ERNIE BANKS
Board of Managers
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago
Dear Concerned Citizen:
No fast ball, high and inside, could come close to producing the terror most of us felt during the grim weekend of April 4-7. Except for the work of 77 remarkable young men, the fire bombs and gunfire that ravaged a number of ghetto neighborhoods might have spread throughout the city and into the suburbs.
Few roaring cheers in the ball park have pleased me as much as the news that several powerful youth gangs were working on the side of the law in keeping the looting and burning from spreading. The leaders in these gangs some 200 of them throughout the city, have been working closely with the dedicated 77 young professionals who carry on the work of the Youth Action program.
Most of these young men in Youth Action are not far removed from their own recent pasts as gang leaders or members. Now, though they’ve turned away from violence to more constructive ways of problem solving, they are still accepted and respected by the young people they’re trying to help. Wise in the ways of the gang, they mix with the members and control violence at the source, in the dark streets and alleys of the slum neighborhoods which many of them still call their own.
Serious trouble in the inner city is often being prevented right now because the gang leaders trust the Youth Action workers enough to tip them off when the lid is about to blow. As one of them said, “There’s no percentage in having my own ‘hood burned down, and maybe my own people shot up!’”
Not long ago John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, asked voluntary agencies here in Chicago to help. He asked them to work with neighborhood people in a closer way than the government can hope to do. That’s just what Youth Action has done. In a voluntary, combined attack, the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, working with the Chicago Boys Clubs, Chicago Youth Centers, and the Hull House Association, is dealing first-hand with the explosive
problems of the inner city streets. The YMCA provides nearly two-thirds of the total effort of Youth Action.
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And this is just one of the many, many ways the YMCA is providing you and me with preventive social service. Some of these services, such as unique educational opportunities, job training for dropouts, and certain camping programs, generate part of their own funds. But in addition to these and other sources of financing, the YMCA’s share of Youth Action, at its present level, is about $500,000 which it must raise this year. As tension increases, a million dollars might not be enough.
We’re all “concerned citizens” these days. Willingness to help all we can now could mean saving millions in money, and possibly our homes and businesses as well as saving potentially useful lives.
The other day I was talking with a very down-to-earth business man who rather impatiently accused the YMCA of not letting enough people know about its many programs to reduce the boiling point of the inner city. He mentioned the extensive camp programs, many of them for boys and girls who had never seen a camp, had never even been in the country. He was especially high in his praise for the Central YMCA’s dropout high school. He paid tribute to the Y’s “open door” Community College where some of the toughest gang leaders are getting a last-chance education. Many of these former delinquents are returning to their neighborhoods and encouraging others by their own example to rise above their problems and solve them constructively.
In case we have made the mistake of not letting you know about these things before, we invite you now to join in this crusade to prevent a recurrence of the ghastly events of early April. We need both your interest and your generous gift of money. And if you have even a few hours a week to spare, let us show you how you can help as a volunteer.
Right now, before you’re reminded by another frightening newscast or smoke clouds rising skyward, won’t you walk to your desk and write a check to the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago? It’s one positive way you can share in this urgent business of saving lives and perhaps even our city. You’ll sleep more soundly than ever with the reassurance and satisfaction that comes from doing the right thing before time runs out.
Sincerely,
Ernie Banks
Member, The Board of Managers
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago
