How do you keep young people in low-income Woodlawn off the streets? Some community leaders say handing them a racket and ball could be one way.
Two nonprofit organizations that teach tennis and squash to elementary and high school students plan to build separate indoor courts in the South Side neighborhood next year.
One project is run by MetroSquash, which now teaches squash to more than 50 children on courts borrowed from the University of Chicago, and the other by Tyrone Mason, a tennis coach based in Hyde Park.
“We’re really over capacity,” said David Kay, the executive director of MetroSquash. “There are so many more students we could serve with a building.”
The group has signed a lease with the Preservation of Affordable Housing organization to buy an empty lot on the corner of East 61st Street and South Cottage Grove.
Willie Cochran, alderman of the 20th Ward, said after-school sports programs could help reduce gang-related crime and truancy in Woodlawn.
Mr. Cochran’s challenger in the aldermanic race, the rapper Che Smith, has made the dearth of places for his young children to play in his ward, which touches on Washington Park and Jackson Park, a focal point of his campaign.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 11th, 2010 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Arts & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Friday, November 12, 2010
A Sports Solution For Youth Troubles / Chicago News Cooperative
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