Latest / find your cause / There's a Crime Scene In Her Block. She Stayed. | LaTanya Johnson & the Youth of Englewood
Transcript
- speaker-0: Police just swarming around and I'm like wow so when I get there, there's a whole complete scene. They got it yellow taped from from my corner My center and store next door. We were all taped It's it's wild because I still haven't gotten what really happened. I know someone was shot They were inside the store next door speaker-1: you All right, thanks for everyone for tuning into this episode. This is another special one because we're doing a community check-in with a previous organization that we've interviewed in the past. So, LaTanya, thank you so much for your time today. speaker-0: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you, Joe. Anytime for you. You already know. speaker-1: Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much. So, Latonya Johnson is the executive director of Latonya in the Youth of Englewood. And we've known each other for years now. And we just have a lot of collaborations that we've done. And I'm really excited to do this check-in with Latonya to see how things have changed since we last spoke. But before we do, for new listeners that don't know much about Latonya and Latonya in the Youth of Englewood, Latonya, please introduce yourself and share the mission of your organization. speaker-0: Hello everyone, my name is Latonya Johnson. Excuse my voice, it's a little raspy because I do work with kids. Again, my name is Latonya Johnson. I am the executive director of Latonya and the Youth of Inglewood. We are a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We service children ages five and up, recreational activities, educational programming, mentorship, entrepreneurship, community events, family support. And we do it all for free. I've been doing this for 12 years now for the children in our community, for the children and their families in our community. So yeah, if I left anything out, please let me know. speaker-1: Yeah, no, thank you for that background. So 12 years, it's a long time to be doing anything. Share a little bit about why you and why this was something 12 years ago that you saw fill the need and what was the initial inspiration for starting the organization. speaker-0: So, you know, there's violence everywhere you go. during that time, was really like a real, it was kids getting, you know, murdered and, you know, shot as they do today. But I think that it calmed down a little bit more than it did back then. So I would just see, you know, my children and their friends outside. And I'm just like, you know, even when I was younger, I'm like, man, the park district is blocks away. I couldn't walk down there. And so it was the same thing with my children. because we lived in actually approximately the same area, which is Inglewood. I was born and raised in Inglewood, so was my children. And they would be outside with nothing to do. it's like, you know, maybe there's something, something just kept triggering me. It's like, kids, kids, you're always happy. You're always joyful. You know, give the kids, it's kids. It just kept seeing kids, because they would come to my house. I had these little laptops. And they would come and... They will make music and do things. I was just like, man, I'm like, I've got to do something because they're here every day. You'll have food, know, something to drink. they'd be like, Hey, you got a snack? Of course. What I did was I called the Audemars office. I've never met an Audemars before because I thought, I feel they were famous. Right. So I'm like, okay, someone told me that they was right in the community. And I actually put like a little small presentation together. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. speaker-0: to actually explain to the Alderman what I see and my thoughts of what is needed for the children in the community as well as the community itself, you know. And I did that, went over to the office. She welcomed me with open arms, made Alderman Joanne Thompson rest peacefully. She introduced me to everybody and I just kind of told them what my thoughts was and hey, maybe something that I can do. And so what she did was she put a youth summit together in Kennedy King College where she invited like the prisoners who were serving like 20 to 25 years and they were all chained by feet and hands. But they were there to tell their story and to encourage the kids to stay out of trouble. know, listen to your mom and we were supposed to have Derrick Rose there. Of course, that was the time he broke his leg or foot, whichever way. speaker-1: Yep. speaker-0: Yeah, and so that was during that time when she put that together and then we all they also had Barbara Bates, which was a famous designer from Chicago who was also had a show on TV and she came out and she made some of the eighth graders and the high schoolers who stood up. They actually made their suits and their dresses. So again, you know, you know, just to be able to you know, do something in community and help the kids. That was my goal. That's what God said. That's what he said. He said it and he's clicking it in my brain today. it's been, it'll be 13 years and it's crazy because I actually started this June 19th, 2013. There was no Juneteenth back then. It's crazy. I'm just like, wow, I like really did something because I actually started that June 19th. speaker-1: Yep, yep. Yeah, that definitely sounds like a little divination impact there at something. Like that's a little bit too coincidental. