Goals and Programs

The activities of the Peace Corner are aimed at accomplishing the following closely related goals: 

·         Provide a safe haven and neutral ground to young people living in a neighborhood characterized by gang violence and drug use.

·         Create a sense of belonging and community for young people as a potent alternative to the lure of street life and gang membership.

·         Instill self-esteem and pride of accomplishment by endowing young people with responsibility and “ownership” of the Peace Corner.

·         Offer several educational and training programs for youth according to their needs.  The basis of the Peace Corner program is a modest recreation effort.  This effort, built around a pool table, a ping-pong table and occasional field trips, represents an initial attraction for young people in a community that offers few positive options for them.  Recreation is the basis for relationship building and more substantive assistance. Because of he limited resources of the Peace Corner, volunteers have been a key component in expanding a range of programs.  In each program area, we attempt to respond to the expressed needs of young people using the facilities of the Center and people in the community as well.

GED Class

Volunteers from Loyola University and various professional teachers conduct a GED preparation program.  They utilize a personalized approach since some of the young adults seeking to foster their education have been out of school for a long time. At the end of our 8 month class the students take their Illinois GED test in one of the city colleges of Chicago. So far our success rate is close to 90%. 

Tutoring Program

Volunteers from Dominican University and DePaul University help with our tutoring program working with our youth in their school work and research papers.

Computer Literacy Class

Volunteers from many different paths of life conduct weekly computer classes for interested young people using the Peace Corner’s seven donated computers and/or tutor several younger kids helping them with their schoolwork.

Peace Corner Newsletter

Our youth interact with each other and with the staff in publishing our Newsletter for the youth attending the center, their families, and our friends and benefactors. The newsletter is called:  “The Peace Corner Rap.”

Legal Counseling

Volunteer attorneys from a renowned LaSalle Street firm are available on a regular schedule to help people with legal problems to assemble appropriate materials for their public defender.

Employment Skills Training

The Peace Corner cooperates regularly with CIC (Community Investment Corporation) an association of realtors and Landlords. CIC acquires old buildings to renovate them and the Peace Corner youth provide the cleaning crews who get those buildings ready for rehab. Several of our youth have proved to be very good workers and were regularly hired by local construction companies.  In the same line, a friendly local construction company has offered to instruct a few selected young men in construction skills with the Peace Corner covering the cost of insurance and stipends to the participants. 

Preparing For The Future Class

Preparing For The Future Class is a comprehensive program specifically designed for The Peace Corner Youth Center.  It has been designed and organized by “Communication Education”, a professional agency in collaboration with the Peace Corner Youth Center. Preparing For the Future is designed to assist the young men and women of The Peace Corner Youth Center to be productive and educated in work values and ethics in order to apply and retain work. It will also provide the participants with the basis to become successful entrepreneurs.

Seven youth have been selected to participate in this class held every Saturday morning. The instructors are Cynthia Hernandez Kolski, president of “Communication Education”, Bill Klump a successful businessman, and Commander Alfonza Wysinger, the commander of the Police 15^th District. At the end of this class the participants will receive a certificate from “Communication Education”.

Support Group

The support group is available for those who have recently been released from prison to help reduce their potential for recidivism.  In this effort, we cooperate with several agencies and benefit from the expertise of some professionals.

Summer Program

The Peace Corner provides an assortment of recreational activities including field trips to the beach and local museums, basketball tournaments and parking lot barbecues from June to the end of August every summer.

Cook County Juvenile Detention Center

Working with Kolbe House and their Jail Ministry program, staff at The Peace Corner visit youth each week at the Cook County Juvenile Detention center to offer our support and a compassionate approach. We also work to develop relationships with youth from the West Side of Chicago in hopes of connecting them to The Peace Corner and our programs when they are released.

Girls Group

The Peace Corner Girl’s Group is a small group of girls who regularly come to The Peace Corner to establish a space for the girls in the community. Since it’s founding, The Peace Corner has always attracted the young men of the community, and in Girls Group we work to establish a clear time and space for the female youth of Austin. At Girls Group, we create a safe space to talk, draw, listen to music, and hang out. We are also starting to go outside of the center to a nearby gym to dance and organize larger activities. We will also be putting together field trips throughout the city of Chicago.