First hand experience brings social theories into practical perspective

Reading about impoverished, high-crime communities is one thing. Stepping into them and seeing their challenges first hand is quite another, as undergraduate public policy students discovered during their hands-on practicum last winter and spring quarters.

The class of 60 students reinvented itself as a mini think tank named the Chicago Policy Research Team, serving the City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services as its client. Through focus groups, interviews with community leaders and surveys with willing residents, they collected and analyzed data in four of the city’s toughest neighborhoods: Englewood, South Shore and Woodlawn/Washington Park on the south side and Little Village on the west.

“You can get lost with just reading and writing papers,” said Jenny DeLessio-Parson, 22, a recent graduate of the public policy program in the College, who conducted focus groups and surveys in Englewood. “Everyone has an opinion on what they want and the community knows what they need better than we do. So even if you think [a policy] is in the best interest of the people, you may have no idea what you’re talking about.”

DeLessio-Parson added that this experience helped her realize why certain policies sound great in theory but ultimately fail because they don’t include the very people they propose to help. “Theory is still only theory,” she said. “Until you actually go to the place and talk to the people, it becomes harder to implement policy.”

The project carried some risks. Annemarie Thilmont, who will be a third-year this fall, discovered after a day of working with classmates in Little Village that their car window had been shattered and the radio was stolen. “Even though we had read about crime in the area, it was shocking to see it first hand,” she said.

The threat of incidents like that was a valuable lesson, said Daryl Bell, community ambassador for Teamwork Englewood, a community development organization. “You can’t come to a place like Englewood talking about you’re giving away money,” Bell explained, referring to the $5 incentive offered for completing the survey.

“The hardest part was giving a spiel to get them to listen to you,” DeLessio-Parson said. “We were a bunch of white kids coming into an all-black neighborhood, and they were like, ‘What are you doing here?’ After that they were friendly and nice.”

The aid of community leaders like Bell was crucial to sparking dialogue between students and residents. Students were able to engage in vibrant group discussions with gang members, homeless people and former drug addicts thanks to organizations like Teamwork Englewood and Brand New Beginnings in Washington Park.

Della Mitchell, executive director of Brand New Beginnings, agreed with Bell that even though the students were obviously sincere, residents were suspicious at first because of their affiliation with the University, which has not always had a positive image in the surrounding communities.

“What happens in our community is a lot of promises that never materialize,” Bell said.  “But once people realized they were just students wanting to do some research they were very receptive.”

“It was a door-opener,” Bell said.

DeLessio-Parson said the valuable experience in neighborhoods provided “a reminder of why I’m interested in public policy.”

“So many communities need a lot of services in education and health,” she said. “It really hit home on what people have to deal with.”