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. how, so after, so kids ages five plus, I guess, first question is why was that kind of the, the, the target and initially, is that just cause it's after preschool or just like, just after preschool when they're going to more formal education and needing after school programming? speaker-0: No, it was because I feel like if we catch them early before all the riff raff and if we can just continue to steer them in the right direction along with their parents and know other as they call it, it takes a village when there's a village to be able to steer them in the right direction. So if we catch them young, we could kind of change their mind setting, right? Opposed to. I'm not going to say you can't change the teenage man, Satan, because you can if you show them and if you if you actually show them the way that you know, it's more to just violence out there or and getting into stuff is more positive things where you can help those and they can feel good about themselves. So if kids are hands on with things, you have a better chance of and they'll engage right. But yeah, I feel like if you catch them young. We can steer them away from all the rest of the stuff that the other kids caught, you know, even with the internet, kind of keeping them off the internet, kind of keeping them engaged with doing things with their hands again. Yeah. speaker-1: So yeah, I've had the privilege. was years ago now, but I worked ⁓ weekly and went to the Chicago juvenile juvenile temporary detention center and hung out with the kiddos every week for, don't know, three or four years. And one of the observations I had was like, I feel like mostly I've worked with boys, mostly they needed either someone or something for the motivation factor and to like to latch onto and. The riff-raff you mentioned, I feel like sometimes that fulfills some of that camaraderie to somebody, like a mentor they'll latch onto that they can look up to. And then there's the other option of something to do, whether it's creating music or whether it's being in the various activities that you get arrested for. So it's like a someone or something that I've kind of realized is what you need, what everyone as a human at a young age latches onto. for example, the after school part, programming you do, it helps hopefully check that box of somebody, but also something like getting them involved in creating music or getting them involved in entrepreneurship or gardening or what have you. just allowing them to get repetitions in things and experience things that maybe they wouldn't have experienced before that they can latch onto and they can use as an excuse when somebody comes and asks them to do something. That might not be, you know, that keeps them in trouble. They could say, Hey, I'm already doing this or I'm already busy or like I have a mentor that I really look up to that's, that's on a better path. And so it sounds like that's something that you guys really work on providing for your kiddos. speaker-0: Absolutely. You know, because I mean, then there'll be any phones. They're like, it's like a 24 seven phone. If we can get them to put the phones down, their attention as well. You know, like I said, some I'm a little older. They want to put them beats on. They can't hear what you're saying. And sometimes I have to say, Hey, cause I have older children that's in high school too, that comes to the center. I'm like, Hey, speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. speaker-0: You know, make sure you got the beat one of the beats behind because you want to hear if it's someone behind you, if it's a horn blowing, they can't even hear. you know, just trying to teach them about how to, you know, be aware of their surroundings. When you have these beats on, I don't wear headphones because back in our days, we didn't have the headphone. Okay. I'm telling my age, but we have, you know, those headphones on our ears like that. You know, we had the beatbox and the jukeboxes like, and it was speaker-1: Yes, yes. speaker-0: we were able to be outside. You know, these today, they're not so much able to be outside. So just keeping them engaged in positive environment. And like I said, kids are bored. I will get bored if you're talking me to death. It's a hands on thing. People have to know when you're dealing with youth, they have to see something that they created and it has to be an interest. I always ask, hey, what would y'all like to do? What, what type of what y'all like to create? What is it that y'all would like to do? ⁓ we would like to do this. So, you know, we're going to do, you know, we're going to do Easter best, but we'll get into that when you ask during the time. But again, just to see the creation of things that they created, it makes them feel good. Even now, the team is where today is the day I want to work. How can I work? you know, work, you know, so those things. But I always put you to work every year as we got the funding. and stuff like that, can definitely put them to work. Other than that, they do a lot of, you know, I have a lot of youth that does volunteering too. And then when I get, you know, hands on some funding, then I always give them something to show my appreciation because half of them, they kinda just be like, okay, well, if you ain't got the funding, we still wanna be there. We still wanna be there. And that's just keeping them engaged and involved in a positive environment. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. What activities that you've done over 12 years have you seen as having the most positive impact in checking those boxes of it provides an activity that somebody could really get passionate about and turn into their thing? Or it's somebody that really has kind of changed the trajectory of this kiddo's life because of an inspirational conversation. What are some of those things that you've seen be most impactful? Because I'm sure like, obviously jobs are really important. you know, they're busy work, you get them paid, but I'm wondering if there's, if there are jobs maybe that are inspiring, that get people onto a career work development path. What has been some of those really impactful activities that you've kind of experienced that have the most impact, would you say? speaker-0: I say gardening, building. They build these little two-seaters, the one-seater from back in the days where you take the two by fours and you put the wheels on the side, the go-karts. they built, we built two of those. We trying to finish building them because we got two, we just got to get the wheels and