Aspire Project
100 Men 100 Homes
40 acres fresh market
Aspire project
Project Mission
In a continued effort to create opportunities for the citizens of the Greater Westside in Chicago, Westside Health Authority purchased 5500 West Madison (the former Emmet Elementary School) in 2018 on the recommendation of community stakeholders who desired to see the site redeveloped into a safe, attractive space for residents to access commerce and community services.
A History of Success
Over the years we have worked on various economic development projects on the westside of Chicago. We spearheaded the $5.5M Austin Wellness Center and Clinic, the Austin Peace and Justice Plaza, and AV72 Chicago, the First Special Service Area to be designated in the Austin community. Served 22,000 residents last year through housing development, public safety, youth empowerment, civic engagement, and economic development activities.
Big Opportunities and Challenges
Despite progress in Austin over the past several years, there is a great need for workforce training and life skills development. Currently, a significant youth population exists in Austin, with 15% being between the ages of 25-34, followed by 13% for 15-24-year-olds, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau and forecasts for 2019. RushUniversity Medical Center published a report in June 2016 that identified two of several hardship factors within Austin, unemployment for those that are 16+ and lack of high school diploma.
Second, there is a large set of adults that have been dislocated from the workforce. Low education and unemployment are some of the top contributors that affect Austin’s neighborhood status. GCI published a report in May 2019 finding that almost half of Chicago’s young black men are both out of school and out of work, double the national rate. In Chicago, women accounted for 30% (9,315) of adults that don’t have a job nor attending school while men were at 45% (12,805), within the 20-24 age cohort based on the 2017 ACS data.
This research has found that employment and in-demand skill sets that undergo a perpetual change intensifies these problems and causes individuals to endure hardships that span from rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and technological advances in work environments. The domino effect of a poor neighborhood education system and student decline leads toward an unstable local economy and contributes to a stigma of Austin.
We Know Better
We will revive the once-bustling intersection of Madison Street and Central Avenue by repurposing the former Emmet Elementary School, one of Chicago’s many public schools closed in 2014, into an anchor for commercial revitalization and a destination for top-notch workforce training.
Westside Health Authority (WHA) is leading the renovation and repurposing of Robert Emmet Public Elementary—a now-closed, three-acre Chicago Public School building at the once thriving northeast corner of Madison Street and Central Avenue. Overcoming a legacy of disinvestment, limited training opportunities, and fragmented services, the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation will catalyze Austin’s economic development.
The Aspire Center will serve as a centralized location for Austin’s youth and unemployed and underemployed adults seeking career training and support. The Aspire Center will:
- Create linkages among programmatic initiatives and shared facilities;
- Expand and support local resources for skills training in high demand economic sectors, such as advanced manufacturing; and
- Support small businesses and entrepreneurs. In addition, a new 10,000 sq. ft. Commercial Center will be built on the former school parking lot, and adjacent to a public plaza that will be shared with the Aspire Center. Opening in 2025, the Commercial Center will have a mix of local and national restaurants plus retail, such as a bank. Local and minority-owned businesses will be prioritized.
100 Men 100 Homes
Project Mission
100 MEN 100 HOMES’ mission is to revitalize the Austin and surrounding communities by using the capacity of ordinary citizens to rebuild their communities. The goal of the project is to employ 100 men residing in these communities to restore 100 vacant, foreclosed and/or abandoned properties for 100 low to moderate income families at a rehabilitation cost of less than $100,000 per home. 100 MEN 100 HOMES presents a comprehensive and cost effective approach for revitalization by leveraging public and private resources alongside proven community expertise to employ, empower, and build capacity of community members in restoring their own communities from the inside out.
Our Hope
It is the hope of this project will continue to gain momentum and restore home values. 100 MEN 100 HOMES is a model that can be developed as a pilot for a larger scale project to restore the over 100 homes that have been foreclosed in the Austin community since 2008. It is a model that has been developed by Coalition partners taking input from community members who realize that while boarded and vacant homes on their block contribute to community devastation, it is also the devastated citizen who must be re-established in order to effectuate true community restoration.