I reached out to the Cabrini Green Tutoring Program after the recent story I did with Doreen Ambrose Van-Lee. I was curious to learn more about this program and whether or not many of the Cabrini Green residents are aware of this program. I emailed the Executive Director expressing my interest in raising awareness for the program. I paid a visit to the center this week and have posted my photos below to share.
The program is actually located in the St. Vincent De Paul Center and is available for children who have previously lived in the Cabrini Green area and who are currently living there. Approximately 50% of the children currently are from the Cabrini Green area. The program is free for students however, the families do have to meet some financial requirements in order to qualify for the free services (live in Cabrini or other subsidized housing, receive free or reduced lunch, etc.)
What is the Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program?
The Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program in Chicago, provides after-school tutoring for over 200 students
in grades one through six. Most of the students live in or around the
Cabrini Green housing project or come from economically disadvantaged
families. Tutoring sessions are held Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
evenings from 6:10 pm to 7:30pm. Each student is paired with his/her
own volunteer tutor. The program provides a safe, stable learning
environment and individualized attention for the children.
If you know of anyone who may want to register their children in CGTP,
please send them to one of our registration sites or give them our phone number.
Please do not hesitate to contact
Erin McPartlin at 312-397-9119 or visit their website at http://www.cabrinigreentutoring.org.
Every child counts...can they count on you?
Cabrini Green Archives
Cabrini Green Tutoring Program
Professional Photographer Documentary | Lifestyle | Fine Art
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Cabrini Green: Inside and Out
Professional Photographer Documentary | Lifestyle | Fine Art
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After stumbling upon the website www.cabrini-green.com I came across a site by Doreen Ambrose-Van Lee cabrinigreen.webs.com.
I decided to contact Doreen in hopes of meeting her and hearing more about her story
growing up in Cabrini Green.
A week or so later Doreen, Ryan (cabrini-green.com), and I decided to meet. All of us set out with the same intention of documenting and preserving memories of Cabrini Green that day. Doreen invited us to meet some of her relatives to talk with them and to take some photographs.
As
we drove through the neighborhood, we learned that Doreen had not been
back to Cabrini since 2005 and she was surprised to see many more of
the homes destroyed. As we pulled up to one of two remaining buildings on Burling, we could see
the demolition crew trying to knock down the remaining half of another
building. We were approached by several cops in the lobby when we walked in and
apparently there had been a shooting on the 10th floor earlier in the
morning.
As we made our way up inside the elevator, we met one of the tenants in Cabrini. He shared his thoughts on living there, the demolition of the buildings, and the increased attention from the media since the demolition started.
Listening to the stories involving much violence and death was
so disheartening to me. So many stories about Cabrini Green and its residents can be fabricated that its hard to differentiate between fact and fiction at times.
You can imagine the things that go on here,
but listening to someone standing in front of you talking about things that happen every day, put things in a different perspective for me. Here the violent and the innocent live together. They know each other and have common friends and sometimes common relatives.
I feel so fortunate to have met Doreen and some of her family. Relocation can be very difficult for some of the families and it is a very selective and time consuming process. There is never a guarantee you will receive help, but some of them are hopeful.
I
hope that my photographs give you a glimpse into the lives of the
people and children at Cabrini Green and that it gives a voice to the
people there who are rarely ever heard.
Cabrini Green: Demolition
Professional Photographer Documentary | Lifestyle | Fine Art
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To
give you an idea of how big Cabrini Green was in Chicago, it was
constructed from 1942-1962. At its peak, Cabrini Green was home to
15,000 people. As of 2008 that number dropped to 4700 people. Cabrini
Green has received so much attention over the years, mostly negative
attention due to gangs and violence. Today, that area has become very
valuable real estate and is now surrounded by newly developed retail
and residential properties. As the new properties are built, more of
Cabrini Green is destroyed. As I thought more about this big change,
questions like where are the people going? and are people following
this transition? came to mind. I started to question if people are
really following this change or if people knew about it and have
already forgotten about it. So many events like this can be easily ignored and easily forgotten, because its not directly effecting most of us. Keep that thought in mind...
I have been
wanting to photograph Cabrini Green for quite some time . Period. Just
photograph Cabrini Green. Why? Because it is a place that has been a
source of violence and STRUGGLE. Seeing people struggle, learning
about their struggle, and more importantly learning about them
overcoming their struggle are all SO intense for me and every
time I
look at Cabrini Green I am reminded of my OWN struggle. I think
everyone should be reminded of their own struggles in life and that we
all do, but
some more so than others.
For those of you that read my personal blog, you may have read about the Making Things Happen Intensive with Lara Casey that I attended back in January.
During the Making Things Happen Intensive, I realized something that changed my perspective on photography and my passion with photography.
Part
of
my passion is that I am naturally drawn to places that some people
might not want to see due to the nature of it or can't see because of
its geographic location. Personally, photography has opened my eyes to
a lot of things that happen in this world that I would never have been
able to see without photography. It allows me to see places that I hope
to explore for myself one day, but more importantly it allows me to see
into the lives of others. I know I want to give that experience to
other people. I want to give people an opportunity to see places and
people
that I think are important, and that might get overlooked.
So...after attending the Making Things Happen Intensive
I realized that I do not want to JUST take pictures of Cabrini Green,
but that I want to raise awareness for the people of Cabrini Green and
how we can help. If I ever need information and don't know where to
go....GOOGLE has the answers! I googled information on the demolition
of Cabrini Green to see if there was anyone out there that shared the
same ideas and I came across a website The Cabrini - Green Projects.
I decided to email the owner of the website in hopes of raising
awareness together and to help document the stories of the the people,
and the demolition in progress, and to offer any of my photographs for
the website. Turns out that the owner of the site, Ryan Flynn a Graphic Designer in Chicago, also went to college with my husband Casey Hayes,
who is also a Graphic Designer! Crazy! I hope to help Ryan in raising
awareness and helping the former and current tenants of Cabrini Green.
I am also selling any of my prints from Cabrini Green on my website www.melissahphoto.com
and I am currently looking for any charitable organizations to donate
all proceeds from the prints sold. If you or someone you know are
involved in or have knowledge of an organization working with the
people of Cabrini Green, please feel free to send me a message!
Below
are some of the photos taken so far, and I will continue to document
the transition of Cabrini Green.
All photos are copyright 2008-20010 of Melissa Hayes Photography. No photos may be used for any purpose without my written consent.