you know, everything. So building those. those who likes to take pictures. So we had cameras where they went out and took pictures. And we do have a photographer who, you know, one of our youth who went on and did photography. And like I said, building, we got one that works at Home Depot's warehouse. So he works at Home Depot warehouse to this day, who's been to college. And so my college students still come around. you know, just, just them being, just being able to create whatever it is they want to create. And again, I always ask, but we have. to get them out those phones. You gotta get them out those phones because again, at home, and it's not a bad thing. I'm just saying that the kids, when they're at home, it's like, hey, you done with your homework, now you're on your phone. You're your phone for three, four hours. I think it's just mind blowing. speaker-1: Mmm, yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: that long and that time, they definitely need some activities. Some of them like to play basketball. They do. I do have to get basketball rims, you know, for them, but we do go to Ogden Park, which is my number one park. And I'll take the boys and I let them play basketball. So that's something that they really want to do. I definitely want to create some type of team because they really want to play. just, you know, those are like some of the things that I could think of off the top of my head of things that the youth are still doing to this day. So yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned that sometimes it's hard for the kiddos to get outside. Is that more of a weather thing or is that more of a safety thing or a preference thing? They want to be on their phones or what have you seen has kind of been led to that trend? speaker-0: So more of a safety, is key to everything. Just recently, last Friday, me and the children, because I do pick up, I pick up the kids, I drop the kids off at school, I pick them up from school, and I bring them over to the center. know, those who ride with me, they come over to the center. There's a school across the street from me where the other kids come from the school across the street, and they come over to me. But as we pulled up, there were police everywhere. And it was crazy. is is wild because one of my parents was sitting which which is my daughter because my my grandbabies come there too and she was sitting there she was waiting on us to pull up and she just said there were police just swarming around and i'm like wow so when i get there there's a whole complete scene they got it yellow taped from from my corner my center and store next door we were all taped It's wild because I still haven't gotten what really happened. I know someone was shot. They were inside the store next door, right completely next door to me. me you on the screen, right next door. So I still don't know what happened. So I just keep them on the inside. If I do decide to go to a park and it's nice outside, we'll go over to Ogden Park. We'll go and we'll play over there. Since Friday, we actually canceled the after school on Friday because the school was locked down until like four o'clock or something. So it was locked down because of the shooting. But we closed down on Friday because I didn't want to have the kids in that environment in that moment. I wasn't sure if there was still, the shooter was going to come back and do whatever it was. But I wanted to make sure that the kids went home with their mom to where they were safe. So, then we open, freshly open back up money. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. I feel like curiosity here and this is I've worked with a lot of nonprofits in Chicago all over East, South, North Side, West Side, not East, because that's the lake. one of the, guess you could say ignorant questions I would have is for I think every family and every parent that has kids have it has a different like risk threshold as to like this area or the location I'm in is either too risky, I'm not comfortable living here, having my kids here, but at the same time, maybe my job is here, maybe the cost of living is the only spot I could be in. Like as a parent that, and a kid that's been born in Englewood and raised there and lived there, and maybe it's just like, is our part of Chicago, like this is home. How have you seen that with parents? evolve and like that that constant battle that I'm sure parents play in their head of like staying close to opportunity and staying in your hometown versus maybe going somewhere with with what less risk of something like that happening and I do air quotes because I think yesterday somebody was shot in Rogers Park on the north side by Loyola one of Loyola's student was killed which is crazy and so so I'm just wondering how have you seen that just internal battle with parents play out and and and Like how do you just work through that as a parent and how have you seen that work through? speaker-0: Whereas poverty all day long, mean, the parents, work, you got lights, gas, got things you got to pay and then everything is steady going up. It's all going to cost the food, the cost of lights, the cost of this, the cost of that. So of course, them living from paycheck to paycheck, sometimes they paychecks don't even meet everything. They don't. They just try their hardest. And, you know, if I can connect them with some resources that can help them benefit, maybe the light bill or maybe some type of bill to help them out, you know, I give. I give coats and things like that when I see the kids, you know, and I know their mom's struggling. do know there are struggling moms and the reason why they do live in the areas because that's what they could afford. speaker-1: Yep. So you see. speaker-0: You have to feed them, you got to clothe them. Kids want to go out, they want to do things, they want stuff from... So again, it's the cost of living. ⁓ You're doing minimum wage, you got 10 cent here, 12 cent there, 15 cent there. By the time you get your check, the taxes took all that. So it's still a struggle. You're still struggling from day to day. