Douglas Park

There is a shortage of skilled machinists all across the U.S. and especially in the Chicago area. If you are unemployed and want to get into a new career, you can train to become a skilled machinist at Illinois Manufacturing Foundation (IMF), 2101 S. Kedzie in Chicago's Lawndale community. To get into training, you will need a minimum of 9th grade reading and math, be detail-oriented, able to lift 50 pounds and willing to commit to lifelong learning. Illinois Manufacturing Foundation has been training unemployed Chicago area residents and placing them in family-supporting job for more than 30 years. You will need to be eligible for Workforce Investment Act programs through your local Chicago or Cook County Workforce Center. IMF holds a free orientation to training every Tuesday at 9:30 am at 2101 S. Kedzie. Call 773-277-2343 to sign up for the free, no obligation orientation!

I thank Lucille Morris Tomlinson and her 2nd grade class at LEARN Charter School for a warm welcome on May 10, 2012. Lucille invited me to share information with the children regarding the North Lawndale African American Heritage Quilting Project. In turn, they shared their Black History Month presentations, which included reports and poster boards. After the children shared their presentations they brainstormed ways their presentations could be translated into a quilt for the quilting project. We will meet next week to begin to prepare quilt blocks for the quilt. If you are interested in helping out, please, let me know. We are also pulling together quilts for the Bethune Service Day. We have commitments for 5 quilts to date, and we need commitments to complete 5 more by June 1st.

Learn Charter School Romano Butler’s “Real Men Read” committee is seeking dedicated male mentors readers to help make a difference in the lives and education of our students on :
Friday
May 11, 2012
9 am until 1 pm
Our goals are to:
• Demonstrate that real men do read and value education.
• Encourage and improve the literacy skills of students.
• Encourage the importance of success in life and making the right choices.
• Develop community/parent partnerships.

Teachers will offer mentor readers a selection of grade appropriate culturally relevant reading material or material related to character education. Volunteers will receive assistance with leading a discussion about the reading. Please fill out the visitor's information.

Download a Registration Form http://www.scribd.com/doc/92703618/Romano-Butler-Real-Men-Read-Form-2012

Download a Flyer http://www.scribd.com/doc/92703638/RMR-Save-the-Date-Reminder

I thank City Year/Bethune School of Excellence for having the North Lawndale African American Heritage Project and me out for a recent service day. We developed 5 quilting exercises for children to reflect on their local heroes, traditions and African symbols. City Year participants worked with 9 teams of 7th and 8th grade students who were paired with 3rd and 4th grade students to lead them through the excercises. I also participated on a panel of local leaders to share with students our experiences with service and leadership. We collected enough quilt blocks to do 9 quilts. Let me know if you are available to help pull them together over the next 3 weeks

You can read about the event and see photos on the City Year blog at http://cityyearchicago.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/quilting-their-heritage-monday-montage/

Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center suggests- "Join our team, our crew, our group, our dreamers, for an hour or two or day or two or more days---Step out of your comfort zone! Get up and get out...we cannot do it without you. We need you and you need us---let us help make this neighborhood become an even more proud neighborhood. We are working with other individuals and other organizations, to help make a difference. Join with us! We are not limited to Chicago volunteers, nor even to volunteers around this country, we are reaching out to artists from other places- other worlds, other planets...so I guess we can handle volunteers & artists from other countries! Please refer artists whose work you like- even better if the art is about SOCIAL JUSTICE issues that we can relate to! thanks! We are setting some dates & times for community meetings to discuss and participate in Public Art Projects for North Lawndale. If you would like to help improve N.L. by increasing the arts and artists in our neighborhood and it's subsequent beautification....please email me. thanks again, Dianna

I got the following e-mail from Noah Stein.

We're in need of a summer Knitting instructor. I'm not sure if Billy has reached out to you about this. If you know anyone, please have them send their resume to Tommy (cc'd here) and I as soon as possible.

We need to hire someone this month.

The program will pay $25/hr for 140 hours. The class runs 6 weeks (6/25-8/3), with 10 hours of prep and debrief time on either side, so actual working is from 6/17-8/10. The classes meet 4 days/wk, 4hrs/day, with 4 hours of prep time per week. We need someone who can connect with teenagers and can work with beginners as well as intermediate knitters. The instructor can schedule class when they want, between 9a-7p.

Let me know if you have any questions.

--
Thank you,

Noah Stein
AgLAB@1512 Instructor
Apprenticeships Co-coordinator
Better Boys Foundation
office: 773-542-7336
cell: 312-208-4888

The North Lawndale African American Heritage Quilting Project and City Year recently had a day of service, in which 7th and 8th Grade students helped 3rd and 4th Grade students make quilt blocks depicting traditions, local heroes, and African symbols. We are now in the process of patching the pieces together and quilting them. We need your help so that we can get 10 quilts done in time for the students' graduation on June 8th. Ideally, we need to get the quilts done by June 1st so that we have time to work a presentation into the busy graduates' schedule. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in helping out, or donating scrap fabrics, please contact me ASAP, at 773-521-3137 or consulting@valeriefleonard.com.