12/7/2023 0 Comments St rita of cascia churchHer family was forced to leave the neighborhood when their landlord went into foreclosure. Keana Lindo, who works as a parent mentor coordinator in another SWOP program, lives in one of the rehabbed homes. IMAN, the Muslim network, now uses a handful of the homes for its Green Reentry transitional housing, training and mentorship program for people who have been incarcerated. Speakers at the celebration included Muslims, with representatives of Inner-city Muslim Action Network, a partner in the campaign and Jewish people from the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. “A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable.” “There were people out here until 10 or 11 at night,” Bartow said. Rita Parish held a summer festival last year. It was remodeled into 13 two- and three-bedroom apartments and is fully occupied. The effort started with an apartment building at 62nd Street and Washtenaw Avenue, once part of a condo fraud case where the owners sold 19 units even though only 15 existed. ![]() But the important thing is to build relationships along with housing, said Jeff Bartow, SWOP’s executive director. This year, the campaign is to receive $12 million from the state capital budget, money that will help rehab 100 homes. Those efforts helped draw in private contractors as well, leaders said. That included getting $7 million in grants and leveraging that money into $15 million to invest in the housing stock. “There wasn’t anything any one person could do, but there was a lot we could do as people of faith.” “It didn’t seem like there was anything anybody could do. With the number of foreclosures, there were more than 700 vacant buildings in the wider neighborhood and the community seemed to be falling apart. “We believed in that vision in 2012, but not a lot of people besides SWOP and United Power believed in it,” Brunick said. ![]() Nick Brunick of United Power for Action and Justice, one of SWOP’s partners in the campaign, remembered walking the neighborhood on that 2012 evening, meeting with neighbors, and deciding to work to transform the vacant buildings into affordable housing for families. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is a longtime supporter of SWOP. Speakers touted a 55 percent decrease in crime and a 60 percent decrease in shootings in the last six years, as well as improvements in all area CPS schools. Now those 20 blocks have only eight vacant buildings, with the other 85 turned into affordable housing: apartments, two-flats and single-family homes that have either been sold or rented out. The vacancies tore at the fabric of the neighborhood, leading to instability, increased crime and high student turnover in neighborhood schools. When SWOP, a non-profit organization made up of community-based institutions and agencies, started the project in June 2012, the 20-square-block area around the church had 93 vacant buildings, many of them left empty after the foreclosure crisis. Rita of Cascia Church, on the corner of 63rd Street and Fairfield Avenue. The miracle he referred to is the turnaround of the neighborhood around St. This is a miracle we are witnessing to today.” ![]() “We have replaced fear with hope, empty houses with full houses and division with reunification of communities and families. “A miracle is about an event in which something is there that was not there before,” the cardinal said at a June 6 interfaith event celebrating the campaign. Our priority is to partner with families to provide the best educational experience for all students.To read this article in Spanish, click here.Ĭardinal Cupich called the results obtained so far by the Southwest Organizing Project’s Reclaiming Project a miracle. It is our expectation that families will volunteer on a regular basis. We have an excellent record of family participation in all school events, ranging from conferences to concerts. Rita School is paramount to the success of the students. Together we strive to ensure that our students achieve a solid academic foundation to prepare them for high school and beyond. We teach a wide range of students, and we work with the children and their families to provide the appropriate support to fit each child's needs. Rita School we value high standards in both education and behavior. We encourage our families to carry on this mission at home by attending mass each weekend and setting and achieving faith goals. ![]() We foster this relationship with daily religion class, daily prayer, weekly mass, and seasonal religious activities. Each child's personal relationship with Jesus is forefront. Our identity as a Catholic school is woven into every aspect of school life.
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