Want 'B-Ball' on your block?

• Ed Finkel
• March 28, 2007

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All dreaming their own hoop dreams, representatives of five NCP lead agencies and several of their partners met Feb. 28 in Little Village to discuss the benefits and challenges of putting together the B-Ball on the Block/Block Arte program.
That’s a traveling summer-long Friday-night event that combines basketball, barbecue, arts activities, health awareness screenings and a public safety

presence to ensure that the mostly teenage competitors can cross gang lines and participate without an incident.

Started eight years ago in Pilsen, the program has spread to Little Village and North Lawndale, and staff were on hand from the Near West Side Community Development Corp., Southeast Chicago Development Commission and other groups considering adopting the idea. Players ages 8 to 18 participate.

“That’s when they join gangs; that’s when they look for other alternatives,” said César Nuñez, NCP organizer for Little Village Community Development Corp. “They need something to keep their heads up.”

In Little Village and North Lawndale, players are divided into age brackets and play short games with two 10-minute halves, Nuñez said, with resident volunteers serving as coaches and referees.

CeaseFire cooks up the barbecues and helps the police, YMCA Street Intervention Program and CAPS volunteers keep the peace; local artists and a community arts organization pull together cultural activities; and Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Lawndale Christian Health Center provide health screenings and education, said Christina Bronsing, an LVCDC organizer. The event lasts from 5 until 9 p.m. or later.

“Kids just liked coming to hang out because it was a safe space,” Nuñez said. “People pretty much respected what we were doing. …”

LVCDC and its partners arranged for a different block to host the event each week, alternating sides of the neighborhood, and staff from the YMCA picked up people who did not want to walk to that week’s site – even when they were within walking distance, but across gang boundaries.

“Whenever [participants] see the red van coming, they start running,” Nuñez said to laughter.

Nuñez stressed how critical partnerships are to the effort, given the range of activities. “You didn’t feel alone,” he said. “By the fourth week, [partner agencies] knew what to do, and they did it. … We wouldn’t recommend that you try to do it by yourselves.”

The budget for last year’s program was approximately $25,000, Nuñez said, with primary funds coming from Second Federal Savings and LISC. The budget will probably be lower this year since fixed costs – like the scoreboard – will not repeat. CeaseFire’s ability to provide food “helped a lot,” Nuñez said. LVCDC added to its insurance plan to cover any issues that might arise.

Among the challenges Bronsing cited were keeping all partners on board every week. Some said, “Sure, we’ll try to come out,” she said.

Certain activities need to be better coordinated. For example, “you can’t take a (health) screening if you just ate one of those hamburgers.” And participation of local residents varied from block to block. On one, “a resident didn’t know it was coming and was mad that people were on their lawn,” Bronsing said. "On others, people were waiting in the street to help set up tables and hoops." 

Sammy Garcia, a coach in last year’s league, suggested that agencies considering a similar program get their feet in the door with block clubs “first and foremost. You’re going to get some flak: Why can’t I park on my block?”

But the payoff is high: kids from both sides of the neighborhood enjoying themselves outside on a Friday night. “The kids know to stay on that block, it’s a safe space,” Garcia said. “They could hang out and talk to anybody. … They’re done roughing one another up. The shorties were like, ‘Hey, are you ready for Friday?’ ”

To view an audio slideshow that was presented at the meeting, or to listen to an NPR clip about B-Ball on the Block, visit http://lvcdc.org/media.php

For more information: LVCDC’s 2007 kick off meeting is April 10; Pilsen’s meeting is April 9. To learn more or volunteer, contact César Nuñez at LVCDC, 773-542-9233, x21, or Julian Lazalde at The Resurrection Project in Pilsen, 312-226-0151, x318 .

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Arts, Block clubs, Crime/safety, Organizational development, Organizing, Parks/Recreation, Partners, Youth