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Some parents would like to get out of Inglewood and maybe take their kids and, you know, over to another community. Even then you got some that says, hey, this is my community. You know, this is what I know, you know, and, you know, I, I've survived this long. I'm a critique. I'll be okay. Ain't nobody after me. No one is doing nothing to me. I go to work, I come home and my kids go to school. So, you know, you have a speaker-1: Yeah, this is home. speaker-0: a few different ways of reasoning for them living there and wanting to be there. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, and I think it's just, it's really, really frustrating and angering and sad and unfortunate that parents have to make that trade off and have to have that reasoning, even a thing that they're thinking about, right? So yeah, very tough situation. So the kiddos, the activities that you're seeing in the future, what... programming you're trying to continue to evolve or maybe test out or bring back that you want to kind of reintroduce to the kiddos for the next 12 years, I'd say. ⁓ speaker-0: I like that. claiming it. Thank you, Joseph. Just, I think art is amazing and things that they can do and create with their hands because I was a part of another group where they came in and they brought the art supplies and they did, and they probably had their own little snacks that they brought in for the kids as well. They did some art projects where the kids were able to do things and take them back home. A basketball group, if there's anybody out there that's saying, you know, I want to put a basketball group together, even young people. These ain't got to be older people, high school college students. You know, we're looking for someone to create that basketball team. have high school boys who want to play ball, who really, really want to play ball. And these kids, these high schoolers, our kids have been with me since they were six, seven years old. So they are now high schoolers. Girls like Dan. So I just had two of my youth when I was on 60th and Halston. So, and they went to Johnson College prep. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And they used to dance with the girls that they see now that stands about 5'11 over them now. were so shocked. were with me because a lot of the kids are still with me from 5' all the way up. so their dance group, I got my youth back that I had back then. So they teach dance. We want to try to get uniforms. So I feel like if we doing things to have these projects and things like that, that we create, I think that kids should. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: feel good. They should have uniforms that go with these things. You you're dancing. We want to put the little stuff on the boys. They want to play basketball. They should have on, you know, jersey with, you know, shorts and just to, they will feel so good. People don't know. It's just all about making them feel they don't want to play ball. They're to be ready like, ⁓ yeah, we got to do a fundraiser to get our next, you know, jerseys or the next. It's all about creating the real life of dance. football, I mean, basketball, football, you know, whatever that looks like, you know, so just like I said, you know, it's just a few things and if anybody else have any, you know, things that they would like to bring, you know, to me, you know, print it out, let's talk about it, let's bring more projects in, the kids need everybody. They need everybody. speaker-1: Yeah, and I think experiencing so many different types of activities is important because every kiddo, different things probably land differently with different kiddos. Like some kids might really like art and drawing or painting or creating music or ballet or basketball or volleyball. I'm little biased with volleyball, but yeah, I like being able to experience a lot of the different options in STEM and sports, et cetera, is important because things speak differently to kids. And we have the future CEOs potentially and presidents potentially. So we need them to be exposed to as many different activities as possible. speaker-0: Yes, absolutely. speaker-1: Awesome, awesome. Well, this is exciting. Where can people find you? And people that are listening that want to get engaged, what type of engagement do you look for? speaker-0: Basically, you know, just reaching out, having a conversation just to figure out how we can connect, just to see what their, you know, line of work is. If it lands with mine, what we do, then, you know, I'm looking to connect, you know? And it's all about just reaching out and making things happen. I don't know how hard it is, I'm really looking forward to more people, you know, just connecting with more people who have great resources for children. speaker-1: Yeah Yep, yep. And then ways to communicate with you, social media or website or phone, what's the easiest way? speaker-0: So you can they can email me at latonyaj703 at gmail.com. We also have a number 312-983-2855. are we're on TikTok. We're on Instagram and we're on we'd be on Facebook sometimes. It'd be a lot on Facebook, but we'd be on there. But a lot of times I post TikTok for the kids because you know they like to TikTok all the time. So we do a lot of Tik Tok posting. Our website is latonyaandtheyouthofenglewood.org. And we're located at 344 West 75th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60621 in the Englewood community. Don't be afraid. I'm open to showing you around and come out and meet the kids. Bring a snack. ⁓ speaker-1: Yes. Wow. Well, Tonya, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. It was great reconnecting with you and we're excited to share this story again and get you reconnected with more people out there. But thank you for the work that you're doing and really looking forward to getting this out there. speaker-0: Thank you so much, Joseph. I appreciate you all too as well. speaker-1: All right. Thank you. Good luck. Talk to you soon. speaker-0: Have a great one guys.