and brown bodies by the very department our tax dollars fund to protect us.
We cannot normalize the disinvestment from communities of color that starves young people from opportunities to realize their dreams.
We need to reimagine.
We need to recreate.
It is easy to sit and give opinions, rant, and blame one another; but, there’s a lot of work to do and the work is hard.
The work of love.
The work of justice.
The work of healing.
Toledo Family, we commit to do better.
Chicagoland, we need to do better, together.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
