A view of Chicago’s imposing skyline.
“It’s not the typical spring break, by any means. It’s inner-city Chicago; there’s nothing like it here. We get to know those kids. It opens our eyes to stuff that doesn’t happen here,” Nikki Byer, a junior in elementary education, said of her spring break.
Members of UW’s Campus Ventures spent their break in Chicago to introduce students to life’s realities there and help repair the area’s physical and emotional damage.
Campus Ventures, a recognized student organization dedicated to spreading Christian ministry and encouraging fellowship, worked in part with Urban Youth Outreach and Harper High School, one of the schools in Chicago’s inner-city. According to NPR’s “This American Life” radio program, Harper’s attendance area includes at least 15 gangs that are not oriented towards drug trafficking but instead by which neighborhoods they were born into.
“We were crossing lines gang members can’t cross,” Campus Ventures advisor Cody Johnson said. “If you’re on this certain block then you’re in this gang. It’s not like the mafia. It’s something that you’re born into.”
This area’s gang and gun violence has sparked national interest as President Barack Obama traveled there to speak on urban gun violence. “This American Life” also produced two episodes aired concurrently with Obama’s stay.
“For everything we’ve all heard about children and gun violence, there are basic things we don’t hear so much about, like what it’s like to live in neighborhoods that have to cope with so much bloodshed,” host Ira Glass said. “This is a school that knows this problem in a way that most of us around the country don’t.”
But why would a college student go to such a place?
“It seemed like something I could do that would have a tangible impact. I didn’t want to spend my spring break just for myself,” Byer said. “There was also the danger aspect of it that made it more of an adventure because everything was up to God.”
Those who live in an area like this lead a different life from what is accustomed to in Wyoming. Many kids under the age of 20 are running gang activities.
“One of the things that gets me is how can someplace get to a situation where 10 to 20 year olds are running the streets?” Johnson said. “At that age, they don’t really know how to do things; they don’t know how to get out of it.”
Reaching out to the people in these situations is normally met with success. That is one function of Urban Youth Outreach, a permanent ministry in the Southside of Chicago.
“The ministry represents hope,” Johnson said. “No matter what happens on the outside, someone loves you. It’s difficult for them because when they leave they’re back in the warzone. They have a difficult time trusting people. They’re not used to support. They’re from a place you don’t find unconditional love.”
The students who went to Chicago stayed with the Urban Youth Outreach and they taught Vacation Bible School at a place called “The Yard.” There, students read Bible stories to kids in the afternoons. The children were given a chance to artistically represent the stories as a way to get them more engaged.
“There was a giant sheet of paper that they could all draw on. The kids really latched onto being able to draw the story as we told it,” Byer said. “We asked them questions like, ‘Why does this story matter to you?’”
Byer said the experience has changed her idea of what she wants to do after school.
“I didn’t used to want to teach in the inner-city. I was a Wyoming girl who never wanted to go to the city for a long time,” she said. “But, after I graduate, I plan on going back and looking for a job teaching there. I would like to help the Ministry start a children’s program because it doesn’t have a staff large enough for one now.”
